If children miss high sound frequencies they miss the sequence of events – which affects how their brain sequences information. They will lose their ability to visualise.

Imagine the following scenario:

Sarah is sitting watching television. She hears the doorbell ring and her pet bird squawking in response to the ringing. She hears Mum’s feet thudding down the hallway to the front door to open it. Sarah hears Mum’s high-pitched voice and Grandma’s voice answering. Sarah knows that Grandma is here and skips out of the room to greet her.

Now, imagine the scenario if Sarah had auditory issues:

Sarah is sitting watching television. She sits close so she can make out all of the dialogue. She misses the high frequency of the door bell. She hears Mum’s footsteps thudding down the hallway but is unable to link this to a reason. She does not know that Mum’s footsteps are in response to the doorbell ringing. Sarah hear Mum opening the front door but does not know why; she cannot hear Mum’s voice, or Grandma’s. She does not run out to greet Grandma.

In the latter scenario, Sarah’s visualisation of the events is disjointed, because the sounds she hears are disjointed. She has missed the sequence of events.

I home schooled Maria, a 5 year old who had been diagnosed with epilepsy as a baby. The most obvious and intense feature of her condition was seizures. Unfortunately it is not uncommon for children with epilepsy to also have learning difficulties – both subtle and obvious – due to cognitive dysfunction. Maria had auditory difficulties, which went unnoticed by her parents (who were concerned with the seizures). To an outsider, however, these were glaringly obvious from her speech. She didn’t hear ‘Rapunzel,’ she heard ‘Punzel.’ Computer was ‘Puter.’ She also struggled with verb endings, saying ‘runned’ ‘jumped-ed’ and ‘swimmed.’ It could be that the seizures affected her cognitive functioning; furthermore, having spent her first few years of life in and out of hospital she may have missed normal learning milestones and opportunities.