The neglected language skill in English teaching is listening. It is easier to teach reading, writing, and speech.

This review of research on listening bears reresearch and curricular implications. Reviewed by S.W.L.

"People

Hearing Without Listening" of Auditory Processing in Problems

the Classroom
KARL K. TAYLOR Illinois Central College

In 1964 Paul Simon wrote a popular song entitled "The Sound of Silence" from which the title of this paper comes. Although the song writer was obviously not concerned with auditory processing when he wrote those words, they do describe students who hear but who do not listen, who hear what is said but who cannot completely comprehend the spoken word. Because many teachers have been unaware of these difficulties, probably some of these students have incorrectly been diagnosed as intellectually deficient. For that reason the purposes of this paper are to explain briefly the three types of auditory problems presently known, to break one of the three- processing- into its component parts, to describe some of its symptoms, and to summarize the implications of this writer's review of the literature. Since much is still unknown, the reader should be aware that this paper is by no means a definitive statement. If a person is believed to have an auditory problem, the trained audiologist should evaluate the three basic elements of hearing- sensation, cognition, and perception - to determine the source of the problem. Since the most common auditory deficiency is with sensation (with acuity), the diagnostician evaluates the subject's physical capability of hearing. Tests for auditory sensitivity include those for speech reception (the ability to repeat words which have been spoken to the person being tested) and for pure tone. When the diagnostician tests the ear's sensitivity to sound, he measures frequency and intensity. Frequency has to do with the number of vibrations which a sound produces per second, while intensity refers to the amount of energy required to produce it. (Miller, 1951)
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Statistically, then, the person being examined is most likely to have a disorder in this first element of hearing- sensation. Roughly 45 percent of the individuals, who are initially diagnosed as having hearing problems, fall into this category of hearing loss or peripheral deafness (Myklebust, 1954). According to a National Institutes of Health report entitled Human Communication and Its Disorder- An Overview (1969), approximately 236,000 individuals in the United States suffer from deafness, (p. 11) In addition many more have less severe hearing loss:
Thus, in summary, although contemporary data remain incomplete in important ways, it is reasonable to estimate that about 8,500,000 Americans have auditory problems of one type or another which are less severe than deafness but which impair communication and hence social efficiency. The majority of these individuals are in the older age groups 17-44, 45-64, 65 yrs. and older, but about 4.5 percent (circa 360,000) are under 17 years, (p. 13)

Deafness or hearing loss has many causes, but only a few of the most common are mentioned here because concentration on that area is not the purpose of this paper. Partial or complete hearing loss can be the result if these parts of the auditory system have been damaged or are defective from birth: the ear drum, the ossicles, the inner ear fluid, or the basilar membrane. Assuming that the audiologist has found no disorder in the structural function of the ear and its various parts, he begins to explore the possibility that faulty cognition may be the cause of the subject's hearing problem. Cognition is a global term about which we know little, but which is being explored by authorities in a number of fields including medicine, psychology, and audiology. An explanation given here will be oversimplified because of the complexities involved and the insufficient knowledge available. Broadly speaking, however, people with hearing loss due to cognitive deficiencies have malfunctions somewhere in the central nervous system, not in any part of the ear. These people have brain damage which may have been the result of some type of birth defect, some problem associated with delivery (generally insufficient oxygen), some type of accident involving an injury to the head, or some kind of cardiovascular trouble related to a stroke. Often called aphasics, these people suffer from a wide range of difficulties- from the mild to the severe. Aphasia ". . . is a disorder in symbolic behavior with inability to use speech (expressive aphasia) or inability to use language for any purpose (central aphasia)." (Myklebust, p. 178) Since teachers are unlikely to encounter these disorders in the normal classroom, they should be aware of their existence, but they should be more concerned about the third component of hearing- auditory processing- because it is probably more subtle and more common in a typical population. AUDITORY In the two types of auditory disorder discussed so far, the PROCESSING person's communication skills are limited by one or more physical deficiencies either in the ear (with all its parts) or in the central nervous system. In this third type - variously called auditory processing, speech perception, and auditory perception- the cause of the problem is by no means clearly understood or defined. Part of the difficulty in

