Many children with auditory processing problems have difficulties at the level of short-term memory, often called working memory. Problems with short-term memory are mostly noted on long verbal messages. That is, children can remember part of the long message or short messages, but get lost trying to remember longer messages it total. For example, a child may have no problems remembering to "Take out a pencil," or "Open your book." But, given the directions to "Open your book to page 37 and complete items one to ten in section B" may present too much information for the child to remember.
For this next simulation, you will see parts of two messages presented one sentence at a time. However, the sentences will flash on the screen at the click of your mouse and will remain on the screen for only a brief period of time. You will be able to catch some of the words, but can you figure out the entire message?
1st Simulation:
Sentence 1: Click here
Sentence 2: Click here
Sentence 3: Click here
Sentence 4: Click here
2nd Simulation:
Sentence 1: Click here
Sentence 2: Click here
Sentence 3: Click here
Sentence 4: Click here
Well, did it flash too fast for you? Did you get a couple of words, enough to figure out the entire message (again, demonstrating the importance of familiarity helping with processing)? Well, what about another strategy? Do you think you’d do better if you knew something about the topic of the message? Let’s try the following simulation. The sentences will flash, again, as before, but you will have a clue, the topic of the message.
Topic = A sheep is asked if it has a sufficient amount of it’s "sheered" product to give to its male owner, its female owner, and for a child who lives down the street.
Sentence 1: Click here
Sentence 2: Click here
Sentence 3: Click here
Sentence 4: Click here
Easier to figure this one out, isn’t it? You may even have figure out the nursery rhyme before clicking to get the first sentence. Thus, another helpful strategy for children with APD is setting the topic and being sure the child has some familiarity with the topic.
View lyrics used for simulation.
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