2 1/2 Weeks Later

About 3 weeks ago, I was offered a job. I wasn't expecting it. It was so far off my radar that I was actually stunned when I heard the words. Here I am, working my butt off with cake/cookie orders to help pay for Jared's cognitive therapy, and a wonderful job falls into my lap. This job is far less hours than caking and the best part is, I was created to do it. It's my passion. I will continue my CakesAzucar business, but I am able to cut back on many, many orders because I'm now being paid as the Worship Leader for our church.

Our family is so excited about this opportunity! It's been a fun 3 weeks, figuring out the vision/future of the ministry and meeting with the pastor and worship team members. I now house a few instruments, music stands, amps, sound equipment, etc. and my spare time is spent scheduling and listening to potential songs in which to lead the congregation.  It's been great!

So, I'm finally catching up on blogging and reading some of the APD bloggers I follow. Well, guess what? April 4th is considered "APD Awareness Day". Three years ago the Minnesota governor declared a statewide APD Awareness Day. Even though it's unofficial, APD advocates have honored that date as International APD Awareness Day to "Break the Silence on this Silent Disorder". 

I missed it.

Next year, I hope I don't. I'd love to celebrate it with some cookie gifts, of course. I found the greatest picture for the cookies, too. Apdgirl created this rad photo:

“I have Auditory Processing Disorder. This is a picture of an ear with a question mark inside it. The colors on the right side represent sound in reality and the colors on the left side represent the sound through my ears. My ears and brain don’t connect right, so the things I hear sound broken and often don’t make sense. I can put bits and pieces together, but it’s hard to put it all together to make sense of everything that I hear.”

How cool is that??

Even though it's been a great 3 weeks, I'm kind of sad I missed the early April posts on APD. I love that folks are united in helping others become aware of this disorder!

Therefore I will praise you, LORD, among the nations; I will sing the praises of your name. Psalm 18:49 (NIV)

APD Statistics

I always like to read what the latest statistics on APD say. It still isn't even recognized by many professionals, yet the numbers are so high for folks who have the disorder. I saw this funny little picture on the web.

  It led me to this page that said, "A study has found that 43% of children referred for learning difficulties have Auditory Processing Disorder (APD). 25% have both APD and dyslexia." I sure wish I knew what study they were quoting. 

Check out this contrast:

In February 2012, www.rightdiagnosis.com said that "Auditory Processing Disorder is listed as a 'rare disease' by the Office of Rare Diseases (ORD) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This means that Auditory Processing Disorder, or a subtype of Auditory Processing Disorder, affects less than 200,000 people in the US population." 

Here are some other stats:

Estimates reveal that between 2% and 7% of the population have APD and that it is more likely to be present in males than females by a two to one ratio (Dobrzanski et al., 2011)

In March 2010, Health GM News said "An auditory processing disorder is a complex problem affecting approximately 5 percent of school-aged children."

Here's an article from the October/November 2004 issue of ADDitude - "While APD isn't as well known as ADHD, it is becoming increasingly common. Roughly 7 percent of children have some type of auditory processing difficulty."

 

According to Chermak and Musiek (1998), the incidence of CAPD has been
estimated to be as high as 3 to 5 percent and is more common than the incidence of hearing loss.

The best part about trying to find some of the latest statistics on APD is finding gems like this older article, called "Scrambled Sounds, from summer 2000.  It's about a man, Frank Musiek, and his passion to tell the world about APD. I was drawn to it because I loved the first line - "Central auditory processing disorder is to the ear as dyslexia is to the eye."  How simple... for those who understand dyslexia. The very end of the article says something poignant - Musiek says he wishes the media would pay attention to CAPD.
“If they [the media] would listen to the story, they would love it. But it’s hard to do that, because it’s something that you can’t explain in five minutes.”
“It’s a sleeping giant,” he adds. “Some day 60 Minutes will do a special on this—mark my words.” 

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 2 Peter 1:5 (NIV)

The Behavior Equation

This week has been a school week of standardized tests.  Jared said they were “easy” and he seems to have done well on them. What he hasn’t done well with, however, is his behavior. It has been the worst week on record for his behavior. He can’t seem to shut his mouth when he’s not supposed to be talking. Every day that he got a mark, he was sent to his room after school. He hated it. He doesn’t like being alone (thus, not being able to talk) and he can’t stand not getting to play outside every afternoon. Apparently he didn’t hate it enough because he’d go to school the next day and get another mark or two. He’d spend the next afternoon in his room or cleaning, which he hated.  I promised him a popsicle if he didn’t get a mark the next day. I talked to him about his marks and what triggered his behavior. It seemed to revolve around a couple other kids in the class who usually received more marks than he did. He likes to hang out with these other kids. I told him to not hang out with them anymore this week. I picked about 3 people in the class who I knew were well behaved and asked him to ONLY sit by those kids at lunch. 

And what happened? He didn’t. He sat next to the child who gets in trouble more than any other in his entire class. This led to another mark on the 3^rd day. 

I think I was more frustrated with the fact that he didn’t heed my counsel and not sit next to that particular child. In my mind, this week’s equation was so simple. Jared + this other child = bad behavior/mark. Jared – this other child = no marks.  Don’t get me wrong, this child is not the only reason Jared gets marks. Oh, no. He flies solo very well. But, this week, she seemed to revolve around his bad behavior. I never listened to my parents when they told me not to hang out with certain friends, so what makes me think my son will be any different?

When I picked him up today, he said, “I don’t think I got any marks.” His teacher confirmed that. As we were getting in the car, he said, “I hung out with who you told me to and I didn’t get a mark.” Ah. He figured out the equation of the day!

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.   Romans 12:2 (NIV)