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the processing system: how we understand new information Print this page Email this page to a friend!
 

 

DISCOVERING HOW YOUR CHILD UNDERSTAND THe INFORMATION HE OR SHE TAKES IN

The sensory system enables us to take in information from the world; The processing aspect of that system enables us to interpret that information. 

A child who has mild problems processing auditory information will have difficulties organizing auditory signals into meaningful patterns.  This child hears his mother call his name, followed by a long string of commands, but it takes him time to decipher her meaning.  When after several repetitions he fails to do as she directed, his mother grows annoyed.  Unaware of her son’s problem, she misinterprets his behavior as defiance and responds to him with anger.  The child’s problem in one area creates a problem with interaction that complicates his relationship with his parents.

A child with a severe auditory-processing problem, who doesn’t understand most of what is said to him, may experience even greater problems with interaction.  To him the world may be a hostile place, filled with sounds that make demands on him but to which he can’t respond.  He may come to feel shut out from the world of people, or, worse, people may seem frightening, always yelling because he is so often angering and disappointing them.  Gradually he may draw more and more into himself and into the world of silent, inanimate objects.  Here at least he can feel safe and secure.  When this child is brought to a clinician he may be uncommunicative and unrelated.  Even if he feels secure, a child with severe auditory-processing problems may find it hard to comprehend other people’s words and may therefore not progress to two-way symbolic communication and the ability to form abstract ideas.

A child with a visual processing problem may exhibit a very different type of behavior.  Because visual information helps us form mental images of things, it is an important component of a child’s ability to organize behavior and see the big picture.  Without this ability a child may be easily distracted or get lost in details.  Her capacity for problem solving and abstract thinking may be affected.  The ability to visualize may also help children calm themselves.  In times of stress a child can picture Mommy in her mind and use that mental image to soothe herself.  But a child who can’t process visual information can’t easily form mental images.  For her, once Mommy is gone from the room, Mommy may cease to exist.  As a result, this child may suffer from extreme separation anxiety and sleep problems, may be excessively demanding, and later in life may become depressed when confronting strong feelings and conflict because she loses the inner image associated with being loved and can’t easily reconstruct it.

It is also possible to have trouble processing at more cognitive levels.  Children with cognitive-processing impairments may have difficulty in the realm of ideas.  They may have trouble forming abstract ideas (visualizing things that are not right in front of them) or making connections between ideas (understanding when two or more abstract ideas are related).  They may have difficulty learning language because language requires abstract thinking, using words to stand for things.  Children with cognitive-processing problems may be labeled mentally retarded, cognitively delayed, or language delayed.

However, ALL CHILDREN can learn and improve their processing abilities to reach their fullest potential. There are many experts from different disciplines that have dedicated years to understand how to help children in these different processing areas.Below you will find a list of chapters from the ICDL Clinical Practice Guidelines, written by some of these experts that can give you more information in these different areas: