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| Insurance Survey for Speech/Language/Hearing Services | Posted by Janis |
| Put Your Health Plan to the Test! Don't wait for a crisis to find out if vital speech, language, and hearing services are included in your health plan! Put your health plan to the test NOW! Go to: http://www.asha.org/public/health-plan-quest-intro.htm The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) is committed to ensuring that all individuals with communication disorders have access to appropriate, high-quality speech and hearing services. In order to advocate on behalf of individuals with speech and hearing disorders, ASHA needs information about the coverage of these services by health plans. The coverage information received helps ASHA advocate with health plans and employers for better coverage of speech and hearing services. The NCAPD would like to see more frequent insurance coverage of APD testing and related therapy, and we support ASHA in this effort. | |
| Conferences | |
| Working with Children with Auditory Processing Disorder | Posted by Janis |
| What are auditory processing disorders (APDs) really all about? What is the difference between APD, AD/HD and language disorders? How can we identify APD in children? How can we help children with APDs in school and at home? How can an APD be treated? The purpose of this interactive, one-day program is to give professionals an understanding of how APD is identified, and most importantly, it will offer strategies and materials that have been found successful in managing and treating individuals with APD. Participants will gain a concrete understanding of APD based on an approach that integrates auditory, language, cognitive, social/emotional, and experiential factors, with a major focus on intervention strategies. Practice with strategies found successful in treating APD in children will be provided. Case studies will be presented. Time will be devoted for questions and answers. Speech-language pathologists, audiologists, psychologists, social workers, counselors, occupational therapists, regular and special educators, school nurses, and other school personnel will find this seminar beneficial and enlightening. Each participant will receive a comprehensive course manual prepared by Dr. Jay Lucker that is designed to serve as a helpful learning aid and a useful resource. At the end of this seminar the participant will be able to: *Compare and contrast behaviors seen in children with APD, AD/HD, language disorders and other disorders *Define specific categories of APD and the unique challenges related to each *Describe some common methods for assessing APD *Develop specific strategies for both managing and treating clients with APD *Identify at least one approach for providing interventions for each of the following: decoding problems; auditory distractibility; memory problems; integration problems; and organizational problems *Explain different approaches to treating processing disorders (APDs) with focus on the system-integrative approach For dates, locations, fees, and registration see: http://www.meds-pdn.com/seminar_find/index.php Type "auditory processing" in the search box. | |
| Press Releases | |
| 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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| APD and Dyslexia | Posted by gwdadmin |
| APD and Dyslexia By Dr. Deborah Moncrieff More and more children with learning and reading disabilities are being referred to the audiologist for a hearing and an auditory processing evaluation. In the past, children with these problems were evaluated by educational specialists, speech-language pathologists, neurologists, psychologists and psychiatrists. While the methods used by these specialists did indicate that a number of children had auditory processing difficulties, it has become clear that more stringently controlled procedures typically used by audiologists might yield better results. Today, there is an increasing demand on the audiologist to provide a useful clinical battery for diagnosing auditory processing disorders in children under standard audiological testing conditions. Because many of the children referred to the audiologist experience difficulties in addition to the listening problems characteristic of an auditory processing disorder, it is important that parents and audiologists begin to understand and separate the symptoms commonly found in different disorders. A good example of this problem is the referral of children with dyslexia. Many parents are confused about what dyslexia is and often express frustration that the symptoms appear to be indistinguishable from those that describe an auditory processing disorder. Others try to make a distinction between auditory processing problems and dyslexia on the basis of the commonly held notion that dyslexia is based primarily on the visual reversal of letters during reading. In spite of many efforts to more accurately define dyslexia, there are still a number of conflicting opinions and multiple sources of misinformation that make it difficult for parents and teachers to fully understand the nature of the reading disorder. Dyslexia is defined by the International Dyslexia Association (2000) as a "language-based disability in which a person has trouble understanding words, sentences or paragraphs; both oral and written language are affected." An earlier definition, formulated by a dyslexia research committee with the National Institutes of Health added that the disorder was "characterized by difficulties in single word decoding, usually reflecting insufficient phonological processing abilities" that are "often unexpected in relation to age and other cognitive and academic abilities" (Shaywitz, Fletcher & Shaywitz, 1994). What both of these definitions describe is a child with disabilities in the processing and acquisition of language in spite of normal intelligence, normal