Gemm's Auditory Processing Disorder Treatment

While it is well known that most language issues lead to learning and reading difficulties, less understood is that many children without an apparent "language problem" can have weak auditory processing skills that undermine their reading. They are able to hear words as whole sounds, but their brains cannot process the individual sounds inside the words with the clarity required to map the language for fluent reading.

This need not be permanent diagnosis. Auditory processing skills have been shown to respond to intensive and interactive sound exercise, most notably Fast ForWord software used by Gemm Learning.

Our Auditory Processing Treatment

Learning is an extremely integrated process requiring competence in dozens of memory, processing and thinking skills. So far, even with all this new knowledge of the brain, this tight integration has made it difficult to isolate and exercise single skills that are weakening a student's entire learning system.

Auditory processing is one notable exception. Fast ForWord software is able to isolate and strengthen this fundamental cognitive skill that holds back so many children. Gemm uses Fast ForWord to treat auditory processing disorders in students and adults at all academic levels.

Is Your Child An Accurate Listener?

Accurate listening is a critical early skill. It dictates how quickly a child will pick up the language and then how quickly he or she will learn from the instruction and conversation of their parents, peers and teachers. Then of course, accurate listening is required for decoding.

But accurate listening is not easy. Processing natural language is one of the fastest functions that the brain has to do which is why so many children have auditory processing issues. Distinguishing syllables comes down to differentiating sounds in milliseconds. Count off a second. One, one thousand. Four syllables, 2-3 sounds in each, 12 sounds all in one second.

Weak Auditory Processing Impacts Reading

If your child is not processing sound fast enough, words are muddy -- some say like sound through water -- phonemic awareness is impaired and phonics are hard to grasp. When we see a word such as "sleeker" we call on our phonological memory for a match. If we have always heard that word as "leega" because we did not hear the "s" in the "sl" blend and heard the "k" and a "g", then we have little hope of making an automatic match when reading the word sleeker.

For children with accurate phonological vocabularies, reading is simply transposing a known language to another format. But for the child who heard "leega" reading amounts to learning a whole new language. If our auditory processing is compromised in any way, our phonological vocabulary will be compromised. For children with even the slightest auditory processing disorder, including those who may have had 4-6 weeks of ear infections while very young, this is a problem.

Weak Auditory Processing Impacts Focus and Learning

If a teacher or parent is talking to you at 50 miles pre hour but you process at 45 miles per hour, there is a problem. You are either exhausted keeping up, you miss bits or you just get tired or frustrated and tune out. This is a natural reaction that is often described as "lazy" or "inattentive."

If processing can be increased to "natural language" speed many of these symptoms fade away.

How We Help Reading and Learning

Fast ForWord gives the brain the auditory exercise it needs to function at natural language speed. Through repetition the brain is made more adept at handling auditory information. It is how golfers build muscle memory. Repeat until automatic. Each day the Fast ForWord student will click hundreds of times, each click representing a decision made, a brain process exercised.
How Fast ForWord Helps Auditory Processing

Our goal is to help your child:

1/ Process faster -- to help following directions, language skills, learning efficiency,
More on our learning program

2/ Process more accurately and effortlessly -- so that the brain is able to map the language so that reading can be automatic, subconscious. Decoding automatically frees the mind for comprehension.
More on our reading program

We provide this auditory processing help using the Fast ForWord.
Learn more.