I Never Heard it Before

Sometimes I feel so dumb. Sometimes I wonder how I could have overlooked the significance of something so obvious. Yet…I can’t kick myself too hard when it comes to parenting LuLu. After all, she is one complex little kid.

We have been doing The Listening Program for 4 weeks now. And I have blogged extensively about how it addresses auditory processing deficits. We are seeing good things.

On Thursday, LuLu was riding with me in the car. LuLu loves the Christian radio station and knows nearly all the songs. For years it has baffled me a bit that she can’t seem to sing all the lyrics, and while I “got it” that something neurological was going on that she could get, with near-perfect pitch, the tune of the song, but couldn’t sing the lyrics, I didn’t really “get it”. Thursday, I got it!

She was singing a familiar song at the top of her lungs and she nailed each and every word of every verse and chorus, instead of the usual “na, na, na” filler lyrics she sings.

“That’s beautiful!” I commented.

“Thanks,” she replied, “I never heard all those words before.”

(I was blown away!)

“What do you mean?”

“I didn’t really hear them, Mom. It makes the song more fun when you can hear ALL of them.”

WOW! Auditory processing problems — you bet! Getting better — you bet!

LuLu is so excited about her emerging auditory world, and so am I. But I’m also sad that it has taken us this long. How did I overlook this for so long? Was I so caught up in handling her behaviors (like the school is) that I missed the importance of addressing something so obvious? YES! Or was it not so obvious until lately because her many other issues (anxiety, aggression, self-injurous behaviors) seemed so much more critical and they are now lessened in her low-stress environment of home? YES!

I used to describe LuLu as an onion, a child with so many disabilities that we needed to peel off a layer at a time. But, now I think that analogy is too simplistic. Her disabilities are more like a tangled pile of yarn, each one twisted upon the others and there’s very little way to determine which symptom or which behavior goes with which disability. But slowly, now, we’re starting to untangle the yarn.

For whatever reason, I ignored the impact that her auditory processing deficits have had on her life. In my defense, we tried a listening intervention (I forget which one) about 4 years ago over one summer. It made absolutely no difference then — we were getting more results from daily neurofeedback. So, I discarded and went on. Does that mean that she wasn’t “ready” for that yet and some how through the neurofeedback, medication, hyperbaric treatments her neurology has shifted enough that now it’s time to address the auditory processing strand of yarn in the tangle? I’d like to think so, because then that doesn’t make me feel so dumb for overlooking the obvious.

So, will we get this yarn untangled? I don’t really know, but as we loosen bits of the knot, I see a happier, calmer, more self-assured child. And that is a beautiful sight!

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