Signs of comprehension problems in children
An auditory/language processing disorder is a disruption in the auditory nervous system that interferes with the processing and understanding of sounds, speech and language. There are a variety of skills beneath the umbrella term of auditory/language processing disorders. One of these skill areas is auditory discrimination which is essentially the ability to hear sounds and sound changes in syllables and words. Those with good discrimination skills are able to hear the word "pop" and recognize there are three sounds in the word, and that the first and third sounds are the same. They know the middle sound is different if the word changes from "pop" to "pup." They are able to repeat the precise sound taken out and the precise sound that replaced it. This skill may also be referred to as phonemic awareness and directly correlates with listening, reading, spelling and communication skills.

Comprehension skills also fall under the auditory/language processing umbrella. The brain hears or reads words and then converts the words to pictures for long-term memory. If the brain does not discriminate what it hears correctly then it cannot effectively picture, which can lead to comprehension, direction following, organization and/or memory issues. In addition to not discriminating well, some children do not adequately picture in their mind's eye while listening and/or reading which further affects learning.

Students must visualize or "make a movie" in their head while listening and reading in order to comprehend and remember what they have heard and read. Students who feel reading is boring, or have to read information several times to understand and remember it, are often not picturing adequately. These students typically do not perform well on tests, although some do well on shorter quizzes, as there is less information to retain. Students who have trouble writing sentences, stories or reports are often not visualizing well either. In order to effectively write, students must see what is to be written in their mind's eye prior to putting pencil to paper. The same applies to organization. Students have difficulty being organized if they cannot see in their head the progression of steps or tasks that are expected of them. Students can learn to visualize through direct treatment.

After therapy with you my daughter now understands information without a lot of questions, is calmer, doesn't get as easily frustrated, is more confident, is less intense and soccer playing seems to come easier to her. Thank you so much!
------- Kirsten W.

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