Peter is now in a big boy first grade. But his attention often wanders and he gets easily distracted by noises from the environment, such as the sound of his friends talking, chairs moving, etc. Peter has a central auditory processing disorder that affects his hearing in the presence of noise.

Annabelle also has problems. She does not remember the directions given by her parents or her teacher. Often she follow a part of what she is being asked to do. She has a central auditory processing disorder affecting the decoding of incoming linguistic information.

Charlies has a lot of difficulty remembering the days of the week, the months of the year. He has a hard time remembering nursery rhymes, that other children of his age seem to hear so easily. Charles has a central auditory processing disorder that affects his auditory memory or sequencing skills (he cannot remember the exact order of things).

Marianne has little success perceiving the difference between certain sounds ( for example ball and mall or sun and fun).

This then causes her to have specific trouble with dictations. She has bad marks, even if she puts in a lot of effort. She has a central auditory processing disorder that affects the ability to discriminate certain sounds.

These children are not hearing impaired. On the contrary, they can hear very well, that is, they can hear all teh sounds normally. Peter, Annabelle, Charlie and Marianne give the impression that they do not want to listen, or that thay are not motivated. However, what is really causing them to appear that way is the fact that their auditory processing habilities are weaker than those of others children.

Unfortunately, there is no medical treatment for this disorder at present. However, using FM systems, learning new listening techniques and using visual cues, are just a few amongst many options that can allow these children to integrate, to function in the school and to experience success instead of future. Talk to an audiologist, the professional who deals with hearing disorders.