Auditory Processing Evaluation Report came...

buddy

New Member
So, the highlights:

Time Compressed Speech Q's ability to understand speech without temporal cues was also assessed. This alters the temporal domain, thus reducing the predictablity of the signal. The auditory system should use its natural abilities to fill in the missing auditory information to understand the speeech signal which is called auditory closure Q scored 84% for the right ear and 6% for the left ear. Q's score for the left ear is significantly below the cut off score of 72% suggesting auditory closure difficulties for decoding skills and difficulties understanding speech information when his environment is compromised (someone's talking with their back to him or in a classroom environment).

Pitch Pattern Test This test requires auditory discrimination, temporal ordering and pattern recognition. THree tones that differ in frequency or pitch are presented in both ears to the listener. The listener must repeat the pattern of the tones by verbalizing for example..."high, low, high.....high low low" (Q was first checked to make sure he understood the concept and heard high versus low). Q scored 50% for verbal and humming responses for both ears. Q notes difficulties with temporal and pattern recognition which are right hemisphere characteristics.

Dichotic Listening test In this test, two numbers are presented to the rt. ear at the same time as two numbers are presented to the left ear. the listener must repeat all four numbers. This assesses the ability of the auditory system to integrate information from the right and left cerebral hemispheres. Q scored 96% for the right ear and 60% for the left ear which reveals a left ear deficit compared to the cut off score of 90% for both ears. This suggests and integration issue. Difficulties with the two sides of the brain working together to process auditory information.


RECOMMENDATIONS:
Q revealed an Integration sub-type auditory processing disorder. This is based on the below avg. results for the left ear for (the tests listed).

1. Q would benefit from HSAS home program (we have looked at this before because it is so intensive not sure he would cooperate)
2. Q can listen to books on CD in just his left ear (one headphone) to assist with the left ear listening by itself. Then he can add in different background noise in the right ear as he listens to the story in the left ear. He should then be able to summarize the information to confirm he was able to process the information. This can be done 20 minutes 4-5 times per week.
3. Q can work on bilateral integration activities thru his occupational therapy sessions (this is exactly what Occupational Therapist (OT) and PT found...that lt/rt integration was a big difficulty.
4. Ms. Q should investigate (the Neurological reorganization therapy that CD board member Snoopy had mentioned, which was so weird....I had just read her post then turned out one of the few providers was there the day we were there...the neurotech director saw us and introduced us because she too was thinking of Q when they were scheduling clients and having workshops, LOL...small world...totally different part of the country).

She included a bunch of integration, brain gym kinds of activities and of course specific recommendations like using the auditory trainer, preferential seating, sitting to his right if teaching him something new (so doesn't have to use the rt brain to interpret, decode, etc. as much).....

Just sharing so if people are looking at an evaluation, they can see the types of things they do...there were many others but he did ok with things if it did not require as much interpretation requiring the rt. brain.
 

TerryJ2

Well-Known Member
Great info. Congrats!
Our therapist has recommended BrainGym. Can't recall why we haven't yet. Cost maybe?
 

Ktllc

New Member
Thanks for sharing!! As you can imagine, I'm VERY interested in the topic. As a Speech Language Pathologist (SLP), you are in your element Buddy. But for parents like me, it is a lot to take in, understand and digest.
 

buddy

New Member
Ktlc...to tell the truth if I had written this it would be much more parent friendly. I got over myself early in the game and sure we can write using jargon but I'd rather my reports be understood by the parent. It is interesting though and I'm glad we did it. He was so good.
 

allhaileris

Crumbling Family Rock
You said: "Q's score for the left ear is significantly below the cut off score of 72% suggesting auditory closure difficulties for decoding skills and difficulties understanding speech information when his environment is compromised (someone's talking with their back to him or in a classroom environment)."

This is totally ME. I have a hard time understanding somebody if they're not looking at me or if there is a lot of white noise. This has only gotten bad in the past year or so. What part of the suggestions above are supposed to help with that?

What kind of doctor did you see to do this? I asked my regular doctor about this issue, and she wanted me to see the ENT doctor. From the research I've read, it's not my ears, it's my brain. I can hear fine if there isn't overlapping noise.

I do actually listen to music at work with one headphone and keep the other out so I can listen for the phone or if somebody needs me. But I'm listening to the music with my good ear (left, right is bad).
 

InsaneCdn

Well-Known Member
Sandy - your baseline testing is usually a Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) - speech language pathologist. And from there a recommendation for advanced audiological testing by someone who specializes in auditory processing disorders. I don't know the chain of referrals in your area... but you need to end up with someone who specializes in APDs - and that is NOT an ENT.
 

svengandhi

Well-Known Member
That is fascinating. It's like amblyopia of the ear. Is it a brain transmission issue or does he actually have a hearing loss in the left ear? Can you do something like close off his good ear and work on strengthening his bad ear or is that not possible? At least this is something Q can understand is not his fault and does not mean he's bad or dumb.

I hope the treatments work.
 

buddy

New Member
That is fascinating. It's like amblyopia of the ear. Is it a brain transmission issue or does he actually have a hearing loss in the left ear? Can you do something like close off his good ear and work on strengthening his bad ear or is that not possible? At least this is something Q can understand is not his fault and does not mean he's bad or dumb.

I hope the treatments work.

YES! that is part of the ideas. block off the good ear and do an ear phone for listening (or his auditory trainer on the bad ear and noise cancelling ear phones over it) then input into the left ear.
That is for helping/therapy....

BUT if the goal is to learn something in general, like in school...then it is suggested to make sure the teacher is to his right ear to avoid that having to travel to the right, then the left for language interpretation and formulation. Better to go in the right and straight to the left brain. I can see that. OF course general hearing problem accommodations like preferential seating but he is generally in very small classes anyway and gets lots of individual attention. Specifically said not to talk with their backs to him though. He will have (and does have) much more confusion then looks defiant.

it IS a brain processing issue. His acuity is fine. She did say (someone else here said this too about their difficult child) that he hears overly sensitively in the low frequencies (pitches) and so that lower pitched background noise can drive him to distraction. Explains why he covers his ears even beyond the sensory integration theory. It not only makes him sensitive it covers up the speech frequency pitches and makes it hard to listen to that.

(though he has a global injury due to high pressures, his main injury is right sided....mostly frontal/temporal lobe injury.)

There are other therapies she listed, if anyone is interested I can see if I can scan it or find a time to type them out. Some are pretty interesting. Not an exhaustive list, just a start.
 

InsaneCdn

Well-Known Member
Me! Please? I'm interested in anything else that can potentially help with auditory problems... If we start now, it might fit into next year's budget (assuming we get in to that cycle at all...)
 

buddy

New Member
OH OF COURSE.... HEY, I will scan it and see if I can put it into a doctor to email you ok. I have a newer printer so hope it will work better than my old one.

by the way, I have a lot of general language processing books, sheets, articles...I can dig them out if someone wants me to, at least I THINK I can, we did have mice hit the garage and I get a little scared going in there, LOL
 
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