Improving Central Auditory Processing

Central auditory processing is what we call the “silent epidemic.” Research literature varies widely on its incidence reports range from 5% to 30% of the population may suffer from some degree of central auditory processing difficulty. We detect sound with our ears, but our brain constructs what we actually perceive from the hearing process. Our ears detect sound, but our brains sort and organizes that sound into meaningful information. Auditory processing problems can range from persons who have difficulty distinguishing similar sounding words in speech such as card and carts, bark and spark, and moon and noon. Other struggling brains can add a sound that is not there, can drop a sound that is there or, can most commonly, change the order of sounds within a word. This occurs not only when listening to people speaking, but also occurs when the subject is reading, because the experience of reading involves a little voice in your brain that reads the words back to you. Just like an external spoken voice your internal voice can distort sound as you read. Brain training is known for improving central auditory processing. 

This problem is also manifest by many students who attempt to write down their thoughts. In fact, many people with central auditory problems find simulataeously listening to a speaker and writing or typing notes nearly impossible to do quickly or simultaneously. They can listen or write, but can’t do both at the same time. This is why many students receive modification in their classes allowing them to have hard copies of their instructors notes. However, as a student advances in school, or if competitively employed in the workforce, these accomodations may be harder and harder to obtain.

This is why the Brain Potential Institute team works so very hard to repair the central auditory processing system, housed predominately in the left temporal lobe of the brain. We begin the repair by having the student process single sounds one at at time. For instance, each letter is artifically restricted to the most common sound that it makes. We design all of our processing to go completely from left to right to drive data from one side of the brain to the other across the corpus collosum, which connects the left and right hemispheres of the brain. Our students simultaneously read and listen and write most often in medium they can touch and feel. This allows tactile engrans, or touch prints to be stored in the brain in the shapes and forms of the letters. This results in much more ledgible handwriting output. For some older students, typing can be very important and efficient, but even for older high school and college students as well as adults, we go back and rebuild old fashioned handwriting for the overall improvement in brain wiring in the auditory processing system that it creates. Even older students are often thrilled to have beautiful handwriting for the first time in their lives. The ultimate results of an improved central auditory processing system are improved listening, reading, spelling, writing and note-taking. For students that already have attention problems, can be a double hit. However, this is often the case.