Audiology Associates of Freehold, PC
77 Schanck Rd. A-6
Freehold, NJ 07728
732.462.1413
732.462.1771
freeholdaudio@aol.com
Classroom Management Suggestions
for Children Diagnosed with an
Auditory Processing Deficit (APD)
The following suggestions are based on strategies designed to minimize the impact of an APD upon academic achievement. Some suggestions may be inappropriate depending on the age of the child. Others may work quite well. Consistency is a key to success!
Classroom Noise Levels. The most pervasive problem children with APD have is understanding speech when there is background noise. Even with “normal hearing,” the noise levels cause disruptions in thinking and can distort speech sounds thus giving a different meaning to a sentence. In a noisy classroom, the following scenario is quite possible:
Student: “I got a new bike!” Teacher: “What kind is it?” Student: “9:30, why?”
“What time is it?” was “heard” because the background noise distorted the /k/ in kind and was substituted with a /t/ sound for “time” and the /d/ in kind was not heard at all. Thus, an inappropriate answer which would mimic “hearing loss.”
Classroom/Personal Amplification Systems. For many years, the profession of Audiology has been advocating for classroom sound systems for APD children. More Boards of Education are adding them to the classrooms. Using this system will elevate your voice over the ambient class noise levels and the same loudness is heard no matter where you are in the classroom. Another advantage – less strain on your voice to maintain loudness! Consistent use is very important. Be sure to have the system checked regularly.
Classroom Seating. Children with APD should be assigned seats away from hallway and street noise and not more than 10 feet from the teacher (see Classroom Noise above). Such seating allows the child to better utilize hearing and visual clues. Flexibility in seating better enables the child to attend and actively participate in class activities. In some cases, APD testing (by the audiologist) will reveal a significant difference in processing skills between the child’s two ears. Consequently, preferential classroom seating is recommended to favor the better ear. Some audiologists also will recommend plugging the poorer ear with a custom earplug (noise filter) as a means for improving the child’s auditory function. There is no scientific research to either support or refute this practice.
Large Classrooms. How much reverberation is in your classroom? Are there echoes? A smaller, self-contained, structured situation is more effective for an APD child than an open, unstructured environment. These factors can be acoustically devastating for an APD child.
Can you see the whites of their eyes? Children with APD will function much better in a classroom if they can see the speaker’s face. Approximately 80% of what we hear can be read off the face. Therefore, eye contact is just as important as preferential seating in managing such children.
Call their name first and announce the Topic. Always gain the child’s attention before giving directions or initiating class instruction. Calling the child by name first will serve to alert the child and to focus attention on you and what you want to talk about.
Speak Slower. The rate of your speech can “blur” intelligibility. APD children often have difficulty distinguishing when a word ends and when a word begins. The question “Did you eat?” might be heard as “Jeet?” which makes no sense at all! Thus the delayed response (or no response) to the question.
Did They Get It?. Although this is a common teaching technique, asking questions related to the subject under discussion is critical for an APD child to make certain that they are following (and understanding) the discussion.
Use Shorter Sentences/Instructions. “Less is more.” Encourage the child to indicate when they did not understand what has been said. Rephrase the sentence or statement because certain words (may) contain sounds or blends that are not easily understood. Since most children with an APD usually have some delay in language development they may not be familiar with key words. By substituting words and simplifying the grammar, the intended meaning may be more readily conveyed – and don’t forget the pictures!
Teaching Style vs. Listening Abilities. Your teaching style in the classroom may work against a child with an APD. How? If you - like most teachers - walk about the class, the APD child who is using visual clues is at a loss. A child further away from you will start to lose the clarity of the speech that is heard.
Pictures, pictures and MORE pictures! Most APD children have a keen interest in art. Therefore, the more photos, pictures, etc. you can incorporate in to your lesson, the easier it will be for the student to ‘get it.’ www.google.com/images is a great start.
Music stimulation. Encourage the child to join the school chorus, band or other ‘arts’ activity – even after school. Music stimulates the right brain (rhythms, beat, etc.) and the words stimulate the left brain (including memory and recall) – plus it’s fun!
Pre-Tutor the Child. Have the child read ahead on a subject to be discussed in class so they are familiar with new vocabulary and concepts and, thus, can more easily follow and participate in classroom discussion. Give this information to the parents to research with their child at home, too.
Such pre-tutoring is an important activity that the parents can undertake, too. Using www.google.com and clicking on the “IMAGES” tab then typing in the key word(s) will help the child who needs more visual information to understand what is heard.
Visual Aids. Most APD children are “visual learners.” Visual aids help children with auditory skills by capitalizing upon strengths in visual processing.
