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WHAT
CAN BE DONE TO HELP CHILDREN WITH APD IN THE
CLASSROOM?
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Traditional educational and
therapeutic approaches can be employed to remediate
areas of need in language, reading, and writing.
Many techniques that have shown to be effective
with children with APD would be beneficial to all
children, with and without APD, if the strategies
employed are specific to the child's areas of need
(Bellis, 1996; Chermak & Musiek, 1997; Sloan,
1998). Some of these are described below:
- Modify the environment by
reducing background noise and enhancing the
speech signal to improve access to auditory
information:
- Eliminate or reduce
sources of noise in the classroom (air vent,
street traffic, playground, hallway,
furniture noises, etc.).
- Use assistive
listening devices (ALDs) such as a sound
field amplification system or an FM auditory
trainer.
- Allow preferential or
roving seating to ensure that the child is
seated as close to the speaker possible.
- Allow the child to use
a tape recorder and/or a peer note taker.
- Ensure that the
speaker gets the child's attention before
speaking, and considers using a slower
speaking rate, repeating directions, allowing
time for the child to respond to questions,
pausing to allow the child to catch up, and
presenting information in a visual format
through overheads, illustrations, and print.
- Teach the child to use
compensatory strategies, "meta" strategies, or
executive functions to teach how to listen
actively. The child should:
- Learn to identify and
resolve difficult listening situations.
- Develop skills to
understand the demands of listening:
attending, memory, identifying important
parts of the message, self-monitoring,
clarifying, and problem solving.
- Develop memory
techniques: verbal rehearsal
(reauditorization), mnemonics (chunking,
cueing, chaining).
- Encourage use of
external organizational aids: checklist,
notebook, calendar, etc.
- Develop vocabulary,
syntax, and pragmatic skills to facilitate
language comprehension.
- Provide auditory training
to remediate specific auditory deficits:
- Children who have poor
reading, writing, and spelling skills may
benefit from phonological awareness
activities.
- Auditory closure
activities may assist children in filling in
or predicting the information they are
listening to in the classroom and
conversations.
- Instruction in
interpreting intonation, speaking rate, or
vocal intensity, and in the relationship
between syllable and word may assist children
in determining important parts of the
message.
- When the child has
demonstrated success on the above tasks in a
quiet environment, give the child practice
engaging in the same tasks in an environment
that includes background noise.
- Explore the use of
commercially available computer programs
designed to develop the child's attention to
the phonological aspects of speech. These
should be recommended by a professional who
can determine their applicability to the
child's needs.
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RESOURCES
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American
Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Task Force on
Central Auditory Processing Disorders. (1995).
Central auditory processing: Current status of
research and implications for clinical practice.
Rockville, MD: Author.
Baran, J. A. (1998).
Management of adolescents and adults with central
auditory processing disorders. In Masters, M. G.,
Stecker, N. A., & Katz, J. (Eds.). Central
auditory processing disorders: Mostly management.
Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon, 195-214.
Bellis, T. J. (1996).
Assessment and management of central auditory
processing disorders in the educational setting:
From science to practice. San Diego, CA: Singular
Publishing Group, Inc.
Chermak, G. D. & Musiek,
F. E. (1997). Central auditory processing
disorders: New perspectives. San Diego, CA:
Singular Publishing Group, Inc.
Jerger, J. & Musiek, F.
E. (2000). Report on the consensus conference on
the diagnosis of auditory processing disorders in
school-aged children. Journal of the American
Academy of Audiology, 11, 467-474.
Katz, J. & Wilde, L.
(1994). Auditory processing disorders. In Katz, J.
(Ed). Handbook of clinical audiology. (4th
edition.). Baltimore, MD: Williams and Wilkins,
(4th ed.). 490-502.
Keith, R. W. (1995). Tests of
central auditory processing. In Roeser, R. J. &
Downs, M. P. (Eds.). Auditory disorders in school
children. New York, NY: Thieme Medical Publishers,
Inc., 101-116.
Sloan, C. (1998). Management
of auditory processing difficulties: A perspective
from speech-language pathology. Seminars in
Hearing, 19, 367-398.
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CREDIT
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Sandra R.
Ciocci is a professor in Communication Disorders at
Bridgewater College, Bridgewater, MA.
ERIC
Digests are in the public domain and may be freely
reproduced and disseminated, but please acknowledge
your source. This digest was prepared with funding
from the Office of Educational Research and
Improvement (OERI), U.S. Department of Education,
under Contract No. ED-99-C0-0026. The opinions
expressed in this publication do not necessarily
reflect the positions of OERI or the Department of
Education.
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Syndrome "Plus" © Copyright 1998 - 2005 Leslie
E. Packer, PhD. except as noted.
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This page last updated January 7, 2005.
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