Hello! This blog is about my daughter Hailey (currently 12 years old) and her experiences living with auditory processing disorder. Auditory Processing Disorder is Hailey's primary issue, however she has also been given the labels Sensory Processing Disorder, Dyslexia, Visual Processing Disorder, Mixed Expressive Receptive Language Disorder and Phonology Disorder at various points in her life.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Talking Holograms in Museums Can be Overwhelming for Someone with Auditory Processing Disorder


Our homeschooling social group went to a local science museum today.  My boys went off with their friends and another mom, while my daughter Hailey and her friend went in another direction with me.  Socially, it was a great experience for all of my children as they really like the kids they hung out with today.  However, on an academic level, I did notice how Hailey’s auditory processing disorder made its presence known, yet again.

This particular science museum has added a whole area with holograms that speak to you as you view the displays.  This is an amazing thing to see and really quite fascinating on its own.  It would definitely be an awesome value-added experience, EXCEPT, each display is so close to the others that you hear about 4 or 5 of them all going off at the same time.  Poor Hailey with auditory processing disorder kept saying how terribly noisy it was in there and how distracting the speaking holograms were.  So all that money and technology that was intended to make the museum experience more enriching, just made my sweet girl want to hurry out of the exhibit hall, missing more than half of what was there to see. 

I think we long for the old days of museums with displays and placards to read.  Even before Hailey could read herself, I would read the placards to my children; my one momma’s voice speaking in the rate they could process while editing out whatever words were too far above their comprehension level, was much more effective.

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