SandyKC, Geodob, somebody..Please talk to me about Auditory Attention

[Heathermomster]

Ok, DS was administered the NEPSY-II in August.  I have the raw scores in front of me.  I see some things on the Attention and Executive Functioning subtest that are concerning and they involve auditory attention.  Can auditory attention be remediated?  If so, how?  

 

Thank-you,h

[OneStepAtATime]

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[cherylswope]

Ok, DS was administered the NEPSY-II in August.  I have the raw scores in front of me.  I see some things on the Attention and Executive Functioning subtest that are concerning and they involve auditory attention.  Can auditory attention be remediated?  If so, how?  

 

Thank-you,h

 

 

Hi, Heather.

 

Here are some quick thoughts for you, as you wait for others to respond.

 

For programs or exercises tailored to your son's unique abilities and areas of concern, you will want to ask the examiner for specific ideas and recommendations.

 

 

In the meantime, you can find many do-at-home practice exercises with quick searches for “auditory attention†or even simply “listening.†As with many processing abilities, you can work on such skills 1) in isolation and 2) in the context of education. Debates have occurred over which is better, but we can do both!

 

Teach the Skill in Isolation

A quick search reveals examples, such as this site with many short activities. On the site, you will also find more complex, teen-appropriate exercises, such as #2 on this page, an ESL exercise: listening to an answering machine message and taking a brief quiz on the contents.

 

If you find any suitable and enjoyable for your son, you can begin with some of these. If not, you can use these activities to generate ideas for your own homemade practice exercises. (Caveat – several links on this site appear broken. You may find a more updated site when you search!)

 

Practice the Skill Within His Education

For the sake of time and energy, we appreciated the efficiency of working on “therapy skills†within the context of their education. For auditory attention, we found that dictation served us well. You can integrate auditory attention exercises into literature rather easily. You may already do this. If not, whenever you read aloud, note suitable sentences mentally or with a pencil. When you finish reading, take 5-10 minutes for “listening practice.†Say the sentence, then have him recite it back to you (or write/type it, as skills permit).

 

My children seemed to appreciate recalling “real†sentences from a story, such as one from a beautifully written read-aloud, more than lists of sentences from our HELP or other therapy books.

 

 

If you no longer read aloud to him, you can include such dictation exercises with science lessons, math definitions (e.g, “A triangle has three anglesâ€), or music theory (clapping note values, matching the tempo to a metronome).

 

Explore More Fully

For an easy, quick look at one discussion listing 5 types of auditory processing, see page 3 of this brief article.

 

Accommodate

Even as you work on remediating in isolation or within his education, you may need to modify for the weakness. See page 4 for tips on accommodating, until his auditory skills improve. You may do many of these already.

 

Easy ideas abound. Again, check with the examiner for more specific, professional tips suited to your son.

 

 

The much shorter answer: yes, you can do this. You can help him practice formally with isolated exercises or as you teach, or both. You're probably already doing more than you think. :)

 

I hope that helps -

 

Cheryl, mom of boy/girl twins (autism, learning disabilities, mental illness - both have auditory attention & executive function difficulties like your son)

 

Simply Classical: A Beautiful Education for Any Child

[geodob]

With NEPSY-II, the 'Auditory Attention and Executive Functioning' has a number of sub-tests.

Though with auditory attention, the main areas tested are: The ability to 'sustain attention', 'switch attention' and 'inhibit attention'.

 

So that the scores need to be looked into, to identify the ability with each of them?

Then remediation can be directed at the area/s of difficulty.