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When the Brain Can't Hear	Posted by Janis
WHEN THE BRAIN CAN’T HEAR Unraveling the Mystery of Auditory Processing Disorder # # # Teri James Bellis, Ph.D. • A bright normal little boy with hearing sensitivity well within the standard range, four-year-old Clay exhibits good motor skills and plays appropriately with toys. However, he doesn’t turn his head when his name is called, follow simple directions, or answer questions like, “What is your name?” Clay communicates only by gestures, grunts, and unrecognizable gibberish. • The strong, silent type, at age 17, Jeff is the starring offensive lineman on his high school football team. The offers for full-ride sports scholarships from major universities have started coming in, but Jeff is worried. Reading is a struggle. He has difficulty following information presented in lectures. Often, he is unable to hear the quarterback of his team call plays during the huddle. A C-student, Jeff is sure he’s just too stupid to succeed in college. • Bryce, age 42, and his wife Cheryl just can’t seem to communicate. She swears she told him five times while they were washing the breakfast dishes that they had a parent-teacher conference that afternoon at three-o-clock. Bryce insists that she never told him and that’s why he missed the meeting. “He never listens anymore,” says Cheryl. • Evelyn has a pretty typical age-related hearing impairment and, at age 72, has been fitted with hearing aids in both ears. But they don’t seem to help. According to Evelyn, whether she wears them or not, she still can’t understand what people are saying. The hearing aids just make everything louder, not clearer. What do these four people, so divergent in age and symptoms, have in common? They all suffer from Auditory Processing Disorder (APD), which occurs when the ear and the brain do not coordinate fully. For the estimated seven million Americans suffering from APD, four million of whom are children, there has been no central resource to turn to for comprehensive, authoritative advice. Until now. WHEN THE BRAIN CAN’T HEAR: Unraveling the Mystery of Auditory Processing Disorder (PB Press; February 12, 2002; $25.00) by Teri James Bellis, Ph.D., is the first book written especially for the layperson about this widespread but little known disorder, which crosses all gender, age, ethnic, and socioeconomic boundaries. The aural equivalent of dyslexia, APD is primarily an “input” problem that affects the way an individual processes auditory information, especially speech, jumbling words or distorting the meaning of what is said. Dr. Bellis is regarded as one of the world’s foremost experts on this disorder, draws on years of research as well as her own personal experience as a victim of adult-onset APD for this definitive sourcebook that delineates its symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment in both children and adults. One of the main difficulties with APD is misdiagnosis, because many of its behaviors may look like a learning disability, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism, or mental retardation. And, until the past few years, most physicians and pediatricians have been wholly unaware of APD, while others, who knew of it, have debated its existence. In WHEN THE BRAIN CAN’T HEAR, Dr. Bellis begins by showing how APD can affect a person’s spelling, reading, receptive language, speech, problem-solving, and socialization skills. She stresses the need to avoid attributing any and all disorders involving learning, language, and related abilities to it. She also asserts that because APD is so different from one person to the next, there is no single right approach to dealing with this complex disorder. Cutting through the confusion that surrounds APD, in this compassionate, definitive guide, Dr. Bellis provides vital, in-depth information on: • APD in children, from infants and toddlers through teens and young adults; • Adult APD in middle-aged men, postmenopausal women, and the elderly; • The accurate diagnosis of APD; • Primary and secondary subtypes of APD and their associated symptoms; • The three basic principles of APD management: environmental modification, remediation (direct therapy) techniques, and compensatory strategies. Diagnostic and prescriptive, WHEN THE BRAIN CAN’T HEAR also: • Lists the warning signs of APD in preschool, elementary-school, high school, and college students; • Addresses how APD affects children educationally, and adults socially and professionally; • Gives guidelines for what to expect from a central auditory assessment; • Details the diagnostic tests for APD; • Discusses when a listening problem is not APD; • Explains why APD can be difficult to detect in adults; • Outlines ways to improve the acoustic or listening environment at school, work, and home; • Provides the most up-to-date information about various auditory therapy activities that train the brain and help with APD; • Provides strategies for living, learning, and communicating more successfully with APD. Compelling case histories of those who have APD put a human face on this disorder, lending the book both credibility and heart. In WHEN THE BRAIN CAN’T HEAR, Teri James Bellis, Ph.D., breaks fresh ground as she seeks to increase awareness of and provide much-needed answers about Auditory Processing Disorder. Sensitive and informative, this important sourcebook is a must-read for any parent, teacher, or medical professional wanting to learn more about APD, whether they or someone they know is struggling with it. # # # # Visit us online at www.simonsays.com About the Author: Teri James Bellis, Ph.D., is a professor of audiology at the University of South Dakota and the author of the authoritative text for professionals on diagnosis and treatment of APD, Assessment and Management of Central Auditory Processing Disorders in the Educational Setting: From Science to Practice. She has 15 years experience in APD research and lectures on the topic worldwide. Her writing has been featured in numerous medical and academic publications, including Journal of Neuroscience. Dr. Bellis lives in South Dakota. WHEN THE BRAIN CAN’T HEAR Unraveling the Mystery of Auditory Processing Disorder By Teri James Bellis, Ph.D. PB Press Publication Date: February 12, 2002 ISBN: 0-7434-2863-3; $25.00 U.S./$38.00 Can.; 368 pages

Press Releases
Like Sound Through Water	Posted by Janis