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- the problem may be understandingthe problem stems from its magnitude caused by factors within the individual himself and/or by factors within the individual'senvironment. Another remarkablefeature which makes auditory processing difficult to understandis that it all takes places in the individual within a fraction of a second. In short, to determine the cause of auditory processingdisorders,the evidence must be gathered not only from within the individual,but also from within his environment.Because of the great complexity involved, it is unclear whether the problem stems from a physical abon a sender'spart, or from insufficienttrainnormality,from poor transmission ing in speech decoding (or all three and maybe more), which will be discussed in more detail later. Someonehas said that students,sufferingfrom this third disorder,were first detected when teachers began sending them to an audiologist because the students appearedto have acuity problems. After the students had successfully passed tests for abnormalitiesof the ear and the central nervous system, the audiologistcould not account for the students' continued problems with lanand the teachersremainedconvinced that something was guage understanding, still wrong with the children'sacuity. Researchcontinues,but little is still known; Joseph Wepman (Rampp, 1972) has pointed out that only "sixty-threearticles were publishedbetween 1960 and 1972 on auditory perception." (p. 174) When one has a sense of the difficulty involved here, then perhapshe can gain insight by reviewing some of the attempts to define this third type of auditory disorder.J. J. O'Neill has summarizedsome of these attempts: hasbeen definedin such a way as to includethe It [auditory processing] earto the auditory cortex.Others of the signalfromthe external transmission from the cochleato the have definedthe processto includethe transmission is less perfect and cortex . . . The messagewill not be lost but processing is loweredand intelligibility refinedand as a resultredundancy gets worse. (Singh, 1975) Mildred Berry (Heasley, 1974) defines auditory perception in this way: "It is a process by which one explainshow a child's nervous system learns to comprehend and make use of auditory information." (p. 10) Myklebust (1954), over twenty years ago, helped distinguishbetween the various auditory disorders and in so doing defined auditory perception. "An auditory perceptual disturbance precludesnormal listening behavior;the child can hear but he cannot structurethe auditoryworld and select those sounds which are immediately pertinentto adjustment."(p. 158) After reading the various definitions mentioned above, "auditoryprocessing"appearsto be a more recent term for the phenomenonpreviouslycalled "auditoryperception."The term has probablychanged becauseit is less global than "perconnotes several steps, stages or activities rather and processing ception," than just one. If that reasoningis correct, the directionof the researchin recent years is reflected in the change of the term; researchershave been trying to break "perception"or "processing"into its components. This direction seems logical also, because defining the third auditory problem properly must involve
COMPONENTS OF AUDITORY PROCESSING

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breaking it into its parts for any genuine understanding. In other words, grasping the meaning of auditory processing is very difficult, using only the definitions cited above. As far as can be determined, the research has not been very systematic or sequential with various specialists detecting, testing, and verifying one or several steps in the process. (Wepman, Broadbent (1958), and Gibson (1969) are some of the prominent exceptions.) Instead, apparently too much of the work has centered on developing tests which are supposed to isolate elements of processing, without adequate basic research on their validity, reliability or general usefulness. However, these tests provide clues about the possible ingredients of auditory processing. Bernice E. Heasley (1974) has compiled what she calls a taxonomy of auditory perception skills which she has probably gathered from the tests on the market. Whether this list of thirteen items genuinely reflects a sequence or contains all of the components is not known, but they do provide one with some idea of the complexity of the processing task. When each element is discussed, reference will be made to what other researchers have done in or with each element. Awareness of sound 8. Sound sequencing ability 9. Auditory projection ability Auditory attention 10. Auditory separation Auditory attention span Localization of sound 11. Auditory blending 12. Auditory closure Discrimination for sound 13. Re-auditorization Auditory memory Auditory memory span (Heasley, p. 18) Awareness of From the material reviewed by this writer, Heasley is the Sound and only researcher who distinguished between "awareness of Attention sound" and "attention." She claims that awareness of sound is "the ability to recognize and respond to the presence or absence of sound." (p. 19) She contends that "awareness" is related to the subject's motivation to listen which seems to be closely connected to what others have said about "attention," especially Broadbent. Further, she claims some children apparently lack an environment which develops their ability to be sensitive to sound. References have been made in the literature that perhaps small children are harmed by excessively noisy environments (Cohn, Glass, and Singer, 1973). However, the distinction which Heasley claims between "awareness" and "attention" seems too minute, then, to be significant. On the one hand, "the ability to recognize sound" seems related to acuity, while "the ability to respond to the presence or absence of sound" appears related to attention. Therefore, on the basis of this writer's reading, Heasley's distinction seems confused or unnecessary. Most authorities recognize the elements of auditory attention and auditory attention span. Heasley defines the former in this way: "Having received the signal, the listener accepts responsibility for further processing of the stimulus by increased attention." (p. 20) Auditory attention span refers to occasions when the listener must attend to or listen for relatively long periods of time, according to Heasley: "the individual's ability to attend selectively for increased 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

