There are several articles that came linked in a recent e-newsletter from ADDitude Magazine’s on-line website. I found it interesting that a magazine on the subject of Attention Deficit Disorder would highlight articles that focus specifically on disorders that can be mistaken for ADD.

The first article is on Auditory Processing Disorder. The article talks about the overlap between the inattentiveness of ADHD and the distractability of not being able to screen out noises of APD. It also cites that children with ADHD often have APD as well. It also goes on to mention the causes of APD:

The underlying cause of APD isn't known. Experts debate whether heredity or environment—or both—are responsible for the condition. While the human auditory system is fully developed at birth, auditory pathways don't mature until the age of 10 to 12. Because of this, early influences—such as poor prenatal nutrition, a mother's exposure to cigarettes or alcohol, childhood malnutrition, and chronic ear infections—may negatively affect auditory processing. Premature birth, low birth weight, Lyme disease or other brain infections, closed head injury, and exposure to low levels of heavy metals (lead or mercury) may also play a role. The good news is that, because the auditory pathways continue to develop up until adolescence, APD is responsive to early intervention.

Jack Katz, MD, a pioneer in the field of auditory processing says there are three distinct conditions that appear in APD and that some children can have just one while others can have all three:

1. sound discrimination problems. Children with APD may not speak clearly or run words together or drop endings off of words. Their reading and spelling abilities may also be impacted.
2. auditory memory problems. This part of the disorder makes it hard to memorize numbers and facts. It takes these children longer to learn their addresses and phone numbers. Verbal directions, especially multi-step directions can be very challenging.
3. language processing problems. This condition causes a child not to be able to keep up and understand what is going on in a conversation. The child has trouble listening to verbal information, retelling stories or keeping up with conversations. This condition impacts the child socially as well.

Here was the “aha” paragraph for me in this article:

Christina suffered from all three elements of APD. She never sang as a small child, even though she clearly enjoyed listening to music and to others' singing. "Christina could never put everything together—the words, the rhythms, the tunes," says her mother, Tricia. "Her hearing was fine—exceptional. But put her into a circle of kids singing nursery rhymes and playing spoons and tambourines, and all she wanted was to get away!"

I feel incredibly guilty that I never pushed the idea of APD years ago. LuLu, although she’s always had lovely near-perfect pitch has NEVER been able to sing the song lyrics. She is, after much practice, able to get repetitive choruses (she loves praise music at our church for that reason). But she can’t sing. And she is also easily auditoriallly overwhelmed.

And while the article gives you "hope" by saying that because the auditory system continues to develop until a child is 10-12, that early intervention holds great promise for much healing. But the awful catch-22 can be that many speech and language professionals believe that APD can't be accurately diagnosed until the child is about that same age...10-12. So, even if I had started pushing for interventions before now (LuLu's 10), would anyone have listened??? Or would they have insisted that it was ADHD.