Like Sound Through Water: It’s How My Son Hears © Karen J. Foli, 2002 My name is Karen Foli. When people want my attention, they call me in different ways. My husband says "Karen" or a term of endearment. My mother refers to me as "honey" a lot. When I was teaching in a college of nursing, students raised their hands and said, "Dr. Foli." More recently, therapists have documented me as "the patient’s mother." And in February, people will be able to say "author" after my name. But one term defines who I am today like no other name I own, one that my three children say dozens of times each day: "mom." About six years ago, my husband and I realized that something was wrong with our son, Ben. His expressive and receptive language skills were severely delayed. I became enmeshed with a system that was foreign to me, a circuitry of providers who used words that I didn’t understand and measured my son in ways that, at times, seemed both absurd and frightening. It is a system entered into daily by countless parents of struggling children. At the first clinic where my son received speech therapy, our input was passively ignored and tests and reports hinted that our son was mentally handicapped and/or autistic. The second clinic was different. They listened to us. The speech and occupational therapists became more than service providers; they were our support system during a dark time. My son made many strides, but the correct and primary diagnosis of Auditory Processing Disorder was still elusive. The third provider outfitted us for a home-based computer program, and I obtained training in a multi-sensory language program so that I could try to help my son. Both the technology and the human sensory approaches proved to be very helpful to Ben in processing sounds and decoding written words. After three long years, he had finally been screened for APD, and all the paradoxes of his past development fell into place. Looking back upon that system, I wish I knew then what I know now. My husband and I had never heard of APD before. The disorder was new to us, despite the fact that my husband is a child/adolescent psychiatrist, and I am a registered nurse and hold a doctorate in communications. Because of this lack of knowledge, we navigated the system without significant guidance and fortunately found – literally, stumbled upon – some very useful tools. But this gunshot approach is risky and can waste valuable time. That’s why I wrote my son’s story in LIKE SOUND THROUGH WATER: A Mother’s Journey Through Auditory Processing Disorder. It wasn’t so much to put my personal memories to rest or to provide a diagnostic or therapeutic road map for others. I’m not qualified to do that. I am qualified to tell it like it was and to provide hope – to tell a parent that they are not alone as they try to understand what they are facing. The self-blame and sorrow and grief that engulfed us at times are rough waters that we all share. I believe that through this sharing of universal emotions and common experiences, parents can feel a sense of empowerment as they try to find help for their children. Like all youngsters, children with difficulties are measured by their height and weight. But they are also measured in many other ways. Tests – a dreaded word to many parents – can be confusing and discouraging, particularly when the test findings are misinterpreted or left unexplained. Educational standardized tests and diagnostic tests need to be put in perspective as well. IF these tests don’t match the present behaviors and past history, then the search for a diagnosis isn’t finished. Test scores do not equal the child. This is particularly true with a child who has APD, which can mimic and accompany so many other childhood disorders. The child with Auditory Processing Disorder may experience several learning differences. But unfortunately at the present time, APD is not well understood by the educational community. I was lucky to find teachers and principals who were willing to learn. I wanted to write a book that could be shared, a book that a parent could give to a disbelieving teacher and say, "Perhaps this will help you understand." When a child presents in a clinician’s office or an Individual Education Program (IEP) is discussed in a school conference room, the contributions of parents and significant others have to be recognized. Yes, parents will express emotions. But parental input is credible and necessary. Parents know how their children act in social situations, when they’re tired, and when they are anxious. They know what they were like as babies, and what their weaknesses and strengths are. They know who their children are, and they know when something is wrong. The second reason I wrote this book was to encourage conversations about Auditory Processing Disorder. The discussions are needed, free from disciplinary territories and free from academic politics, yet founded on sound scientific research that integrates a multidisciplinary approach and a dash of common sense. A new and steady dialogue surrounding APD is critical, uninfluenced by school budgetary restraints and unencumbered by disbelievers. Before we shut the door on really helping our children with labels and diagnoses that don’t quite fit, before we decide a kid is unmotivated, autistic, handicapped, or has attention deficit disorder, let’s look at everything the parents are saying and the child is doing. Let’s listen to each other. In writing my book, I honored parents –mothers and fathers – and the professionals who really understand APD, and their efforts to help children who are struggling. And I honored my son, Ben, a very special little boy. LIKE SOUND THROUGH WATER is his story, but really it’s the story of many other boys and girls who face APD early in their lives and of how they learn to communicate with the world and celebrate their lives. LIKE SOUND THROUGH WATER: A Mother’s Journey Through Auditory Processing Disorder (ISBN: 0-7434-2198-1), February 2002, Pocket Books. By accessing Karen’s web site (www.karenfoli.com), an excerpt from the book, the introduction, and the foreword written by Edward Hallowell, M.D. can be viewed. A national author tour is scheduled to promote LIKE SOUND THROUGH WATER. This tour will include Teri James Bellis, Ph.D. and her book: WHEN THE BRAIN CAN’T HEAR: UNRAVELING THE MYSTERY OF AUDITORY PROCESSING DISORDER. Tour dates and events are available through Karen’s web site.

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