The Physical Aspects of Asperger's Syndrome
14. Auditory Sensitivities: Central Auditory Processing Disorder, Music and Playing By Ear, Loud Noises, Speaking Volume, and Echolalia
Central Auditory Processing Disorder
Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD) is a side effect of the Aspie brain in
which, even if hearing is perfect, there are imperfections in the way that the brain
understands what is being said. A person with CAPD will understand
something read with perfect clarity, and will understand non-verbal sounds
accurately, but will have from minor to major problems
in comprehending verbal speech. Practice and effort can be applied to help
the person develop better listening skills. Listening skills practice is
best done with a child, the younger the better. This will help the brain
develop new pathways for processing auditory words.
However, understanding
the hearing of words might not ever become equal to that of a normal person,
especially in an adult, so I recommend not relying solely on hearing for the
teaching of an autistic person. Teaching should be aided with many visual
helps, such as charts, written outlines, pictures, lists, or anything the
student can see.
For the adult, especially if they are like me, learning and understanding will almost always occur from reading and seeing. Less information can be pulled and retained from a verbal conversation. Emails and instant messages, for example, are much easier to understand. Anything written, whether on a big screen, a computer monitor, a signpost, or a book, is immediately read and completely understood. Verbal instructions run a high risk of not being fully understood.
The upside to this disorder, though I don't know if it's related to CAPD or merely to Asperger's Syndrome in general, is that I have an amazing visual memory. I did well in school because I would memorize my notes. However, I didn't memorize what was written so much as I memorized what they looked like. When taking a test, I would flash back to the notes in my mind, and I could see the paper, the handwriting, the colors, all the details of what I saw. This kind of visual memory is highly useful in life and might be attributed to, in my guess, either CAPD or a visual version of echolalia.
One therapy for auditory processing is listening to high quality music with
headphones. Music played by full orchestras, such as classical music, or
movie themes seem to work best. The headphones are important because they
will divide the music up into stereo. This way, different parts of music
will be sent to each ear. Therefore, different parts
of the brain, will hear different instruments, melodies, and countermelodies.
This therapy can be highly engaging and highly calming for an autistic person.
In some cases, it trains the brain to listen better and can help with verbal
speech recognition.
Music and Playing By Ear
I'd also like to recommend music listening, in general, for the autistic brain.
Some autistic people, including myself, can be completely filled and
entertained, in many parts of their brain simultaneously, by a good piece of
music. This is a hard thing to achieve, and I am very grateful for music
in doing this for me. I feel like I hear more of music than some
neuro-typicals do. I hear every single note, every background note, every
timbre and color of the notes, and the exact tempos and rhythms. I can
reproduce them exactly. I can sing and play more than one instrument both
by reading music, and by ear. I can't write new music, though. That must
be a talent of a different sort. The 'playing by ear' ability seems to be
uncommon in my search for others like me, but it is very easy for me. The
more I practice at it, the more I can do it without the mistakes incurred by
"finding the note". I'm also learning to play two-part harmonies by ear.
People often ask me if I play by ear in order to
avoid having to learn to read sheet music. However, that is not the case,
I can read sheet music.
I played in a band for ten years, and have much musical experience, so it's not
that I'm trying to find a way to play music sans reading music. It's that
I don't need the sheet music like most people do. Lately, as I get bored
singing the same songs over and over by singing either the main melody or the
harmonized melody, I have begun creating and singing tertiary harmonies, for my
own entertainment. It's quite fun.
Music can make me feel better in ways that nothing else can. Music has always been a big part of my life. There hasn't been a time since I was young that I didn't have a walkman or, more recently, an MP3 player, and used them often. Whenever stress levels get high, even in public, I can always be comforted by listening to music, so I always like to have it with me, just in case.