Individual Help. This will fill gaps in language and understanding stemming from the child’s auditory problems. Therefore, involving Resource Personnel can supplement classroom activities during individual therapy.
Quite Study Areas. Provide the child with a study area relatively free from auditory and visual distractions. Such an area helps minimize the child’s problem in foreground/background discrimination.
Write Down Instructions. Children with an APD usually have problems following verbal instructions accurately. Help them by writing assignments on the board so they can copy them in a notebook. Also, use a “buddy system” as a back-up.
Encourage Participation. This is helpful in expressive language activities such as reading, conversation, story telling and creative dramatics. Reading is especially important since information and knowledge gained through reading help compensate for what may be missed because of the auditory deficit.
Monitor the Effects. Remember the children with an APD becomes fatigued more readily than other children. Listening is a lot of work for them. Consequently, they do not attend/listen (especially later in the school day) because of the effort exerted (a heightened level of alertness they need to “listen hard”). This is the result of their efforts to keep up and to compensate in classroom activities. Parents might tell you that their child comes home from school and falls asleep! Therefore, provide short, intensive periods of instruction with (brief) breaks during which the child can move around. Decreasing the “break time” would be the goal.
Inform Parents Periodically. Provide the parents with consistent input. Everyone needs to be “on the same page.”
Evaluate Progress. Evaluate the child’s progress on a regular schedule. It is far better to modify your techniques than to wait until a child has encountered yet another failure.
GOOD LUCK!
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Dr. Robert M. DiSogra, FAAA
Audiology Associates of Freehold, PC
77 Schanck Rd. A-6
Freehold, NJ 07728
732.462.1413
<왌ś>732.462.1771
freeholdaudio@aol.com
At Home Suggestions for
Managing Children Diagnosed with an
Auditory Processing Deficit (APD)
The following information has been compiled from a variety of sources including parents who have developed some useful strategies of their own. There may be some items that you are already incorporating into your child’s day-to-day life - terrific! Some items may be inappropriate because of the age of the child or you are using them already. When you choose one or more strategies be sure to include your child in the decision making process. Try and be consistent with your decision for at least 1-2 months or for one marking period. Good Luck!
PRE-K and KINDERGARTEN CHILDREN
Read to your child everyday. Make it a special time...a special event. Let it be a one-on-one event. If there are other children, try and have them out of the room. Sit on the floor in the bedroom and make a circle with legs (soles of your feet touching each other). This is the “reading circle” - a special place. Let your child choose the book - even if it’s the same book night after night (psychologists say that this is a sign of security). Have the child sit in the circle with his back to your chest and your arms around him holding the book while pointing to the objects in the story. Instead of saying “Where’s the ball?” or “Is that the ball?” change your wording in the form of a question that requires an answer other than “yes” or “no” such as “What is this?” while pointing to the ball. This will force the child to say the word and foster his/her expressive speech. A child will speak what the child hears! Talk about the story and ask lots of questions.
Read in short intervals. Attention spans can be short and your child may start to become fidgety. This is a behavioral ‘indicator’ that means “I need a break now!” All it takes is a few seconds (and some encouraging words) to return to the story. The goal is to increase the story time and reduce the break time to a point where you can read the book in one sitting.
Watch sing-along videos/DVDs. These are commercially available and some videos/DVDs have the words subtitled on the bottom of the screen. The musical rhythms stimulate the right side of the brain while the words/language of the song will stimulate the left side of the brain. Even if the child is not speaking clearly, if they like music, they are giving you an indicator that their right side of the brain may be slightly more dominant so play those tapes/DVDs! Sing along tapes/DVDs will also stimulate word/sentence recall and memory skills. Musical tapes with accompanying story books are great, too. However, it is recommended that you listen and sing along, too. Children learn by imitation!
OLDER CHILDREN
BASIC COMMUNICATION
Establish eye contact before speaking. This way you have their attention. An easy way to remember this is with the following: “If you can’t see the whites of their eyes, don’t talk!” When your child doesn’t respond to a request called out from another room, you might find yourself blaming them for not listening when you may be the cause of the problem because of the distance between your mouth and their ears.
Call your child’s name first and then start talking. Some children can ‘tune-out’ background sounds (including someone talking to them) while other children become so pre-occupied with what they are doing (‘hyper focusing’) that you’d think there was a major hearing problem present. If hearing loss has been ruled out, then you must understand that this hyper-focusing is going to require more work on your part to, literally, go into the room and get the child’s attention! By calling their name before you start speaking, you are almost guaranteed that they are focusing on you and what you are about to say.
Announce the topic. Your child can ‘tune-in’ to the topic more quickly when he/she knows what you want to talk about. “Mary/John, I want to speak with you about your bedroom.”
