"When our daughter was two, we noticed that not only did she not speak, but she didn’t seem to understand most of what we told her. She has a twin brother and he was speaking in sentences, telling us stories, and in every way communicating well. We wanted to believe that she was just a late bloomer, but when she started tantruming from frustration, screaming from noises we could barely hear, and staring glazedly into space – absolutely checking out from reality – we knew something was not right." Suspecting Auditory Processing Disorder in Young Children
Realizing that your child has something "wrong" for lack of a better term is extremely frightening and completely overwhelming at first. I remember being so stressed by it all that I actually would have quasi-panic attacks where I would feel my heart palpitating and feel short of breath.
Thoughts would race through my head: Will she ever be able to understand language? What if she always tantrums? Will I have a 16 year old daughter who runs around frantically screaming with her hands held over her ears whenever she hears a loud noise?
Yes, it's true. When our children show signs of a problem, we have no real idea how significant that problem is going to be in their lives. And it is not just us who don't know! We go to doctors and therapists and specialists of various sorts who can tell us what most likely is going on in their opinion, but none of them can give us guarantees of what the future holds.
So the hardest thing we as parents do is learn to be patient, keep hope alive, and honor and assist our children where they are at each and every day. We cherish the little things they accomplish and work to help them meet one goal and then the next along their path.
Then over time we realize that our own anxieties are less. We come to understand this disability for its gifts as well as its difficulties. We embrace our child for who she is and cannot imagine nor wish her to be any different than whom she is.
Realizing that your child has something "wrong" for lack of a better term is extremely frightening and completely overwhelming at first. I remember being so stressed by it all that I actually would have quasi-panic attacks where I would feel my heart palpitating and feel short of breath. Thoughts would race through my head: Will she ever be able to understand language? What if she always tantrums? Will I have a 16 year old daughter who runs around frantically screaming with her hands held over her ears whenever she hears a loud noise?
Yes, it's true. When our children show signs of a problem, we have no real idea how significant that problem is going to be in their lives. And it is not just us who don't know! We go to doctors and therapists and specialists of various sorts who can tell us what most likely is going on in their opinion, but none of them can give us guarantees of what the future holds.
So the hardest thing we as parents do is learn to be patient, keep hope alive, and honor and assist our children where they are at each and every day. We cherish the little things they accomplish and work to help them meet one goal and then the next along their path.
Then over time we realize that our own anxieties are less. We come to understand this disability for its gifts as well as its difficulties. We embrace our child for who she is and cannot imagine nor wish her to be any different than whom she is.
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