When Children Can’t Learn

By
Dr. Deborah Ross-Swain, SLP, CCC
The Listening Center

Homework hassles, school anxiety, tears, frustration, low self esteem and acting out often characterize children who are having difficulty with learning. Learning problems can have a huge emotional and social effect on children who are “smart but feeling dumb”.

According to the Learning and Developmental Disabilities Initiative (LDDI) the formal diagnosis of children with learning disabilities appears to be rising and occurs in as many as 1 in 4 or five students. Professionals working with children with learning difficulties are finding that many of these children have difficulty with auditory processing or with the ability to listen. In the classroom, the majority of learning is through the children’s ears. So, when children can’t listen they can’t listen to learn!

What is auditory processing?

Auditory processing is a term that is used to describe what happens when your brain recognizes and interprets the sounds around you. Humans hear when energy that we recognize as sound travels through the ear and is changed into electrical information that can be interpreted by the brain. Simply stated, auditory processing is “what we do with what we hear”.

Children with auditory processing problems often do not recognize subtle differences between sounds in words, even though the sounds themselves are loud and clear. For example, the request “Tell me how a couch and a chair are alike” may be understood by the child as “Tell me how a cow and a hair are alike”. Another example of this is asking a child to repeat the sentence “Show Jimmy your picture” and the child responds with “Show Jim and me your ripped tear”. These types of problems are more likely to occur when a child with processing problems is in a noisy environment or when he or she is listening to long and complex information.

Children with these types of problems have a difficult time listening to learn. If much of what they are listening to is not processed correctly then what they are listening to may sound like nonsense. So, in effect, they are trying to make sense out of nonsense. The human brain will not stay engaged with what is not perceived as meaningful input. So, it is not uncommon for these children to tune out or daydream because they will create their own meaningful information to keep their brains engaged!

What are the symptoms of possible auditory processing problems?

Children with auditory processing difficulty typically have normal hearing and intelligence. They are often described by parents and teachers as bright and hardworking and at the same time also being observed to be tuning out, daydreaming, not listening or not being motivated. When considering the possibility of auditory processing problems it is important to remember that we cannot see processing but rather we see behaviors that are reflective of processing problems. Other symptoms of auditory processing problems may include:

• Frequently saying “huh” or “what”
• Frequently saying “I don’t remember” or “I don’t know”
• Difficulty paying attention and remembering information presented orally
• Difficulty understanding and following multi-step directions
• Poor listening skills
• Need more time to process information…slow processors
• Easily distracted, primarily by noise
• Misunderstands and misinterprets what is being said
• Needs information to be repeated or rephrased
• Has difficulty following conversations or discussions
• Has difficulty listening in the presence of background noise
• Low academic performance
• Possible behavior problems
• May have difficulty with reading, reading comprehension and spelling

What do you do if you suspect that your child has a processing problem?

Parents, teachers and daycare providers are typically the first to notice symptoms of an auditory processing problem. Since the problem is, most likely, interfering with the child’s learning it will be necessary to have your child evaluated by a speech-language pathologist and audiologist. Once your child has been evaluated then specific recommendations for remediation and accommodations can take place.

To determine if your child has a hearing function problem, an audiologist evaluation is necessary. An audiologist will give some tests that can determine the softest sounds and words a child can hear and other tests to see how well children can recognize sounds in words and sentences. Another common test involves giving the child two words or sentences at the same time and having him/her say the word or sentence in a specific ear. These are ways of identifying a processing problem.

A speech-language pathologist should evaluate the child to find out how well the child understands and uses language. They may evaluate such areas as: immediate auditory memory, auditory perception and discrimination, auditory association/receptive vocabulary, phonemic awareness, auditory closure, auditory comprehension and auditory cohesion. The results of this information will help to identify not only an auditory processing problem but also an auditory language processing problem. Ideally, the audiologist and speech-language pathologist should work as a team with you and seek to provide the best outcome for each child.

There is not a cure for auditory processing problems but with early identification and remediation a child can be successful in developing the listening skills that will enable them to listen to learn!