Going on play dates, going to school, and participating in extracurricular activities come with a lot of painful experiences for children struggling with an APD. Over time, your child can begin to feel incompetent and start to believe that their siblings, friends or classmates who don’t struggle with listening skills are smarter than they are. APD and many other auditory obstacles have nothing to do with intelligence.  Don’t give your child permission to feel less intelligent than their peers and refer to themselves as “dumb” or “stupid.” Remind them that everyone learns in different ways and struggles to make sense of things sometimes. Make sure to talk through situations that are baffling or confusing to both of you, so that your child understands that “not getting it” happens to everyone. Remind your APD child that he or she is not alone. ...Read more

Listening and parenting: an interesting combination. We, of course, want our children to listen to us. We are older, wiser, and let’s face it -- in control.  However, true interaction, whether between two adults or adults and children, relies on our ability to listen to each other, our ability to really “hear” what the other is saying and to respond with a thoughtful answer or comment. Communication between parent and child is so often question and answer but very little discussion. The question and answer type of interaction is a closed interaction.  One states a question and the other gives an answer.  At that point, the interaction is usually over.  Trying to interact with our child using open ended “starters” leaves the conversation wide open; the child has the opportunity to share some pretty amazing thoughts and feelings. Open ended starters begin ...Read more

Auditory sequencing is what enables us to store the information we receive in a meaningful order.  It is an important skill that allows us to understand the relationship between the past, the present and the future, and to communicate increasingly complex ideas. Auditory Sequencing is a skill that children need to grasp the concept of cause and effect. Understanding the relationship between what your child sees and why it happened is vital to their growing ability to empathize with the emotions on display around them. Suppose your child sees a young girl crying on the playground.  They may wonder, “Why is she so sad?”  “That little girl is crying because she fell off a swing and hurt her knee,” you explain.  This simple sequence of cause and effect opens a window that allows your child to compare their emotions with another ...Read more

Auditory memory is the ability we need to retain and recall information that we hear through listening.  There are many books that can help your child develop this skill.  Here are suggestions for strengthening auditory memory using The Gingerbread Man by Catherine McCafferty (McGraw-Hill).

• Begin by reading the book for pleasure without asking any questions.  Take the time to look at the book’s colorful pictures with your child as you focus on the story.
• The second time you read the book, mention something like this:  “There are a lot of characters who are hungry and who want to eat the gingerbread man.  Let’s see if we can figure out who they are.”  Then count all of the people and animals you encountered while reading the story.
• Close the book and ask your child if they can recall who tried to eat the ...Read more