Authors Same Journey Different Paths, Stories of Auditory Processing Disorder

1. Auflage 2013
ISBN: 978-1-62287-327-2
Verlag: First Edition Design Publishing
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Wasserzeichen (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 100 Seiten

Same Journey, Different Paths is a wonderfully comprehensive book written by parents and individuals with Auditory Processing Disorder (APD). By sharing their stories and experiences, other parents and individuals with APD understand they are not alone.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Authors, Various

Leseproben

Chapter 2 - Bright Eyed Girl
  (Sabrina’s Story) By Lizette and Alan Biel - Pennsylvania, U.S.A.   Once upon a time we had a happy, vibrant little girl. A natural-born leader, she made friends easily and was always surrounded by three or four other little ones. She never met a tree that couldn’t be climbed, and was in complete control of her world. She loved both of us unreservedly and reveled in the time she spent with us, but grandpa was her buddy. With both of us working, her grandfather came to live with us to care for her. Grandpa became her first best friend. They spent their days exploring; combing the nearby forest for flowers and wild onions, rocks, and bird feathers. Together they filled birdfeeders, planted tomatoes, measured rainwater, watched the weather and cooking shows and fed ducks at the city pond. When she wanted to fly a kite but there wasn’t enough wind, grandpa bought a huge helium balloon and tied it on her kite string. She was delighted as she ran around flying her “kite”. Her first time in the ocean, she came up sputtering and demanded to know who put all that salt in the water! She was brimming with self-confidence. At the end of her first ballet recital, as everyone else was leaving the stage, she walked back and took an extra bow! Despite a tendency toward initial shyness, her natural presence was so strong, she took third place in the International Miss Cinderella pageant when she was three. Having no background or training in pageants, she captivated the judges with her natural confidence and sparkling smile. A year later, while living in a small village on a Caribbean island, she heard the older kids talking about the upcoming annual “Run Up The Mountain” and wanted to join in. She was a curious child, observant, playful and possessed a stubborn streak. Honestly, we’ve seen rocks with more give than Sabrina! This tenacity served her well when she set a goal for herself. She decided to participate in the run up the mountain and did just that. She was the youngest participant and last to finish but she had proven herself to be part of the village culture. Ten years later, it’s hard to find the spirit of that little girl. She’s scared of the world, and too afraid to make new friends. She spends most of her time alone; movies are her best friends. Sometimes, when it’s just the three of us, we get glimpses of the spirit of that little girl. Our most fervent wish is for her to find her true self again. This is our story… We were excited and nervous, as any first-time parents would be. We were eagerly making preparations to fly half way across the world to begin the process of picking up our baby girl. The decision to adopt was easy for us, and international adoption felt right. After several months of interviews and paperwork, two long flights and several hours in a tiny car, we were about to meet Sabrina for the first time. We immediately fell in love with this tiny bright-eyed girl. Thus began our journey into parenthood and the world of auditory processing disorder. They brought our daughter to us. Big, bright eyes peered out at us from a bundle of blankets. When they removed all the blankets, and the many layers of clothing, we couldn’t believe our eyes; at thirteen months she weighed only 13 pounds! Her arms and legs were sticks, but her eyes were lively and filled with determination. When we first saw her, she could barely sit by herself, but within a couple of weeks, she was crawling and could even walk while one or both of us held her hands. She was determined to walk, and loved to have us hold her hands, walking her up and down the hall time and time again. With food and lots of attention, she was soon at a healthy weight, walking and playing. While her upper body was weak, and her fine motor skills underdeveloped, it was obvious to all that Sabrina was a bright curious toddler, with a wonderful spirit. In those years we noticed that she was unusually sensitive to loud noises, often holding her hands over her ears when around sounds that she considered “loud”. This so bothered her that she would hold her hands over her ears if she even thought a loud sound might occur. We thought that she just wasn’t used to loud noises in the orphanage and didn’t pay too much attention to it. It seemed a little strange that she would get very angry when someone talked softly, but the best we could tell, her hearing was normal. After reading