I want to continue speaking LOUDLY about this Silent Disability. My platform for the 2013 Miss Teen Minnesota International pageant is on Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) Awareness. It used to be known as CAPD (Central Auditory Processing Disorder).
I have been named the National Teen Spokesperson for my sponsor, the National Coalition of Auditory Processing Disorders or NCAPD. I was also named the 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 Teen Volunteer of the Year for the NCAPD organization for my work answering questions from the organization from parents who are concerned about their children who have been diagnosed with this learning disability. I have worked with Dr. Jay Lucker, the founder of NCAPD for 4 years. Parents/ teachers/others who log into www.ncapd.org contact me regarding their questions on APD and hearing what worked for me, hearing from a teenagers perspective. It's always exciting to come home from school to log onto my email and know that I am helping a parent with their child. I have even heard from people in Turkey and Belgium!
With my title as Miss Teen Minnesota International 2013, I have been helping raise awareness for APD. Many people have heard of dyslexia but very few people have heard of APD. APD is how the brain processes what you hear, much like how the brain processes what the eyes see with dyslexia.
I have APD. I found out I had this learning disability when I was in second grade. It mimics ADHD and is often misdiagnosed as such. If parents and doctors only treat these kids for ADHD, they are missing out on re-training their brain. I want to speak LOUDLY for these children on this silent disability. There are so many children being treated for ADHD only and are falling through the cracks and will not have as much success in their future as they would have, had they gone through brain re-training. I still have issues with intonation in what I hear from other people's voices or fluctuation of my voice. Hearing tones differently can change the meaning of a sentence; for example: Watch out, the door! (could mean the door is closing on your hand) versus Watch out the door (could mean, look outside the door area for something out there). Fluctuation are issues for me when I am speaking. I have had to try really hard to use voice flucuation when speaking. This does not come easily for me but has been a learned process (and is still being learned). I am volunteering with the National Coalition of Auditory Processing Disorder or NCAPD and working with Dr. Jay Lucker, founder of NCAPD to spread the word so children can receive early intervention. The only way to do this is by public awareness and education. Check out http://www.ncapd.org
With 3-5% of the population having APD and some are saying up to 10% currently, I want raise awareness of this learning disorder so that more research can be done and school's are more equipped to help re-train children's language pathways. I don't want to be a pageant participant who cuts ribbons at grocery store openings, I want to help make a difference in children's lives. I want to raise awareness of this disorder so that teachers, parents and other school administrators are aware of APD and have processes in place to help these children. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Below is a fairy tale you have all heard before but not in this way. To a person with APD, this is how they may hear "Little Red Riding Hood".
Ladle Rat Rotten Hut
Wants pawn term, dare worsted ladle gull hoe lift wetter murder inner ladle cordage, honor itch offer lodge dock florist. Disk ladle gull orphan worry ladle cluck wetter putty ladle rat hut, an fur disk raisin pimple colder Ladle Rat Rotten Hut.
Wan moaning, Rat Rotten Hut's murder colder inset, "Ladle Rat Rotten Hut, heresy ladle basking winsome burden barter an shirker cockles. Tick disk ladle basking tutor cordage offer groin-murder hoe lifts honor udder site offer florist. Shaker lake! Dun stopper laundry wrote! An yonder nor sorghum-stenches, dun stopper torque wet strainers!"
"Hoe-cake, murder," resplendent Ladle Rat Rotten Hut, an tickle ladle basking an stuttered oft. Honor wrote tutor cordage offer groin-murder, Ladle Rat Rotten Hut mitten anomalous woof. "Wail, wail, wail!" set disk wicket woof, "Evanescent Ladle Rat Rotten Hut! Wares are putty ladle gull goring wizard ladle basking?"
"Armor goring tumor groin-murder's," reprisal ladle gull. "Grammar's seeking bet. Armor ticking arson burden barter an shirker cockles."
"O hoe! Heifer blessing woke," setter wicket woof, butter taught tomb shelf, "Oil tickle shirt court tutor cordage offer groin-murder. Oil ketchup wetter letter, an den - O bore!"
Soda wicket woof tucker shirt court, an whinney retched a cordage offer groin-murder, picked inner widow, an sore debtor pore oil worming worse lion inner bet. Inner flesh, disk abdominal woof lipped honor bet an at a rope. Den knee poled honor groin-murder's nut cup an gnat-gun, any curdled dope inner bet.
Inner ladle wile, Ladle Rat Rotten Hut a raft attar cordage, an ranker dough belle. "Comb ink, sweat hard," setter wicket woof, disgracing is verse. Ladle Rat Rotten Hut entity bet rum an stud buyer groin-murder's bet.
"O Grammar!" crater ladle gull, "Wood bag icer gut! A nervous sausage bag ice!"
"Battered lucky chew whiff, doling," whiskered disk ratchet woof, wetter wicket small.
"O Grammar, water bag noise! A nervous sore suture anomolous prognosis!"
"Battered small your whiff," insert a woof, ants mouse worse waddling.
"O Grammar, water bag mousy gut! A nervous sore suture bag mouse!"
Daze worry on-forger-nut gulls lest warts. Oil offer sodden, thoroughing offer carvers an sprinkling otter bet, disk curl and bloat-thursday woof ceased pore Ladle Rat Rotten Hut an garbled erupt.
Mural: Yonder nor sorghum stenches shut ladle gulls stopper torque wet strainers.
What's Going On?
This story, believe it or not, is the very familiar fable of Little Red Riding Hood. This curious version was written in 1940 by a professor of French named H. L. Chace, who wanted to show his students that intonation - that is, the melody of a language - is an integral part of its meaning. The words here are all common English words, but not the ones you'd expect to tell the story of Little Red Riding Hood.