Loud Noises
In addition to touch and sight, many with Asperger's are also sensitive to hearing and have differences in the way their brains process sounds. The most obvious problem with hearing in this group is often very obvious in Aspie toddlers. Loud noises make them agitated. Of course, I'm sure they make everyone agitated. However, it seems to be worse with this group of people. Sometimes there is nothing that can be done to help this. When the sounds can't be prevented, such as when they occur in a public place, the best thing to do is to give advanced warning to the sensitive person, if possible. At home, turning tv and radio down to comfortable levels is an easy fix. Oftentimes, a person with Asperger's will naturally go to a quieter place, with less noise and busyness. This is a good solution from time to time. In my home, we have set times during the week where I am given alone time in my room, in which my husband watches the kids, or takes them out, and I can be in a quiet, controlled environment for a while, and rest. This procedure has really helped me feel better throughout the whole week.
Speaking Volume
I would also like to mention that, for some reason unbeknownst to me, some Aspies have little or no knowledge about how loudly they are speaking. My mom worked with me for years on this. My husband too. I just can't ever seem to figure out what the appropriate level of loudness or softness should be. It's especially bad when I get excited about a topic. I've been told that I get louder and louder, almost to uncomfortable levels. I never notice it. I don't think I ever will at this point. Therefore, I have learned to be grateful when it is pointed out to me because then I can correct it, allowing me to be more polite and more socially appropriate in my actions. It also took me years as a child to learn to properly whisper. I had thought that you needed to be able to hear yourself speak when talking or whispering, or else no one else could possibly hear it. However, I've been told that when in noisy rooms and while whispering, this is not always true. If your child has trouble speaking or whispering too loudly, please be patient with them, and, when necessary, kindly let them know when their voice is at an inappropriate sound level. Without your help, they may have no idea.
Echolalia
Echolalia is both annoying and it is a blessing. Echolalia is the constant repeating of a word or sound. There are two forms, immediate echolalia, and delayed echolalia. Immediate is the instant repetition of a word or phrase just heard. It is theorized that this might be a child's way of learning. My sister says it's very useful to her Aspie son, in that verbal repetition of words helps him to learn new words and increase his vocabulary. She's got a good point.
The other form, delayed echolalia, is what I have in my head all the time. This is where the song or phrase, or sections of a movie, etc., are repeated after some time has passed. When I found out I was an Aspie a few years ago, as an adult, and my mom learned all about it, she told me that I had lots of echolalia as a little girl. However, in my lifelong attempt to act in socially appropriate ways, I remember being young and consciously making myself stop constantly repeating words out loud, mostly in elementary school. The problem is that just being silent about it doesn't make it go away. I still get it in my head. The trick, as best I can tell, is to stop after the second or third repeat, before it really gets started. If you are lack about it, and not on your toes, the word repeating in your head will take on its own energy and will repeat for days. This is why I said it can be annoying.
I especially have to be careful about songs and commercial jingles. As you know, they are designed to get caught in your head. I'm particularly bad at getting them out, or getting them to stop repeating in my head. Therefore, I'm very specific about what I allow myself to hear. I always turn down the tv volume during commercials, and I am careful not to hear a song on the radio that I know would annoy me if I then heard it 200 times in a row. Anything I hear runs the risk of playing itself over and over in my head for the next three days, even in my dreams, so I have to be careful.
The upside to this is that if I only listen to music that I like, I then get
to hear that music 24/7. I always, and I mean always, have a song playing
in my head. Could be a song I like or one I hate, so I have to be careful
what I listen to. I can replay the whole song, with all its details and
parts, for thousands of songs. I can also play them on an instrument or sing
them in exactly the same way they were played and sung originally. I can
also listen to large portions of a movie that I've enjoyed in my head, as if I'm
hearing it again. So, once I learned to control exactly what I let myself
hear, it can be a very good thing. It is very comforting to always have
these things at my disposal. I got through many boring days at work by
learning to consciously replay songs and other things I've heard at will.
In addition, it is my theory that echolalia, being the
repeating of an exact auditory memory, is what allows me to "act", as I
mentioned in another article I wrote:
http://www.blueginger.org/acting.html. I am able to duplicate "normal"
social behavior at times in which social rules are stringent, such as when I'm
with several women, because I can accurately repeat the words and tones that
I've heard other women speak in similar situations.
You can learn more about echolalia here:
http://groups.msn.com/TheAutismHomePage/echolaliafacts.msnw.
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