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lengths of time to a task or series of tasks." (p. 21) For Chalfant et al. (1969) attention is concerned with "whether or not the child is attending to the stimuli which are being presented." (p. 11) To understand this element of processing, one might try visualizing a group of men (or women) about to begin the 100-yard dash, their feet digging into the cinders of the track and their hands supporting their stooped bodies. If one of the runners is not paying attention when the gun signals the beginning of the race, he is not likely to commence running at exactly the same moment as his competitors. "Attention" appears to be an appropriate term until the listener must attend for some period of time. Long-term attention, studied by Broadbent (1958), is closely related to attention, but he has called it "vigilance" probably because a length of time is involved. By whatever term the element is labeled, inattention can be related to many factors: (a) Low level or absence of hearing acuity; (b) distractibility involving competitive visual or auditory stimuli; (c) hyperactive behavior; (d) severe emotional disturbance; or (e) inability to obtain meaning from auditory stimuli. (Chalfant and Scheffelin, p. 12) Probably every first-grader, who daydreams and who is shaken back to reality by his teacher, is reminded of the obvious importance of attention or vigilance to education. Localization of sound, the fourth element in Heasley's hierarchy, is almost self-explanatory and is accepted by others as a legitimate element. Most of the definitions are similar: "the ability to identify the direction from which a sound or series of sounds originated." (Heasley, p. 21) The inability to identify the source of sounds properly might be illustrated by a youngster who, when about to cross the street, is unable to determine the direction of traffic noise around him. He hears sounds, but he is unable to determine auditorily whether the vehicle (or vehicles) is to his left, to his right, to his front, or to his rear. In this case, this particular skill is not extremely important as long as the child can and does use his vision to detect the source of the sound. In education, sound localization is probably not a vital skill.
Localization of Sound

Heasley's next element- discrimination for sound is defined in this way: "the ability to recognize and respond appropriately to similarities and differences in sound: pitch, loudness, rate or duration, and quality." (Heasley, p. 22) Apparently this problem of discrimination is not unusual in children through the eighth year, as noted by Chalfant and Scheffelin, Morency (1968), and Synder and Pope (1972). For the relationship between delayed maturation on later school achievement, see Morency and Wepman, 1973. If a child experiences sound discrimination difficulties during those early years when he is learning to learn, one wonders what basic skills or information which the child does not acquire. Goldberg and Schiffman (1972) re-emphasize that idea with this statement: "Since only 24% of children have accurate auditory discrimination by the end of the second grade, deficits in this area expose children to the risk of failure." (p. 100)
Discrimination for Sound

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The same authors point out that the problem is, of course, more serious than confusing words like ball and hall. Children must follow a rapid barrage of words and almost instantaneously extract meaning from the words. To appreciate this problem, one might consider the beginning student of foreign language who knows the meaning of individual words of the foreign tongue, but who has great difficulty following them expressed rapidly in spoken form. It is difficult for him to distinguish between parts of words and between one word and another. The result of faulty auditory discrimination is that students have trouble recognizing spoken words, probably have difficulty associating the spoken with the written word, and have incredible spelling errors. Below is an example of a statement written by an eighth grader suffering from poor auditory discrimination: financial program full parntyementof war dept incurred by continentel congress, tionpsmussa and full payment of state war depts. tremhislbatseof a pound paper yenerrue saf place for pulie funds sources of credit financial agent for S.U. tremnrievog. Enactment of higher tariff for revenue and protection levyinsofar excise tax on distilledliquor. (Goldberg et al., 1972,p. 101) Obviously, elementary teachers are warned about the significance of auditory discrimination problems in their students, and the instructors do their best to solve these problems. The question for educators is whether or not teachers of older children are cognizant that such surface problems as poor spelling may have their roots in auditory processing inadequacies. The answer is probably in the negative. Thus far in examining auditory processing, we have followed the signal in the listener from awareness and attention to localization and discrimination. The next two steps in the process are concerned with memory - both short and long term. Heasley distinguishes between the two in this way: Auditory memory is "the ability to remember the characteristics of a given sound or series of sounds" (p. 23), while auditory memory span is "the ability to remember for increasing lengths of time the characteristics of a given sound or series of sounds." (p. 24) Sara W. Lundsteen (1971) has explained the value of memory in language acquisition: In order for the listener to judge whether or not two or more speech sounds are alike he needs to keep the sounds in memory so that he can retrieve them for comparison. He cannot make simultaneouscomparisons in listening as he can in visual discriminationin reading. He has to depend upon his auditory memory span. People tend to convert even visual information to a memory that is structured for sound by saying things to themselves (p. 26)
Auditory Memory and Auditory Memory Span

