Listen Up: Abnormality In Auditory Processing Underlies Dyslexia

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/239620.php

Listen Up: Abnormality In Auditory Processing Underlies Dyslexia

     Cell Press. (2012, January 2). "Listen Up: Abnormality In Auditory Processing Underlies Dyslexia." Medical News Today.

People with dyslexia often struggle with the ability to accurately decode and identify what they read. Although disrupted processing of speech sounds has been implicated in the underlying pathology of dyslexia, the basis of this disruption and how it interferes with reading comprehension has not been fully explained. Now, new research published by Cell Press in the December 22 issue of the journal Neuron finds that a specific abnormality in the processing of auditory signals accounts for the main symptoms of dyslexia.

"It is widely agreed that for a majority of dyslexic children, the main cause is related to a deficit in the processing of speech sounds," explains senior study author, Dr. Anne-Lise Giraud and Franck Ramus from the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris, France. "It is also well established that there are three main symptoms of this deficit: difficulty paying attention to individual speech sounds, a limited ability to repeat a list of pseudowords or numbers, and a slow performance when asked to name a series of pictures, colors, or numbers as quickly as possible. However, the underlying basis of these symptoms has not been elucidated."

Dr. Giraud and colleagues examined whether an abnormality in the early steps of auditory processing in the brain, called "sampling," is linked with dyslexia by focusing on the idea that an anomaly in the initial processing of phonemes, the smallest units of sound that can be used to make a word, might have a direct impact on the processing of speech.

The researchers found that typical brain processing of auditory rhythms associated with phonemes was disrupted in the left auditory cortex of dyslexics and that this deficit correlated with measures of speech sound processing. Further, dyslexics exhibited an enhanced response to high-frequency rhythms that indirectly interfered with verbal memory. It is possible that this "oversampling" might result in a distortion of the representation of speech sounds.

"Our results suggest that the left auditory cortex of dyslexic people may be less responsive to modulations at very specific frequencies that are optimal for analysis of speech sounds and overly responsive to higher frequencies, which is potentially detrimental to their verbal short-term memory abilities," concludes Dr. Giraud. "Taken together, our data suggest that the auditory cortex of dyslexic individuals is less fine-tuned to the specific needs of speech processing."


Kasting Connections' Perspective:

This brief article states what I've known to be true for a while.  What it doesn't state is that there are some ways to improve auditory processing.

In the clinic setting, I have been successful in using a three prong approach:

1)  Occupational Therapy -Sensory Integration Approach:

     Find an occupational therapist that has been trained in Sensory Integration, maybe through The STAR Center in Denver, Colorado via a mentor ship given by the top O.T. in the field, Dr. Lucy Jane Miller or maybe through S.I.P.T training. The O.T. should have sought out extra training that what was given in school. Ask about their experience, look at their sensory gym space. It should have at least 6 to 8 ceiling hooks that equipment can hang from and rotate 360 degrees. Their gym should have many options available for fine motor, gross motor, auditory processing, visual processing, etc. Ask if they are trained in astronaut training through Dr. Sheila Frick (Vital Links) which uses a spinning protocol to help the vestibular system improve along with the connection to eye movement needed for reading!

2)  Use of Listening Therapy:

      The use of Listening Therapy retrains the brain how to take in sensory information through all the senses and teaches the brain how to efficiently process the sensory information.  We have had great success with students of all ages.  There are several listening therapies out there; I would recommend the use of 3:  Vital Links,  Samonas, and Integrated Listening Systems.

3)  Direct Academic intervention:

     I have used Phonological Awareness Kit from Lingui Systems as a step to help students with auditory discrimination issues.  In conjunction with that curriculum, I have used Earobics Software for all ages to give students an engaging way to work on auditory processing skills. If that software is too expensive for you, a reasonable alternative is Hear Builder: Phonological Awareness through Super Duper Publications.

Good Luck and let me know how your interventions are working!

Chomping...Slurping...Cause for Rage?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/06/health/06annoy.html?_r=2

When a Chomp or a Slurp Is a Trigger for Outrage

By JOYCE COHEN

Published: September 5, 2011

For people with a condition that some scientists call misophonia, mealtime can be torture. The sounds of other people eating — chewing, chomping, slurping, gurgling — can send them into an instantaneous, blood-boiling rage.

Or as Adah Siganoff put it, “rage, panic, fear, terror and anger, all mixed together.”

“The reaction is irrational,” said Ms. Siganoff, 52, of Alpine, Calif. “It is typical fight or flight” — so pronounced that she no longer eats with her husband.

Many people can be driven to distraction by certain small sounds that do not seem to bother others — gum chewing, footsteps, humming. But sufferers of misophonia, a newly recognized condition that remains little studied and poorly understood, take the problem to a higher level.       

They also follow a strikingly consistent pattern, experts say. The condition almost always begins in late childhood or early adolescence and worsens over time, often expanding to include more trigger sounds, usually those of eating and breathing.

“I don’t think 8- or 9-year-olds choose to wake up one morning and say, ‘Today my dad’s chewing is going to drive me insane,’ ” said Marsha Johnson, an audiologist in Portland, Ore., who runs an online forum for people with misophonia.       

But that is what happens, she said, adding, “Soon the kid doesn’t want to come to the table or go to school.”

Aage R. Moller, a neuroscientist at the University of Texas at Dallas who specializes in the auditory nervous system, included misophonia in the “Textbook of Tinnitus,” a 2010 medical guide of which he was an editor.

