"Sometimes, it just drops."

My ten year old daughter with Auditory Processing Disorder wants me to let people know that sometimes the things she knows just "drop" from her head.  She says this especially happens with math.

So I thought today I would try to explain what she is talking about.  With Auditory Processing Disorder (APD), the short term memory is affected.  Recalling information can be extremely difficult and to the outsider, it can appear as if the person with APD knows something, then doesn't know it, then knows it again, only to seemingly forget it the next second.  

I remember when Hailey was younger and I just didn't fully grasp this concept yet.  I would be dumbfounded by the things I could swear she knew just a second ago and she would act like she'd never seen/heard of it before.  Frustrating is an understatement!

So now that Hailey is 10, she herself understands that this is just a part of APD.  She gets frustrated when she can't remember something that she feels she should know.  I reckon it is like the expression "on the tip of one's tongue" where you just can't remember despite all your attempts to do so.  

So our best method of dealing with these moments is to say "oh, it must be dropped" and try to not worry about it, knowing that it will be found again.  With math, I can usually start to re-explain it and her brain will suddenly remember before I even get finished. When it is something she wants to say, well, we just have to wait until she remembers.

Luckily, eventually things make it into her long term memory where she can remember them and utilize them much easier.  We just have to be patient.