Auditory Stimulation

Auditory Stimulation

Auditory stimulation is the use of focused sounds to produce an effect on the nervous system. This sort of stimulation can be used as a part of sensory therapy in people with disabilities such as partial deafness or blindness or in people with attention deficit disorder or autism. It can also be used to help people develop or recover language skills, and might be applied as part of an accelerated learning program.
For people with hearing impairments or auditory processing disorders, auditory stimulation is believed to help increase their ability to process sounds. Some types of auditory stimulation allow a patient to manipulate sounds using gestures or body movement while other types might relate sound to visual stimulation like pictures or colors.
Auditory stimulation therapy can also be used for patients with disabilities in developing, understanding, or producing language, to train their brains to focus on the frequencies and sounds necessary to accurately interpret speech. This type of therapy combines listening to recorded music and language phonemes to increase the brain's ability to tune out “unnecessary” sounds, like background noise or very low frequency sounds.
People with autism, dementia, or brain damage can use combined sensory stimulation like Snoezelen Multi-Sensory Environment therapy for relaxation or learning purposes. Developed in the Netherlands, Snoezelen rooms are places where patients can manipulate lights, sounds, and various types of tactile stimuli to create an environment in which he or she is comfortable or happy. This type of therapy does not have a focused outcome, but rather is designed to stimulate and comfort the patient.
Auditory stimulation that combines music and language is central to the theory behind Suggestopedia, a language teaching method developed by Bulgarian psychologist Georgi Lozanov. This approach to second language learning combines Baroque music and a teacher reading target language material. Lozanov believes that music at 60 beats per minute, which mimics the human heartbeat, helps create a calm, relaxing environment where students lose their fears associated with learning, which leads them to acquire the new language more effectively.
Another type of auditory stimulation that builds on Lozanov’s theories is used in accelerated learning programs for gifted children. In this theoretical approach to learning, music is played at 60 beats per minute which is believed to create Alpha brain waves. In the Alpha state, the brain is thought to be most receptive to learning, so anything taught will be learned and retained more effectively.

Central Auditory Processing Disorders (CAPD)

Central Auditory Processing Disorders (CAPD)

What is it?

Before we understand what an auditory processing disorder is, we must first understand how an average person hears.  Hearing, in the most basic sense, involves two main parts of our system, the ear and the brain.  The ears' job is to receive; code and process sound then send it up toward the brain.  The brain then receives this informational, "files" it, filters the extraneous, unnecessary portion and directs attention to the desired information.

When problems occur with this system we commonly look to the peripheral part of the ear as the culprit.  In some cases, however, the problems occur further up with abnormalities occurring in the processing of the information received.  This is what we refer to as an Auditory Processing Disorder, or APD.  Frank Muziek, PhD, an audiologist and leading researcher in this area describes auditory processing as “how well the ear talks to the brain and how well the brain understands what the ear tells it.”  In APD there is distortion, or a misunderstanding at the brain level, resulting in mixed messages. 

Our normal auditory (hearing) system allows us to complete a variety of tasks without thinking.  These included:

1. Sound localization and lateralization: Localization is the ability to know where sound has occurred in space.  Localization is the ability to identify the source of a sound. 
2. Auditory discrimination: The ability to discriminate one sound from another.  This is a function of our temporal processing of pitch, volume and timing to create a clearly recognized speech pattern.
3. Auditory pattern recognition: The ability to determine similarities and differences in the pattern of sounds.  This involves various aspects of timing and the ability to fuse information together (auditory integration). 
4. Temporal aspects of audition: The ability to process acoustic signals over time. This involves several aspects including, order, integration or resolving signals. 
5. Auditory performance with competing acoustic signals: The ability to perceive speech or other sounds when another signal is present such as background noise, or competing speech and sounds. 
6. Auditory performance decrements with degraded acoustic signals: The ability to perceive a signal in which information is missing.  Problems in this area are often manifested as difficulty hearing in background noise or filling in parts of speech/conversations that was missed. 

One or more problems in the above-mentioned areas are suggestive of auditory processing problems. 

There may be several different causes of APD.  It may occur in isolation or accompanied by well known disorders such as ADD, language and learning disorders, dyslexia or multiple sclerosis.  There is also believed to be some correlation between high fevers or repetitive ear infections.  While most often investigated in school age children it is not exclusive to this population.  Adults may have APD but have either adapted or managed around the difficulties.  We believe it may contribute to some people’s difficulty adapting to hearing aids or inability to function in some environments. 

