Later, I will discuss the many ways in which the different body systems are connected. It is worth mentioning here, however, that vision, hearing and spatial perception (awareness of what is around us and their proximity to us) are very closely linked.
Some blind people, for example, are able to use their sense of sound to navigate and take part in physical activities. This is due to the skill of ‘echolocation,’ a sonar navigation technique which is also used by dolphins and bats. Some blind people can generate sounds in their mouth to find their way. For example, as John walks he makes clicking sounds with his tongue. These sounds bounce off surfaces and return, giving him information about his surroundings. Those with enhanced echolocation can ‘see’ a rubbish bin, a fridge or an oven, and even identify different materials by their sound.
People usually rely on vision to find their way around. Yet researchers believe that all people use echolocation to some degree. The technique also aids us with our spatial perception; the brain calculates the distance to an object, based on the time it takes for an echo to return. The skill of echolocation can be heightened through practice.
Recommended Activities:
It is important when administering any auditory (listening) tests to keep instructions and language clean. Avoid commenting or praising during the activity. Of course, you can appreciate a person’s effort, but try to separate this from their response. Though it’s tempting to say ‘well done!’ after a correct response, a sensitive person will learn to wait for this reassurance. If they are not told that they are doing well, they may feel that they are failing.
Paired Words
The paired words activity is a simple (yet effective) activity which tells us if people have trouble distinguishing sounds, listening to instructions or listening at length.
I say, simply, ‘I’m going to read a list of words and I want you to repeat them.’ I read out pairs of similar-sounding words: tub tug, web wed, sought fought, thread shred, coal call, vie thy. Sometimes the pair of words is identical: lick lick, moon moon, shop shop. The person repeats the words after me, and I watch and listen for any confusion, lip-reading, stress or fatigue.
Often people struggle to distinguish between the sounds ‘th’ and ‘v’, as in ‘vie’ and ‘thy.’ This is not so much of a problem. Confusion with the sounds ‘b,’ ‘d,’ ‘g’ and ‘k’ is more of an issue. ‘B’ and ‘d’ are commonly confused by very young children (especially under 5s) but in my experience this usually corrects itself over time. However, if an older person has difficulty distinguishing the difference between ‘web/wed’ or ‘rub/rug’ then they are not gaining much understanding or information from speech. For a person who cannot process sounds properly, communicating is troublesome and exhausting, and can lead to low self-esteem and social problems. Keeping up in group conversations is difficult. Phone calls are can cause anxiety for people with auditory processing difficulties, as they are in a situation where they can’t see anyone and thus cannot use visual cues to help them guess the words they miss. Social situations are stressful and tempting to avoid.
The paired words test is an important activity to practise, to improve sound recognition. If a person has trouble distinguishing basic sounds they will struggle to work phonetically. As a result, they will not be able to speed decode (blend together sounds quickly enough to identify a word) which impacts heavily on reading fluency. Practising sounds in a real-life manner improves decoding and, in turn, reading ability.
There are many specific activities that can be effective in improving auditory processing, and the results can be seen in as little as a few weeks or months. If you are interested in finding out more please don’t hesitate to contact me below or reach out to my Learning Creations team of dedicated education professionals here: https://learningcreations.wildapricot.org/
