Lesser Known Disorders
Each issue of this series contains at least three lesser known disorders. Some of these disorders may contain subtypes which will also be presented. You will also notice that each disorder has a code. These codes represent the coding system for all disabilities and disorders listed in the Educator’s Diagnostic Manual(EDM) Wiley Publications.
Disorders in this issue:
LD 1.02-Auditory Blending Processing Disorder
Disability Category: Learning Disability
Definition
An auditory processing disorder specifically associated with difficulties in processing or putting together phonemes (the smallest phonetic unit in a language that is capable of conveying a distinction in meaning) to form words (National Center for Learning Disabilities, 2004).
Explanation
A child with Auditory Blending type Processing Disorder has difficulties tying letters together in order to form a complete word. As a result, even though he/she knows the “b” sound, the “a” sound, and the “t” sound, the child struggles with putting them together as a whole to form the word “bat.”
It should be noted that any medical problems associated with this child’s hearing have been ruled out as a primary cause of the child’s difficulties. The difficulties are in the internal processing of information, not due to a hearing impairment.
LD 1.03-Auditory Closure Processing Disorder
Disability Category: Learning Disability
Definition
An auditory processing disorder specifically associated with difficulties in combining sounds that are presented orally to make words (Terry, 2001). Auditory closure is the term used to describe the ability to understand the whole word or message when a part is missing (American Speech-Language- Hearing Association, 2005).
Explanation
In everyday life, when pieces of a word are deleted, we automatically fill in the missing sounds to decode the word. For example, if we hear elephan, we can close off the word, knowing that it was elephant. However, if a child with Auditory Closure Processing Disorder hears “auto –o-bile” , he/she may not be able to identify it as automobile; “ase-ball” as baseball, ”acoroni” as macaroni, “tele-ision” as television, and “air-pla” as airplane.
Because students with Auditory Closure Processing Disorder have difficulties closing off words, sentences or phrases, they may lose total comprehension of what being discussed both in and outside of the classroom.
It should be noted that any medical problems associated with this child’s hearing have been ruled out as a primary cause of the child’s difficulties. The difficulties are in the internal processing of information, not due to a hearing impairment.
LD 1.04-Auditory Discrimination Processing Disorder
Disability Category: Learning Disability
Definition
An auditory processing disorder specifically associated with difficulties in recognizing differences in phonemes (sounds). This includes the ability to identify words and sounds that are similar and those that are different (National Center for Learning Disabilities, 2004; Terry, 2001).
Explanation
A student with Auditory Discrimination Processing Disorder often experiences difficulties acquiring, understanding, and/or using spoken language. Auditory discrimination processing problems can lead to problems telling the difference between similar sounds. For example, this student may hear what he thinks is the word “mall” when it was actually “wall”; “seventeen” instead of “seventy”; “finger” instead of “ringer”, “boat” instead of “bat”; or hearing an angry rather than a joking tone of voice. It’s the processing of the words that are problematic for the student, not the ability to hear the words themselves.
It should be noted that any medical problems associated with this child’s hearing have been ruled out as a primary cause of the child’s difficulties. The difficulties are in the internal processing of information, not due to a hearing impairment.
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