What Are the Symptoms

People with CAPD typically have normal hearing and intelligence but may exhibit behavior similar to those with hearing loss such as:

• Difficulty with language, specifically confusing syllable sequence or leaving off endings to words.  Tendency to confuse similar sounding words.
• Poor listening skills and a tendency to ignore a speaker when engrossed in something.
• Trouble paying attention to and remembering information presented orally.  More time is often needed to process orally presented information.
• Confuses or forgets/ has difficulty completing multi-step directions, especially if they include several sentences.
• Unusually greater sensitivity to or complaints about noise, especially hearing in noise.
• Difficulty with directionality.
• Low academic performance, especially in the areas of reading, comprehension, spelling or vocabulary.
• May have behavioral problems associated with perceived inattention.

What Are We Looking For?

Abnormalities in the auditory system take on different characteristics allowing us to roughly place them in 4 main categories.  Please note that individual APD problems may encompass more than one of these areas as well as several sub-categories.  The categories include:

1. Temporal processing: This influences all aspects of speech, music and general listening tasks to include the ability to perceive the order of sounds, discrimination between similar words and consonants.  There are many aspects of temporal auditory system that may be affected.  Problems may manifest and misunderstanding speech, difficulty humming, missing sounds in words…
2. Dichotic Listening (Binaural integration and separation): This refers to the ability to bring together or ignore differing stimuli presented simultaneously to each ear.  Problems in this area may show up as difficulty hearing in background noise or difficulty understanding when information is being presented to both ears (such as when more than one person is speaking at a time).
3. Auditory closure/auditory figure ground: The ability to utilize external and internal redundancy to fill in missing portions in speech or auditorily presented information.  This may include hearing speech or other sounds in background noise, understanding dialects or people who do not speak clearly
4. Binaural interaction/fusion: The ability for two ears to work together.  This may include localization, lateralization, hearing in noise, detection of sounds in noise as well as binaural fusion, the listener’s ability to fuse two different inputs together into one perception.  Problems in this area are manifested as difficulty localizing as well as difficulty tracking an auditory source.  The person may also have difficulty hearing in noise.

How Is CAPD Diagnosed?

While there is no standard APD battery of test, the first step to diagnosing APD is to rule out or identify any contributing factors associated with the complaint.  Specifically, this may include an ordinary peripheral hearing loss or accompanying language or learning disabilities.  For this reason a thorough case history is obtained and a comprehensive hearing test with an audiologist completed.  This will test for the presence of a possible hearing loss as a cause or contributing factor to the completed.  This will also alert the audiologist to any accompanying disorders that may influence the test results.

Screening Assessment: 

Before proceeding with the APD test we may request that the Screening Instrument for Targeting Educational Risk (S.I.F.T.E.R.) as well as the Fisher’s Auditory Problems Checklist be completed.  The SIFTER may be completed by both the parents and educators placing the child on a ration scale for certain behaviors.  The Fisher’s Checklist provides a 25 item checklist of auditory behaviors that may be affected. 

For adult patients, a comprehensive history form of hearing is determined to be normal, and then further testing may be indicated.  The results help to better tailor our battery of tests to assess the specific problem. 

APD Test Battery:

Our auditory testing battery takes approximately 1 hour.  Our general APD test battery includes tests that apply to most ages although there is better normative information for children older than 6 as well as adults.  Our battery of tests includes:

• Dichotic Digits Test:  Different stimuli are presented to each ear simultaneously.  The binaural integration part of the test requires the patient to repeat everything that is heard in both ears.  The binaural separation part requires them to ignore what is presented to one ear and repeat the information from the target ear.  This tests binaural separation and integration.
• Frequency (Pitch) Pattern and Duration Pattern Test: Tests temporal patterning and ordering by asking the patient to discriminate between different pitches presented to both ears.  The Duration Pattern Test asks the patient to discriminate the duration of tonal stimuli and describe it. This tests temporal processing.
• Gaps in Noise Test (GIN): Tests temporal (auditory time) resolution: This is a test of temporal resolution where the patient is asked to identify if one or two tones or clicks are heard.  The stimuli are presented in random order making it a more challenging task.  Another test of temporal processing.
• NU-6 Low Pass Filtered Speech: This tests auditory closure or our ability to “fill in the gaps”.  Each ear is tested independently with distorted words to assess the patient’s ability to understand and repeat.  This tests auditory closure. 
• Masking Level Difference: Tests for binaural interaction/binaural fusion.  The patient is asked to identify a tone or word as it emerges from competing background noise.   This tests binaural interaction/fusion.

