Back on topic ( I know, it's absurd. What can I say?)
As the step-father of a child with Central Auditory Processing Disorder, I feel for this woman. We first noticed problems with our youngest when he was around 3-4. You would have to get him to look at you in the eyes and speak clearly before he could understand what you were saying. Normal for a 3-4 year old? Maybe. So we didn't do much about it. We would make sure he understood us and asked him to confirm what we had told him. He's gotten very well trained to give a response that indicates that he understands what we said.
When he was 9, we took him to see an Audiologist. They conducted a series of tests (about 8 hours worth total, in two different sessions) that tested his ability to hear, and his ability to comprehend what it was he heard. It's very difficult to understand what it is he hears. He does hear ok, when they do the ding tests he can tell which ear the dinging is on, and can hear in a full range of frequencies. But the spoken words that he hears sound garbled to him. He's also had speech problems because of the way he hears things. It's pretty hard to learn to talk correctly when everything you hear isn't the way you are expected to say it.
Now, he doesn't take medication to "fix" this problem. There is no medication that will fix this problem. What he does do is wear what is called an auditory trainer. Basically the teacher has a wireless microphone that is clipped to her clothing, he has a pair of wireless headphones that he wears in class. It allows her voice to be amplified for him, and he can better understand what she is saying because there isn't the background noises to interfere. It's still garbled, but he's able to understand better. It's made a difference, he was nearly failing before he got it, his end of the year report card this year was A's and B's. No special classes, just the trainer.
A big concern for me was the trainer. I was afraid that wearing this would stigmatize him, cause the other kids to make fun of him. I know they have some, but he doesn't care. We told him if he didn't want to wear it he didn't have to, and warned him ahead of time what could happen. I was actually quite amazed at how well the other kids have been about it. There have been a few cases, but our child himself explained to them why he wore it and he's said that they seem to understand and he rarely gets teased about it at all now.
Now, Gonz. You're a heartless bastard and obviously ignorant to todays world. I'm really fucking sorry we all don't live in your perfect world and have perfect children that have nothing but 1950 disorders. I'm really fucking sorry that we've evolved to the point that we can diagnose and treat things today that we had no idea about 50 years ago, and I'm really fucking sorry that we've moved on. You want to blame all this on the fact that people get divorced more today than they did in the 50's. Yep, they probably do, and when people in the 50's had a child like this they either sent him away to a mental home somewhere and hid it, or they did their best to do what they could and raised a dumbass kid. Sure, we need garbage men, but I know in my own son that we have a very smart child that will now be able to do anything he wants to do, I know he's very smart because the average child wouldn't be able to learn how to do what he is doing. A good way to look at it is that he is expected to hear in one language, but only communicate with others in another. Everything he hears has to be translated.
Modern medicine has moved on from the 50's. Sure, there are alot of quacks out there that are more than willing to make our kids zombies, but there are alot of good Drs. out there that are discovering new things every day, and discovering ways to correct these problems. Just because you don't understand it doesn't make it wrong.
As the step-father of a child with Central Auditory Processing Disorder, I feel for this woman. We first noticed problems with our youngest when he was around 3-4. You would have to get him to look at you in the eyes and speak clearly before he could understand what you were saying. Normal for a 3-4 year old? Maybe. So we didn't do much about it. We would make sure he understood us and asked him to confirm what we had told him. He's gotten very well trained to give a response that indicates that he understands what we said.
When he was 9, we took him to see an Audiologist. They conducted a series of tests (about 8 hours worth total, in two different sessions) that tested his ability to hear, and his ability to comprehend what it was he heard. It's very difficult to understand what it is he hears. He does hear ok, when they do the ding tests he can tell which ear the dinging is on, and can hear in a full range of frequencies. But the spoken words that he hears sound garbled to him. He's also had speech problems because of the way he hears things. It's pretty hard to learn to talk correctly when everything you hear isn't the way you are expected to say it.
Now, he doesn't take medication to "fix" this problem. There is no medication that will fix this problem. What he does do is wear what is called an auditory trainer. Basically the teacher has a wireless microphone that is clipped to her clothing, he has a pair of wireless headphones that he wears in class. It allows her voice to be amplified for him, and he can better understand what she is saying because there isn't the background noises to interfere. It's still garbled, but he's able to understand better. It's made a difference, he was nearly failing before he got it, his end of the year report card this year was A's and B's. No special classes, just the trainer.
A big concern for me was the trainer. I was afraid that wearing this would stigmatize him, cause the other kids to make fun of him. I know they have some, but he doesn't care. We told him if he didn't want to wear it he didn't have to, and warned him ahead of time what could happen. I was actually quite amazed at how well the other kids have been about it. There have been a few cases, but our child himself explained to them why he wore it and he's said that they seem to understand and he rarely gets teased about it at all now.
Now, Gonz. You're a heartless bastard and obviously ignorant to todays world. I'm really fucking sorry we all don't live in your perfect world and have perfect children that have nothing but 1950 disorders. I'm really fucking sorry that we've evolved to the point that we can diagnose and treat things today that we had no idea about 50 years ago, and I'm really fucking sorry that we've moved on. You want to blame all this on the fact that people get divorced more today than they did in the 50's. Yep, they probably do, and when people in the 50's had a child like this they either sent him away to a mental home somewhere and hid it, or they did their best to do what they could and raised a dumbass kid. Sure, we need garbage men, but I know in my own son that we have a very smart child that will now be able to do anything he wants to do, I know he's very smart because the average child wouldn't be able to learn how to do what he is doing. A good way to look at it is that he is expected to hear in one language, but only communicate with others in another. Everything he hears has to be translated.
Modern medicine has moved on from the 50's. Sure, there are alot of quacks out there that are more than willing to make our kids zombies, but there are alot of good Drs. out there that are discovering new things every day, and discovering ways to correct these problems. Just because you don't understand it doesn't make it wrong.