Speak slower. This is difficult for adults to do because we have developed our own habits of communicating as adults. Don’t assume that you child can process this information at the same speed that you can. Children with APD usually need a little more time to “digest” the information they hear. Speaking faster (out of habit) is putting more fuel on the fire!
Be in the same room at all times when speaking to your child. The further away you are your speech volume and clarity will change.
Use earplugs. This will help reduce loud noises if your child still has problems concentrating.
Let the dinner table conversation center around the child’s day. This is a great time to check recall/memory skills of the school day’s events. Adults can always find time to talk after the children are in bed.
Make your home more quiet. Don’t laugh! Regardless of the number of people living in your home, you really do have control over the noise levels! Although this can be a monumental task in some larger families, the quieter the room, the better concentration (focusing) skill can be developed. Try to limit other activities in the house if at all possible (i.e. vacuuming, laundry, etc.) and keep kitchen/cooking activities to a minimum.
Children with APD have more difficulty concentrating when there are any extraneous noises. Remember, in your opinion, as an adult, if you think the background noise is ‘not that loud,’ it is that loud for an APD child!
ACTIVITIES
Set controls on daily activities. Try and structure all activities so that your child has fewer opportunities to get confused. Simpler instructions are better to start of with rather than complex instructions. APD children have a tendency to play with children younger than themselves because those games have simpler rules to follow.
Put structure in your child’s life. With knowledge of what to expect, regardless of the task, your child will be better able to anticipate results. It’s less stressful for a child to perform if they know what is expected of them and when.
Have a daily routine. Set and maintain a schedule. Your child is on a morning schedule at home before school and when he/she is at school. However, performance expectations can deteriorate when he/she arrives home if there is no other schedule other than homework time, dinner time, TV time and bed time. If “time” is not specifically defined, “homework time” can be three hours if it’s allowed to go that long! Some children function much better when time is “blocked” for specific tasks. APD children like to know what’s expected of them and how much time they need to do a give task (i.e., homework, etc.). Therefore…..
Put a time/activity grid together (like a TV Guide schedule). Who’s doing what and where? Block it in 30 minute intervals from, say, 3:00pm to 10:00pm. This way everyone can see who has to be doing what (and where) and any given time. This type of planning can identify ‘quite times’ and family time. This may have to be done daily, especially if there are after school activities, religious education, etc.
Your schedule vs. your child’s schedule. If you are a full time, stay-at-home mom (or dad), you have your daily schedule which includes the time that your child comes home from school, snack time, play time, etc. STOP! Your schedule now must revolve around your child’s schedule as soon as they come home. Your schedule might produce interfering noises while homework is being done (laundry, preparing dinner, cell phones, etc.). Background noises are the most troublesome for APD kids. So, it is time for a schedule change on your end.
Sibling activities. Again, you do have total control over all the noise in your home. Scheduling quiet/homework activities for the other children should coincide with your child’s homework schedule.
HOME WORK – the second word is WORK!
Cell phones and texting. As soon as you child gets home, take their cell phone and turn it off until their homework is done. Period.
Homework schedules. “Do your homework as soon as you get home while the information is still fresh in your mind.” Some of us grew up with that philosophy. It doesn’t work for APD children! The stress of a six hour school day (in addition to morning rising time and varying alertness levels) can literally have your child fall asleep when he/she comes home from school. If there are listening/learning deficits, “do it while the information is still fresh” is a useless and meaningless statement (see next section).
Plan some “wind down” or “freshen-up” time. We all need a break from a hard day at work. For APD children, school is work...listening is hard work. They are tired and “drained” by 3:00PM. Try and review what happened if you are home to greet your child. If not, look at how much time there is between arrival at home and dinner. Discuss a suitable time with your child to start any homework with the baby-sitter. If the child participates in the decision making process, he/she should feel that they had some control of this event.
Avoid doing homework in the kitchen immediately before or after dinner. The kitchen is one of the biggest sources of noise (and aromas) in most homes! Sure you want to keep an eye on your child making sure the homework is being done, however, your meal preparation noise, cell phone calls and the aroma of dinner/dessert in the air can linger and break concentration. If he/she does homework in another room, be sure there is no TV or radio playing.
Home work at home. “Do your homework as soon as you get home while the information is still fresh in your mind.” Some of us grew up with that philosophy. It doesn’t work for APD children! The stress of a six hour school day (in addition to morning rising time and varying alertness levels) can literally have your child fall asleep when he/she comes home from school. If there are listening/learning deficits, “do it while the information is still fresh” is a useless and meaningless statement (see next section).