Additional Testing:

Depending on the findings from the initial examination, further testing may be recommended in targeted areas for a more specific diagnosis.  These tests may include:

• Phonemic Synthesis Test: This assesses a patient’s ability to blend speech sounds together into words.  Sounds are presented to both ears. 
• Speech In Noise: This test assesses a patient’s ability to repeat back the correct word when it is presented in competition with background noise, often speech babble. 

Treatment of CAPD

There are various approaches to treating auditory processing issues.  One of the most important is realizing the APD is real.  This is not an issue of “selective hearing.  Thus said, it is the responsibility of the person with APD to employ the different strategies to manage their communication and their world.   Just as we expect a person with a hearing loss to wear a hearing aid if appropriate, we expect these strategies to be implemented for easier communication. 

Specifically:

• Reduce background noise whenever possible.  When it is not possible, supplement with visual input (i.e. have the person look at you).  For children in school, it may be beneficial to use an FM device, as this would isolate the teacher’s voice and reduce background noise.
• Following directions is one of the main complaints for people with APD.  Family and friends should try using expressive sentences and speak at a slightly slower rate of speed.  They should make sure to enunciate.  This slows down your speech and provides better clarity for understanding.
• Writing notes helps everyone and general organization and scheduling may be beneficial.

Some more structured treatment options may be available as we develop more information regarding the nature of APD.  Further referral to a speech therapist may be beneficial to investigate structured treatment options.

STRENGTHENING AUDITORY SKILLS

STRENGTHENING AUDITORY SKILLS

 You are your child’s first teacher and working with them at home will help your child be ready for school.

Tips to increase letter-sound skills

One of the most important skills children need for reading is to understand that every letter makes a sound. Many times we focus on having kids naming the letter but forget to teach the sound it makes. Here are some tips on how to teach your child this skill:

·        focus on one letter at a time start with consonants then add vowel sounds

·        Introduce the letter with sound alone first “B makes the b sound…Can you make that sound?” Have your child make the sound.

·        Have your child look at your mouth when you make the sound and talk about what your mouth is doing “When I make the b sound I put my lips together watch…b…Can you do it?” or “When I make the s sound my tongue is behind my teeth…it sounds like a snake…sss…can you do it?”

·        Next have your child listen for words that start with that sound. Begin with a choice of two “Which word starts with the b sound banana or apple?” Gradually add more choices up to 5.

·        When reading with your child, ask which word on this page starts with a letter you have reviewed. Then show them how that word is written.

·        Riding in your car is a great time to review letter sounds. You can play a game like I am thinking of something that starts with the b sound, it is yellow and it is a fruit...” or “I am ordering a hamburger, French fries and pop… which one starts with the h sound?”

Tips to increase auditory memory skills

Auditory memory is another skill that is very important in school. Remembering directions and teacher instruction is essential for success.

·        After giving the child a 2-3 step direction, have the child repeat it back to you (i.e. “Brush your teeth, go upstairs and get your pajamas on.. What do I want you to do?).

·        Play memory games such as “I’m going on a picnic and I’m going to bring…” each person adds something and then needs to name what everyone before them will bring. You can make it a sound-letter game as well by going through the alphabet or sticking with one letter if that is easier.

·        Playing “Go fish” when the child needs to remember what other players have in order to make a match

·        Teach your child their phone number, your cell number and address by using a song(i.e. row, row row your boat, or B-I-N-G-O)

·        After reading a story, have your child re-tell it to you. You can start off doing page by page and then build to the whole story. You can encourage your child to play ‘teacher” by re-telling to a stuffed animal or younger sibling to enhance memory skills. Remind them that they can use pictures to help them remember what happened. 

Long-Term Memory

Long-Term Memory

 

When you’re designing learning experiences, long-term memory is your ultimate destination. It’s the promised land—where you want newly learned content and skills to find their place.