hearing, normal vision, no known neurological impairments or deficits, and appropriate educational opportunities. Neither of the definitions addresses the source of the disability, however, but a pioneer in reading disabilities (Orton, 1937) suggested that perceptual impairments either in the auditory or visual domain, or both, were at the root of developmental reading disorders. Orton recognized that the impairment was not related to absolute acuity in either the visual or auditory domain (these kids had normal hearing and vision when tested), but rather in the processing of information through the visual or auditory system. When a dyslexic child is referred to the audiologist to be evaluated for an auditory processing disorder, the audiologist will likely use a battery of tests that utilize both simple auditory stimuli such as tones, clicks, and noise bursts and complex stimuli such as speech. Based on the symptoms presented through the information gathered from parents, teachers and other specialists, the audiologist can structure the battery of tests to assess the auditory deficits that the behavior describes. Typical complaints may include poor listening skills, easy distractibility, inability to learn new words or to sound out words in reading, inattentiveness, and difficulty with following auditory directions. If possible, it would be helpful to know how the diagnosis of dyslexia was made and whether the child is characterized as a phonologic or deep dyslexic or a comprehension or surface dyslexic. The phonologic dyslexic is more likely to have problems with nonwords or unfamiliar words and the diagnosis is usually based on poor performance on a standardized test of phonology. The comprehension dyslexic is more likely to have problems with irregular words that don’t fit customary categories and the diagnosis is based on normal performance on a standardized test of phonology and poor performance on a standardized test of reading comprehension. There is considerable debate about whether the deficits observed in dyslexic individuals are primarily language-based or whether they may stem from a more fundamental auditory perceptual problem. The auditory system is crucial for the development of language and there is an enormous amount of evidence in the population of hearing impaired children that auditory perceptual deficits at the periphery can cause significant delays and disorders of language development. It seems reasonable, therefore, to expect that for at least some of the children with phonologic dyslexia there may be a disorder within the auditory system that has disrupted the normal acquisition of language. Unlike the hearing impaired child, the disruption is not occurring at the periphery, but it is possible that at some point within the ascending auditory system or at the cortical level, through intrahemispheric, interhemispheric or association connections, there may be an abnormality of function that results in the child’s inability to normally process linguistic input. Areas that are most likely to show performance deficits include temporal sequencing of information (as assessed by pitch pattern and duration pattern tests), auditory figure ground problems (as assessed by speech in noise tests) and interaural asymmetry in competition (as assessed by dichotic listening tests). Other deficits may appear in some dyslexic children, but it is anticipated that in a majority of dyslexic children, these are the primary areas where weaknesses will be found. It is possible that results will eventually demonstrate that children with different types of dyslexia are more likely to show specific patterns on auditory processing tests, but at this time, no such sub-typing of dyslexia and auditory processing disorder has been extensively documented. For now, the audiologist can focus primarily on these three areas of auditory processing skills and develop a database of results found in children with dyslexia (as well as any other comorbid conditions that are prevalent). These same categories will be likely for children without reading disorders also. Typically, the diagnosis of dyslexia is not made until children reach the third grade in school. Children who are evaluated for auditory processing disorders at ages younger than that will also show similar types of deficits when tested. Eventually, it may be possible to test younger children and predict which ones are likely to have long-term problems as a result of an auditory perceptual deficit and target which ones will become phonologic dyslexics and which ones will become comprehension dyslexics | |
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| APD and Dyslexia | Posted by gwdadmin |
| More and more children with learning and reading disabilities are being referred to the audiologist for a hearing and an auditory processing evaluation. In the past, children with these problems were evaluated by educational specialists, speech-language pathologists, neurologists, psychologists and psychiatrists. While the methods used by these specialists did indicate that a number of children had auditory processing difficulties, it has become clear that more stringently controlled procedures typically used by audiologists might yield better results. Today, there is an increasing demand on the audiologist to provide a useful clinical battery for diagnosing auditory processing disorders in children under standard audiological testing conditions. Because many of the children referred to the audiologist experience difficulties in addition to the listening problems characteristic of an auditory processing disorder, it is important that parents and audiologists begin to understand and separate the symptoms commonly found in different disorders. A good example of this problem is the referral of children with dyslexia. Many parents are confused about what dyslexia is and often express frustration that the symptoms appear to be