Home work in after school care programs. If your child is in aftercare, the room may be too noisy for them to concentrate to do the work correctly unless there is a specific classroom set aside for homework. If not, then forget the homework - let them play…set up an ‘at home’ homework schedule where you can control the noise and structure the work.
Plan some “wind down” or “freshen-up” time. We all need a break from a hard day at work. For APD children, school is work...listening is hard work. They are tired and “drained” by 3:00 PM. Try and review what happened if you are home to greet your child. If not, look at how much time there is between arrival at home and dinner.
Babysitter’s responsibilities. Discuss a suitable time with the babysitter and your child to start any homework If the child participates in the decision making process, he/she should feel that they had some control of this event. Insist on no cell phone use/texting or TV watching while homework is being done.
“Ten minutes of homework for each grade level” is a good guide to follow. Therefore, a 3rd grader should have about 30 minutes of homework a night. If “he gets two hours a night” – WAIT! Are you allowing two hours for 30 minutes of work? How many distractions/interruptions are resulting in 30 minutes of actual work being stretched out over two hours
“What about the other children in the house?” Separate other children from doing their homework in the same place. Kids are noisy no matter how quiet we think they are. This is just another distraction for your child.
Again, you have total control over all the noise in your home. Schedule quiet/homework activities for the younger children that coincide with your child’s homework schedule – and no TV!
Do homework in 10-15 minute intervals. Some children ‘drift’ after a long period of sitting and reading/writing. Allow your child choose the ‘on’ and ‘off’ times. The goal is to increase the ‘on’ time!
Take a break between subjects. Some children will rush through homework just to get it done. This is risky for errors. Have your child do homework with breaks between subjects rather than putting one worksheet aside and immediately starting another subject.
Allow extra time for corrections and ‘re-writes’ (for messy work). This scheduling suggestion reduces stress and ‘rushing.’ If you tell your child, “If you have your homework done by 8:00 PM, you can watch the ‘something something’ show until bedtime,” you essentially have ‘locked yourself’ into this commitment even if the child does finish the homework but it’s messy or wrong! You’re in for a conflict because you were not specific. Try saying “Let’s try to get the work done by 7:45, this way we’ll have time to review it and clean it up if necessary.” Then, by 8:00 PM (your promised time), the work is done (correctly/neatly) and it’s time for TV!
Plan the evening schedule backwards from bedtime. This technique should give you a better frame of reference of time allotted for homework, TV, a hobby, bath time, etc. since bedtime is usually a ‘fixed’ time during the school year.
REMEMBER
Avoid lectures on expectations. An APD child is always struggling to perform 100%. He/she is not an adult. They need to know immediately what went wrong and how do we correct it (NOTE: I said ‘we’). Children do not fully understand why they are having these problems. Your compassion will maintain their self esteem because they will feel that someone cares and understands them!
Encourage follow-up on any subject that the child has expressed an interest. That’s why we have libraries/internet access!
Did you know that www.google.com is an excellent starting point?
1. Click on “I’m Feeling Lucky” box
2. Have your child type in the keyword (increases spelling and typing skills)
3. Click on IMAGES and literally thousands of website will come up with more
visual information than the text book might offer. Be sure to print out the
better pictures, too!
Each parent should be unified on home management strategies. Parents (including parents living apart) should avoid any disagreements on who’s right or who’s wrong.
Lengthen your own fuse. No child asked for an auditory processing problem! They have a different learning style than you do. Don’t compare! You must recognize and understand that their behavior and academic performance is symptom of the problem. If you can’t control your temper, how can a child ‘model’ a better behavior?
Increase telephone listening skills. To increase auditory-written (listening and writing) skills, have your friends call and leave a brief message whereby your child must listen, interpret, write a message (name and phone number) and report it to you when you arrive home.
Pre-tutor the child. All teachers know what they are going to teach in advance. Ask the teacher about upcoming assignments that can be reviewed in advance at home – especially over the weekend. When a child is familiar with new words or concepts, his/her understanding of the words in the classroom can be improved.
For example, if the teacher says, “OK, class, next week we will be talking about the weather” then you can get your child ready by watching the Weather Channel or looking in the newspaper at weather maps, or use www.google.com it, etc. Familiarization of the topic eases the stress especially for new words and concepts because they are not hearing it for the first time.
Praise, praise and more praise is always a motivator in the face of failure. Some encouraging phrases might include:
“That was a good effort.”
“You seem more confident.”
“Lots of boys and girls have trouble with this.”
“Not everyone understands this.”
“This was hard for me too.”
“You can do it...we’ll gave to work harder next time.”
“Just give it your best...I’ll be here to help in any way I can.”
Please call our office if you have any questions.
If you have found a strategy that has helped your child
please pass it along to us so we can add it to our list!