Students
become frustrated. Cyclic behaviour problems occur.
Students
with Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAP-D) [nearly
40 percent of the group studied] have a genuinely 'hidden'
disability, since they can hear, yet not completely understand
running speech against a background of noise and competing
messages. They appear to hear different words to those actually
spoken, miss out on parts of what is said, fail to keep pace
with rapid speech and shifts in topics, and suffer fatigue
and 'tune out'. They are unaware that they have CAP-D, so
don't know when they should ask for repetition, clarification
or a reduction in background noise.
Students
with CAP-D attempt to compensate by looking around and following
the actions of other students, calling out 'What?' repeatedly,
giving up or acting out. We believe that adolescent male students
with CAP-D are especially at risk of being expelled from school
and are later over-represented in prison populations.
When
you combine hearing impairment, western educational practice,
the fact that English is not their primary language —
there are so many reasons that would make the picture seem
rather bleak.
Now,
from an aetiological perspective ('what causes the problem?'),
the frustrating thing is that the ear disease is entirely
preventable. And even if the prevention, for reasons of
over-crowding or other health issues, can't be resolved
completely at this point in time, there are educational
interventions that can be very significant to prevent hearing
loss from being the deterrent that it currently is in the
classroom.