indistinguishable from those that describe an auditory processing disorder. Others try to make a distinction between auditory processing problems and dyslexia on the basis of the commonly held notion that dyslexia is based primarily on the visual reversal of letters during reading. In spite of many efforts to more accurately define dyslexia, there are still a number of conflicting opinions and multiple sources of misinformation that make it difficult for parents and teachers to fully understand the nature of the reading disorder. Dyslexia is defined by the International Dyslexia Association (2000) as a "language-based disability in which a person has trouble understanding words, sentences or paragraphs; both oral and written language are affected." An earlier definition, formulated by a dyslexia research committee with the National Institutes of Health added that the disorder was "characterized by difficulties in single word decoding, usually reflecting insufficient phonological processing abilities" that are "often unexpected in relation to age and other cognitive and academic abilities" (Shaywitz, Fletcher & Shaywitz, 1994). What both of these definitions describe is a child with disabilities in the processing and acquisition of language in spite of normal intelligence, normal hearing, normal vision, no known neurological impairments or deficits, and appropriate educational opportunities. Neither of the definitions addresses the source of the disability, however, but a pioneer in reading disabilities (Orton, 1937) suggested that perceptual impairments either in the auditory or visual domain, or both, were at the root of developmental reading disorders. Orton recognized that the impairment was not related to absolute acuity in either the visual or auditory domain (these kids had normal hearing and vision when tested), but rather in the processing of information through the visual or auditory system. When a dyslexic child is referred to the audiologist to be evaluated for an auditory processing disorder, the audiologist will likely use a battery of tests that utilize both simple auditory stimuli such as tones, clicks, and noise bursts and complex stimuli such as speech. Based on the symptoms presented through the information gathered from parents, teachers and other specialists, the audiologist can structure the battery of tests to assess the auditory deficits that the behavior describes. Typical complaints may include poor listening skills, easy distractibility, inability to learn new words or to sound out words in reading, inattentiveness, and difficulty with following auditory directions. If possible, it would be helpful to know how the diagnosis of dyslexia was made and whether the child is characterized as a phonologic or deep dyslexic or a comprehension or surface dyslexic. The phonologic dyslexic is more likely to have problems with nonwords or unfamiliar words and the diagnosis is usually based on poor performance on a standardized test of phonology. The comprehension dyslexic is more likely to have problems with irregular words that don’t fit customary categories and the diagnosis is based on normal performance on a standardized test of phonology and poor performance on a standardized test of reading comprehension. There is considerable debate about whether the deficits observed in dyslexic individuals are primarily language-based or whether they may stem from a more fundamental auditory perceptual problem. The auditory system is crucial for the development of language and there is an enormous amount of evidence in the population of hearing impaired children that auditory perceptual deficits at the periphery can cause significant delays and disorders of language development. It seems reasonable, therefore, to expect that for at least some of the children with phonologic dyslexia there may be a disorder within the auditory system that has disrupted the normal acquisition of language. Unlike the hearing impaired child, the disruption is not occurring at the periphery, but it is possible that at some point within the ascending auditory system or at the cortical level, through intrahemispheric, interhemispheric or association connections, there may be an abnormality of function that results in the child’s inability to normally process linguistic input. Areas that are most likely to show performance deficits include temporal sequencing of information (as assessed by pitch pattern and duration pattern tests), auditory figure ground problems (as assessed by speech in noise tests) and interaural asymmetry in competition (as assessed by dichotic listening tests). Other deficits may appear in some dyslexic children, but it is anticipated that in a majority of dyslexic children, these are the primary areas where weaknesses will be found. It is possible that results will eventually demonstrate that children with different types of dyslexia are more likely to show specific patterns on auditory processing tests, but at this time, no such sub-typing of dyslexia and auditory processing disorder has been extensively documented. For now, the audiologist can focus primarily on these three areas of auditory processing skills and develop a database of results found in children with dyslexia (as well as any other comorbid conditions that are prevalent). These same categories will be likely for children without reading disorders also. Typically, the diagnosis of dyslexia is not made until children reach the third grade in school. Children who are evaluated for auditory processing disorders at ages younger than that will also show similar types of deficits when tested. Eventually, it may be possible to test younger children and predict which ones are likely to have long-term problems as a result of an auditory perceptual deficit and target which ones will become phonologic dyslexics and which ones will become comprehension dyslexics | |
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