So shouldn’t we be more familiar with the characteristics and dynamics of long-term memory? I think we need a user’s guide.

The Basics

1. Long-term memory (LTM) is a hypothetical construct. Although you won’t find a matching structure in the brain, it’s a helpful mental model to think of long-term memory as a dynamic yet permanent store of information.
2. Rather than being a distinct structure, researchers have found regions in every lobe of the brain that store and retrieve memories of facts and events.
3. We are usually referring to long-term memory when we talk about remembering something.
4. Long-term memory encompasses three operations: encoding, storage and retrieval. These are all examined below.
5. Long-term memory is more than a knowledge archive. It provides the background information that we need to understand the world by bringing relevant knowledge into working memory  as it’s needed.

Types of Long-term Memory

6. Cognitive psychologists think of long-term memory as divided into two broad types. Explicit memory, also called declarative memory, consists of memories we are aware of or conscious memories. Implicit memory, also called non declarative memory, is unconscious. It consists of memories used without our conscious awareness.
7. Explicit memory (the conscious kind) consists of semantic memory—memory for facts and knowledge about the world—and episodic memory—memory for personal experiences.
8. There are several types of implicit memories (the unconscious kind). Most relevant to training is procedural memory. This is our memory for doing things that usually require action. When use a mouse on the computer or dial a phone number we are not consciously aware of the memories that enable us to perform these skills.

Capacity, Duration and Speed

9. It is unknown how long information in long-term memory can last. It could be stored indefinitely. Think of the older people you know who are experts in their field or who remember details of their childhood. Some information appears to last forever.
10. It is equally unknown how much information long-term memory can store. In practical terms, think of long-term memory as having an infinite capacity because it never gets used up.
11. The time it takes to access information in long-term memory is thought to be 200 milliseconds or .200 second.

Encoding

12. When information is transformed and “written” to long-term memory it is known as encoding. There are varied  strategies that instructional designers and learners can use to improve encoding. See the Strategies below.
13. Information in long-term memory is most likely stored in network-type structures called schemas. Schemas are an efficient way to organize interrelated concepts in a meaningful way.
14. When we learn or experience something new and connect it with previously stored information, the process is known as assimilation.
15. Sometimes we learn something new or have experiences that don’t fit in with existing schemas. We then alter existing schemas or create new ones in a process is known as accommodation.

Retrieval

16. Retrieval is the process of activating and using information from long-term memory. Retrieval is facilitated through retrieval cues, which is any stimulus that helps us recall information from long-term memory.
17. Some cognitive psychologists think that not being able to remember something is more a failure of not having the right cue than the fact that the information is not present in long-term memory.
18. Recognition memory is almost always better than recall. Recognition involves determining whether you’ve seen something before. With recall, you have to generate the remembered information.
19. Memories are more than a simple construction of recalled information. Rather, what we recall is influenced by attitudes, beliefs and previous experiences. So memories are reconstructed events.

Strategies to Enhance Encoding and Retrieval

20. The transfer of information into long-term memory is facilitated by elaboration or elaborative rehearsal. Some elaboration strategies include: thinking of related ideas or examples of the content, mentally tying the information together or creating a mental image of the information. Course designers and instructors can encourage this behavior.
21. Most likely, retrieval is improved when the type of elaboration used for encoding matches the type of task required for retrieval.
22. Making purposeful connections and associations with prior knowledge improves transfer to long-term memory. Many designers and instructors use this strategy..
23. Organizing information, such as categorizing it into subsets, can facilitate retrieval. Many people do this spontaneously and instructional designers spend a great deal of effort at organizing information into meaningful chunks.
24. Retention is improved through distributed practice across multiple study sessions rather than concentrating the same amount of practice into one session. This allows information to be consolidated into memory over time.
25. People can recall facts better when the facts are associated with a personal experience. Pairing semantic memories with episodic memories facilitates learning.

Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic Learning Styles (VAK)

Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic Learning Styles (VAK)

The VAK learning style uses the three main sensory receivers: Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic (movement) to determine the dominant learning style. It is sometimes known as VAKT (Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic, & Tactile). It is based on modalities—channels by which human expression can take place and is composed of a combination of perception and memory.