He believes the condition is hard-wired, like right- or left-handedness, and is probably not an auditory disorder but a “physiological abnormality” that resides in brain structures activated by processed sound.

There is “no known effective treatment,” Dr. Moller said. Patients often go from doctor to doctor, searching in vain for help.

Dr. Johnson agreed. “These people have been diagnosed with a lot of different things: phobic disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, bipolar, manic, anxiety disorders,” she said.

Dr. Johnson’s interest was piqued when she saw her first case in 1997. “This is not voluntary,” she said. “Usually they cry a lot because they’ve been told they can control this if they want to. This is not their fault. They didn’t ask for it and they didn’t make it up.” And as adults, they “don’t outgrow it,” she said. “They structure their lives around it.”

Taylor Benson, a 19-year-old sophomore at Creighton University in Omaha, says many mouth noises, along with sniffling and gum chewing, make her chest tighten and her heart pound. She finds herself clenching her fists and glaring at the person making the sound.

“This condition has caused me to lose friends and has caused numerous fights,” she said.

Misophonia (“dislike of sound”) is sometimes confused with hyperacusis, in which sound is perceived as abnormally loud or physically painful. But Dr. Johnson says they are not the same. “These people like sound, the louder the better,” she said of misophonia patients. “The sounds they object to are soft, hardly audible sounds.” One patient is driven crazy by her beloved dog licking its paws. Another can’t bear the pop of the plosive “p” in ordinary conversation.

When people with the disorder can’t avoid the sounds, they sometimes try earplugs to block them, or white-noise devices to mask them.

Family links are common. Ms. Siganoff suspects her father had the condition, too. “He would buy us new shoes and complain we were walking too loud,” she said.

The prevalence is unknown. Dr. Johnson’s Yahoo group, soundsensitivity, has about 1,700 members worldwide. One member, a man from Canberra, Australia, runs soundsensitivity.info, an informational site for the general public.

Meanwhile, those with the condition cope as best they can. Ms. Siganoff says she remains enraged until she says something like “shut up” or “stop it.”

“If I don’t say anything, the rage builds,” she said. “That vocalization is enough to stop the reaction.” (Echolalia, or mimicking the offensive sound, is common, Dr. Johnson said.)

As a young adolescent at the dinner table, Heidi Salerno tried to discreetly plug her ears or chew in sync with others so her own chewing noises would drown theirs out.

Doctors told her she was too controlling, said Ms. Salerno, 44, a lawyer in San Diego. “But there are many things I am not in control of, and I don’t feel rage about it,” she said. “I was always brushed off.”

Ms. Salerno shuts her office door against bothersome sounds like pen clicking. She is a champion swing dancer, and when she teaches dance she prohibits gum chewing in class, telling her students, “If you are chewing gum, I will be distracted.”       

Donna McDow, 57, a retired secretary who lives near Los Angeles, tries a different tack, telling people she has a bad headache. “Everybody understands a headache,” she said. “Nobody understands what we have.”

A version of this article appeared in print on September 6, 2011, on page D4 of the New York edition with the headline: When a Chomp or a Slurp Is a Trigger for Outrage.

Kasting Connections' Perspective:

The reactions that many of these people in the article describe, are reactions I've seen in students with auditory processing issues indicating sensory processing disorder (SPD).  SPD is not a new disorder, Dr. Jean AyresSPD in the new DSM V manual as a recognized disorder.  The following video from you tube is a brief introduction to what SPD can look like, but SPD takes many forms, being overly stimulated by sounds is one of its forms. 

http://youtu.be/QDaj4daRWJc

The following videos are Part 1 and 2 of  TV's 20-20's piece on Sensory Processing Disorder with Dr. Lucy Jane Miller. 

http://youtu.be/MFPRZznVMbU

http://youtu.be/OChhikMggtY

Some people see these behaviors as just 'behavior problems' and if the parents would just discipline the child, the behavior would disappear.  I know from experience working with SPD students that it is not the case; however, it is possible to have co-morbid conditions of behavior issues and SPD, yet is important to treat the SPD first.  When SPD is treated and more manageable, most of the behaviors just fall away; the body was in the 'fight or flight' response which brings on behaviors that to the untrained eye are just 'bratty kids' who need to be punished. 

Dr. Lucy Jane Miller's clinic, STAR Center in Denver, Colorado (http://www.starcenter.us/),  treat children with SPD with occupational therapy with a sensory integration focus and listening therapy. 

Dr. Miller and her colleagues have chosen to use Integrated Listening Systems (ILS)  (http://www.integratedlistening.com/) as their listening therapy to help retrain the brain to process incoming sensory information. 

Sheila M. Frick is another occupational therapist that works with children with SPD and uses listening therapy.  The following article: An Overview of Auditory Interventions by Sheial M. Frick, OTR/L of Vital Links  http://www.vitallinks.net/auditory.shtml summarizes the variety of listening therapies available. 

Sheila Frick is the founder of Vital Links, http://www.vitallinks.net/index.shtml, which has developed their own Therapeutic Listening® system.  The following link is a summary of research published in the American Journal of Occupational Therapy of the benefits of Therapeutic Listening®.

New Research on Therapeutic Listening®

http://www.vitallinks.net/ajotresearch.shtml

A link to purchase Sheila Frick's book, Listening with the Whole Body, which discusses how Therapeutic Listening® works is also attached.

I encourage people with misophonia to research Occupational Therapy with a sensory integration focus and listening therapy.  It will change your world!