so many reports of internationally adopted children who had serious developmental issues, we considered ourselves lucky that Sabrina was totally fine, with no problems whatsoever. Looking back, there were clues to the struggles that lay ahead, but they were slight and hard to recognize. For “horse”, Sabrina said “hubba”, but became angry if we pointed to the picture and said “hubba” instead of “horse”. She could mimic phrases, but we soon realized that when she sang songs, the lyrics weren’t words to Sabrina, but simply a long series of sounds she memorized. Sometimes, she would ask us what a certain phrase from a song meant. She could sing it, with exactly the same tone and even the same accent as the singer, but when we asked her to just recite the words, she couldn’t do it. The same was true with books. We would read stories over and over to her as she looked at the pictures. At first we noticed that if we didn’t read all of the words on the page she would become angry and turn us back to that page. We were proud of what we thought was her amazing reading skills. It wasn’t until she started school we realized that what we had assumed were reading skills was in fact another skill we had never considered. Our daughter had memorized the pages in each of her favorite books; some of which were a first grade level. Through listening repetitively as we read, and watching us move our fingers over the words as we read them, she had memorized the words that went with each page. She wasn’t reading; she was reciting from what we would come to call her “visual memory”. The literature on international adoption talked extensively about physical and emotional developmental delays, and we were really pleased that Sabrina had overcome all those issues and would enter school as a normal, healthy child. Our misgivings didn’t really begin until Sabrina started school. While obviously bright, even in pre-kindergarten and kindergarten, Sabrina was slower to catch on than many of the other children. In the end, she always caught up, but she seemed to struggle more than the others. She had trouble learning the sounds of letters, but became very good at memorizing words and eventually spelling became one of her best subjects. When she began learning to write, she often wrote from right to left. While Sabrina eventually learned to write from left to right, for years she would her write numbers from right to left. While we worried that Sabrina seemed to have a harder time than the other children, her kindergarten teacher told us not to worry and said that she was a delight to have in class. She was in all respects a bright, normal, happy child, except that she would often go to sleep in class. As she got older, she learned that she couldn’t just take a nap wherever she was. She learned to hide her exhaustion but by the end of the school day she was mentally worn out. Things got worse in first grade. Sabrina was often the last to finish her assignments and several times had to stay inside and work while the other children were outside playing. But still we were told that there wasn’t anything wrong, she just needed a firm hand to keep her from daydreaming. Since she believed that Sabrina was simply not paying attention, the teacher refused to allow her to ask additional questions or let her get help from her classmates. Since she didn’t complete her work during class, she was told she wouldn’t be allowed to go out for recess until she completed the work. When we spoke with Sabrina, she told us that she didn’t know how to do the work and had been unable to figure it out on her own. Since she wasn’t allowed to ask questions, she simply sat there during class. She also sat there during recess. We knew that Sabrina could be a “dreamy girl”; but we knew our daughter very well and instinctively realized that something was not right. Knowing how much she loved being outdoors; we couldn’t imagine her intentionally doing anything that would deprive her of this privilege. However, the teacher adamantly believed that she was simply not listening. We kept trying to talk with the teacher and finally just told her that Sabrina had to be allowed to go out for recess. While the teacher relented after a couple of weeks, she hadn’t changed her mind about how she viewed Sabrina; it simply meant that she believed this particular form of punishment wasn’t working. From that time forward, Sabrina never asked this teacher for help. If she had questions, she posed them to her classmates, which resulted in her being admonished by the teacher who noted on a progress report that Sabrina “refuses to work independently”. The sad truth was that once Sabrina realized that her teacher did not believe that she really needed additional explanation and help she never asked again. Unfortunately, there have been other teachers who have reinforced this over the years, so now Sabrina is very reluctant to ask questions unless she is specifically invited to do so. Movies became her escape from her daily struggles. Even while she used them to...