Rosemary Murphy Developmental Learning www.developlearning.co.nz

Oliver was 16 years old and about to be excluded from school.He had been diagnosed with a mild hearing loss at the age of 10 but was not prescribed any hearing aids.

Over many years he had been supported by his school learning support staff for ongoing and persistent learning and behavioural difficulties, but nothing seemed to work. He was only able to stay in the classroom two hours a day and was not passing any of his required subjects. He could only listen for brief periods of time, after which he lost focus. He would then engage in conversation with other students, distracting them and disrupting the entire class. His spelling was erratic and phonetic, his writing untidy and often illegible. His self esteem was at an all-time low and his future very uncertain.

An auditory assessment of Oliver revealed that he had an auditory processing disorder with an overall score in the 1st percentile. He frequently misheard what people were saying, especially when there was background noise. He could manage to listen to speech for brief periods of time, after which he became fatigued and tuned out.

A listening test (audiogram) confirmed a mild hearing loss in his left ear .However his bone conduction pathway was normal, indicating that he was a good candidate for listening therapy.

Oliver attended the clinic for an intensive in-clinic bone conduction sound therapy programme. During this time we were able to re-programme his auditory system, lift his hearing thresholds and re-tune him to the sounds of speech, using both auditory pathways, air and bone. He also sat and passed his drivers' licence and read 14 books during the course of his therapy.

Oliver returned for his six-month recheck a different boy. He had returned to school the following year and was able to stay in the classroom for the entire day. He was passing all of his subjects and was headed for an engineering course at the polytechnic. His self esteem was good, and his future pathway clear.

For more information on auditory processing disorder and what can be done to help, see www.developlearning.co.nz or email me on info@developlearning.co.nz