• lack of awareness of what is going on around them;

• problems sight reading or doing math;

• impaired ability to learn from books;

• less ability to observe and react to changes in facial expression, which affects the ability to interact socially

• difficulty remembering what was seen;

• poor recall of information;

• difficulty coping from a book or board;

• hinders the mechanics of taking test;

• unorganized;

• poor written work;

• unable to see an object within competing background;

• difficulty picking one line from print while reading;

• difficulty seeing difference between two similar objects;

• loses material;

• late for class or appointments;

• difficulty with oral reading;

• unable to understand the concept of time

• difficulty expressing themselves

• may sound "cynical".

• unable to use a separate answer sheet

• difficulty with math equations;

• spells poorly;

Auditory inefficiencies may be demonstrated in development of "normal" receptive language (understanding).

• history of chronic middle ear infections;

• difficulty hearing subtle differences in sounds or words;

• difficulty hearing over background noise (radio or TV, mall, phone conversations, sibling's music);

• hear differently what WAS said to them (hear 49 instead 94);

• difficulty remembering information;

• doesn't seem to be listening

• difficulty following directions;

• difficulty using phonics

• affects social interaction

Difficulties in the receptive area  impact the expressive abilities.

Characteristics of expressive or language difficulty:

• has normal hearing, but display behavior typical of a child with a mild to moderate hearing loss;

• often was a premature baby;

• history of chronic middle ear infections. What they hear is inconsistent and distorted much like hearing underwater. A child pronounces their words HOW their brain heard them.

• have hypersensitive auditory, usually caused by ear infections;

• have problems hearing the wide range of sounds possible to the human ear... tonality

• often will give a response so people will leave them alone. They may know what to say; but don't know what it means;

• have average or above IQ's (the dysorganization is in the lower brain levels; thinking is the upper level... cortex)

• have language delays;

• have difficulty understanding multiple meanings words (range--stove, blew->blue)

• time concepts are difficult to understand. These children live in the here and now! They are unable to think ahead.

• they may hesitate for a long time before responding;

• may be disorganized;

• are very, very, very distractible!

• difficulty seeing the "whole picture". They don't see cause and effect to many things;

• have behavior problems

• difficulty in social situations

• unable to "read" other's feeling;

• difficulty maintaining friendships

• may seem "off the wall"

Some of these characteristics are similar to a child who has ADD. 
This future shows how "labels" are symptoms 
of neurological dysorganization.

One month of auditory processing delays 
is equal to three months of 
auditory listening skill development!
    
Expressive language is a reflection of how efficient the brain processed the sounds.

      Auditory inefficiencies may be demonstrated in the development of normal receptive language (ability to understand what is said) and expressive language (ability to speak).  The receptive problem makes it difficult to follow directions, attend to what is said, learn through verbal instruction, utilize phonics, and interact socially.  How the brain processes the sounds is reflected by how the child speaks and behaves. An individual with auditory processing inefficiencies has only heard muffled sounds (like under water), inconsistent sounds or words, only certain frequencies of sounds (usually low range); this individual really didn’t hear the words or maybe the difference in voice tones.

Behavior is a reflection of auditory processing.  Behavior is the ability to make sense from the environment, make decisions, take appropriate actions, and achieve academically. For example, a ten year old (or adult) who can only hold together 4 or 5 pieces of information will whine or throw a temper tantrum like a 4 or 5 year old when stressed, overwhelmed or not getting their way.  Academically, this individual will be struggling, unable to keep up with their age mates and a large percentage will drop out of school as soon as possible. Their daily life is a mess, usually unable to get or hold a job, overwhelmed, commit crimes, unable to keep relationships; many just "fall out” of society.

Below “normal” function generally is not a reflection of below “normal” intelligence, nor an inability to achieve “normal” function. 

Children with processing problems are given labels such as learning disabled, ADD/ADHD, hyperactive, dyslexic, perceptually impaired, speech and language delays, slow learner, and “fall through the cracks kids,” to name just a few.