Frequent childhood ear infections make language and speech sound like the child is hearing underwater; the sounds and language are muffled and make no sense. This garbled information is what the child will process, sequence (put in order) and memorize resulting in nonsense; becoming lost in class, falling behind, socially withdrawing, impacting on self esteem and confidence etc.

So when you or a teacher asks a question the child give a completely different answer to the question that was asked. This can result in delayed speech and language development resulting in reading and classroom learning problems later on. Auditory Processing Disorder (APD), as mentioned above, is associated with Dyslexia and the inability to understand can usually be traced back to early ear infections in the early developmental years. Ear infections occur when the Eustachian Tube (like a straw joining the ears to the throat) is not wide enough to let the wax drain, so it builds up in the middle ear causing ‘glue ear’. The wax is sticky and clumps stopping the ear from its natural movement (vibrating) impairing the processing and sequencing of language etc. Although APD is often confused with ADHD, it is possible to have both plus specific language impairment or general learning difficulties.

A child with APD will ask you to repeat directions as they have trouble processing two or more instructions or pieces of information and find it difficult to maintain concentration and attention in class. They are often referred to as “selective listeners” because it may appear as though they only listen when they want to or do not do what you tell them to do. In a lot of cases it looks like the child’s memory is poor. Not the case. The child is memorizing the wrong language so when you ask them, it looks like they can not remember, so we do a phonic test to inform us as to whether the problem is a phonic (is a basic unit of a language which when combined with other phonemes form meaningful units such as words) one or a memory one as students with APD find it hard to break words apart into phonemes, required for reading. Children who have had repeated ear infections in early development should be considered at-risk readers until they have demonstrated that they can read and more importantly understand what they have read. Evidence suggests links to head trauma, lead poisoning, and chronic ear infections as mentioned above (go to www.griffintuition.ie - resources for teachers and parents to help guide you). Because there are many different possibilities, even combinations of causes, each child should be assessed individually ideally while in Primary school.

Learning Impairments and difficulties, other than those attributed to ADP, is similar to there being too few bridges to carry volume traffic; the traffic backs up and grinds to a halt as there are not enough bridges to deal with the flow. The brain of a person that can’t or finds learning difficult has a similar problem. Instead of bridges we talk about brain ‘pathways’. Too few pathways can be due to a head trauma, not laid down in the womb, ‘glue ears’ during the early formative years, deterioration due to lack of use, even a specific learning impairment. These bridges or pathways allow information to travel around the brain; however if there is something wrong with these pathways information is slowed or does not travel at all. A classic example is the student who can hear but can’t keep up or follow what their teacher is asking. The student is still trying to understand the first sentence when the teacher has gone onto the third sentence and the student becomes lost, disinterested, homework problems, inattentive, poor grades etc. No amount of grids or help can ease this problem; the underlying problems must be overcome first and the earlier the better; in Primary school, the workload is light and easy whereas in secondary the work is complicated and extensive. To overcome any learning difficulties, even Central Nervous System Disorders, we must restore or create new brain pathways to be able to absorb and process incoming information input just like repairing or building new bridges.

The next step is to have a screening to establish what the problems are and the appropriate intervention programmes tailored to each individual; so phone James in the Research and Innovation Centre in NUI Galway on (091) 589771 or 586722.

1. Auditory Figure-Ground Problems: where there is background noise a child can not concentrate of focus missing the lesson and even becoming fidgety and showing some signs of ADHD.
2. Auditory Memory Problems: when a child has difficulty remembering information such as directions, lists, or study materials as they have not memorized properly. It can be immediate ("I can't remember it now") and / or delayed ("I can't remember it when I need it for later").
3. Auditory Discrimination Problems: when a child has difficulty hearing the difference between words or sounds that are similar (bad and dad and vast and fast). This can affect following directions, and reading, spelling, and writing skills, among others.
4. Auditory Attention Problems: when a child can't stay focused on listening long enough to complete a task or requirement (such as listening to a lecture in school). Kids with CAPD often have trouble maintaining attention, although health, motivation, and attitude also can play a role.
5. Auditory Cohesion Problems: when higher-level listening tasks are difficult. Auditory cohesion skills — drawing inferences from conversations, understanding riddles, or comprehending verbal math problems — require heightened auditory processing and language levels. They develop best when all the other skills (levels 1 through 4 above) are intact.