VAK is derived from the accelerated learning world and seems to be about the most popular model nowadays due to its simplicity. While the research has shown a connection with modalities and learning styles (University of Pennsylvania, 2009), the research has so far been unable to prove the using one's learning style provides the best means for learning a task or subject. This is probably because it is more of a preference, rather than a style.

Learners use all three modalities to receive and learn new information and experiences. However, according to the VAK or modality theory, one or two of these receiving styles is normally dominant. This dominant style defines the best way for a person to learn new information by filtering what is to be learned. This style may not always to be the same for some tasks. The learner may prefer one style of learning for one task, and a combination of others for a different task.

Classically, our learning style is forced upon us through life like this: In grades kindergarten to third, new information is presented to us kinesthetically; grades 4 to 8 are visually presented; while grades 9 to college and on into the business environment, information is presented to us mostly through auditory means, such as lectures.

According to the VAK theorists, we need to present information using all three styles. This allows all learners the opportunity to become involved, no matter what their preferred style may be.

While there is some evidence for modality specific strengths and weaknesses (Rourke, et al. 2002), what has has not been established is matching the instructional style to individual learning strength improves their learning abilities. For example, one study (Constantinidou and Baker, 2002), found that visual presentation through the use of pictures was advantageous for all adults, irrespective of a high or low learning-style preference for visual images. Indeed, it was especially advantageous for those with a strong preference for verbal processing.

Hints for Recognizing and Implementing the Three VAK Styles

Auditory learners often talk to themselves. They also may move their lips and read out loud. They may have difficulty with reading and writing tasks. They often do better talking to a colleague or a tape recorder and hearing what was said. To integrate this style into the learning environment:

• Begin new material with a brief explanation of what is coming. Conclude with a summary of what has been covered. This is the old adage of “tell them what they are going to lean, teach them, and tell them what they have learned.”
• Use the Socratic method of lecturing by questioning learners to draw as much information from them as possible and then fill in the gaps with you own expertise.
• Include auditory activities, such as brainstorming, buzz groups, or Jeopardy. Leave plenty of time to debrief activities. This allows them to make connections of what they leaned and how it applies to their situation.
• Have the learners verbalize the questions.
• Develop an internal dialogue between yourself and the learners.

Visual learners have two sub-channels—linguistic and spatial. Learners who are visual-linguistic like to learn through written language, such as reading and writing tasks. They remember what has been written down, even if they do not read it more than once. They like to write down directions and pay better attention to lectures if they watch them. Learners who are visual-spatial usually have difficulty with the written language and do better with charts, demonstrations, videos, and other visual materials. They easily visualize faces and places by using their imagination and seldom get lost in new surroundings. To integrate this style into the learning environment:

• Use graphs, charts, illustrations, or other visual aids.
• Include outlines, concept maps, agendas, handouts, etc. for reading and taking notes.
• Include plenty of content in handouts to reread after the learning session.
• Leave white space in handouts for note-taking.
• Invite questions to help them stay alert in auditory environments.
• Post flip charts to show what will come and what has been presented.
• Emphasize key points to cue when to takes notes.
• Eliminate potential distractions.
• Supplement textual information with illustrations whenever possible.
• Have them draw pictures in the margins.
• Have the learners envision the topic or have them act out the subject matter.

Kinesthetic learners do best while touching and moving. It also has two sub-channels: kinesthetic (movement) and tactile (touch). They tend to lose concentration if there is little or no external stimulation or movement. When listening to lectures they may want to take notes for the sake of moving their hands. When reading, they like to scan the material first, and then focus in on the details (get the big picture first). They typically use color high lighters and take notes by drawing pictures, diagrams, or doodling. To integrate this style into the learning environment:

• Use activities that get the learners up and moving.
• Play music, when appropriate, during activities.
• Use colored markers to emphasize key points on flip charts or white boards.
• Give frequent stretch breaks (brain breaks).
• Provide toys such as Koosh balls and Play-Dough to give them something to do with their hands.
• To highlight a point, provide gum, candy, scents, etc. which provides a cross link of scent (aroma) to the topic at hand (scent can be a powerful cue).
• Provide high lighters, colored pens and/or pencils.
• Guide learners through a visualization of complex tasks.
• Have them transfer information from the text to another medium such as a keyboard or a tablet.