Little-Known Disorder Can Take a Toll on Learning

My son was diagnosed with APD when he was in kindergarten. His teacher noticed that he could not take sitting in the noisy cafeteria with the other children. Since we were in public school, and after the special education dept. tested him, they determined the APD, but would not help with services because his verbal and auditory IQ were high numbers. I then hired a special education paralegal to represent us to the district in order to get the services I believed he needed. She was able to get a head set and microphone for the teacher and he to use - and that made a world of difference for him. As he got older, he no longer wanted to use it, but taught himself tricks to be able to keep up with the class. We also noted that he was a lip reader and made certain that he always sat in front of the teacher. In his junior and senior years of high school - as a gifted artist - he was accepted to pre-college at Cooper Union in NYC, became an AP Scholar and was then accepted to The School of the Art Institute of Chicago as a presidential scholar. He is currently in his junior year. My point being is that the frustration that parents can experience dealing with their child and the disorder and the dealings with the school in general can be disheartening and I can imagine how some people would want to give up. Not only did I not give up - nor did my son. In fact, in later years, the school district would ask my son to speak with young children who would then be getting the head sets to tell them about his experience and that it was cool to use the head set. We all grew from the experience.

Auditory processing disorder looks to be a real problem. I am glad it is so simply treated.
It is not what made my childhood painful. I have seen enough dyslexia to recognise it. Art schools attract both disabilities. Some youths show up without a work through for dyslexia. The work arrounds are clumsy at best. My rate is still slow.