More recent researchers have broken short-term memory into two smaller parts- sensory information storage (SIS), and short-term memory (STM) storage- as Sticht et al. have reported in Auding and Reading: A Developmental Model (1974). As Sticht et al. explain, the SIS stores vast amounts of information for very short durations of time. Because the image in SIS decays very

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quickly, it must be transformed or recoded by the subject's attending to it. As the information is recorded, it is affected by the subject's past experience; when the subject identifies a visual stimulus, he associates it with his previous experience, thus creating a new image in STM. However, STM has a very limited capacity, and the information stored there can last from only 15-30 seconds. To retain information for a longer period of time, it must be recoded into long term storage, which is relatively permanent with practically no capacity limit. Perhaps what is important about Sticht's work is that it suggests an important omission in American education. Instead of showing a student how to remember something, we have simply told him to remember it. Is this another manifestation of the belief in a fixed intelligence as argued against in J. McV. Hunt's Intelligence and Experience (1963)? We have not taught him the strategy for remembering or memorizing. When he has failed an examination, we have failed to determine why - whether the "loss of memory for items is primarily due to interferences" (Guilford, 1967, p. 297) or whether we failed to give the student a method for "locating . . . needed information in storage." (Guilford, p. 311). In short we have tested without teaching. Sound sequencing, the next element of the hierarchy, is the ability to identify a series of sounds in correct, respective order. (Heasley, p. 25) This particular element of processing is probably the same or a similar one as described by Dale R. Jordan in Dyslexia in the Classroom (1972); Jordan's distinctions are not quite as precise as Heasley 's because the former is here discussing the sequencing of words rather than just sounds. Auditory dyslexics are especially ill at ease in school because of their inability to comprehend sound-symbol associations accurately. When writing from dictation or following a series of oral instructions,the dyslexic student simply cannot cope with a sustained flow of oral material. Because of his extremely slow rate in transcribingspeech into written form, the auditory dyslexic loses the sequence of oral elements, (p. 41) Similarly, Donald L. Rampp (1972) points out even more specific problems which children have with serial memory, a skill combining memory and sequence: naming the days of the week or months of the year and recalling the alphabet, home address, telephone numbers, and birthdate. Also related to education, Lundsteen (1971) explains that youngsters, having sequencing problems, may leave out certain steps in a process, forgetting the first steps and remembering just the later ones. This writer has seen the problem when students have been asked to write short papers describing how to do something, but in this case the difficulty seems more related to what has been called "egocentric language." Frequently, the students will recognize the mistake when it is called to their attention, but they assume that their readers will supply the missing information. Lundsteen also feels some children are unable to recall sounds in their proper sequence in a word, resulting in unorthodox spelling and sometimes pronunciation. Myklebust (1965) cites a young man who was unable to write the word "transportation" when it was dictated to him as a whole word, but who could do so when it was broken into syllables and pronounced slowly, (p. 30)
Sound Sequencing Ability

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The examples cited above illustrate not only that students have sound and word sequencing difficulties, but also that delineating the various components of auditory processing is not easy. They are simply too intricately intertwined. Perhaps these examples will remind educators, in addition, that they must determine not only whether a child succeeds or fails at a given task but also why he succeeds or fails. The latter may be more important than the former.
Auditory Projection

Heasley defines the next element of processing- auditory projection- in this way:

. . . the ability of the individual to attend to and process sound signals which originate from increasingly greater distances from the listener. ... It normally leads to the ability to 'scan*the auditory environment. Scanning for danger signals as well as scanning for socially reinforcing signals is a common auditory activity, (pp. 27-8) After reviewing all the references noted at the end of this paper, this writer was unable to find any other researcher who has noted this particular element of processing. One is led to two possible conclusions: that the element is being overlooked by researchers or that the element is too artificial (they all are, to some degree) to be considered as a separate element. The latter seems more likely because projection appears too closely related to localization and to separation, which will be discussed next. "The ability to attend to a primary sound signal in the presence of extraneous (competing) sound stimuli"- this is Heasley's definition of auditory separation. When a number of sounds or noises are present and a person can listen to or react to just one, the person is exercising his ability of auditory separation, which may be one of the most frequent problem elements in auditory processing. This ability to select among competing sounds, although susceptible to problems, gives the ear an attribute not shared by the eye. (Miller, 1951) And of all the sources reviewed by this writer, George Miller's Language and Communication (1951) probably supplies more details on this problem than any other source. He points out several ways in which one sound can be masked by others: background noise, interruptions, time delay, amplitude selectivity, frequency changes, and speed of talking, (pp. 70-5) Chalfant et al. (1969) call auditory separation by another name, which seems a little clearer- auditory figure-ground selection, p. 16. What, then, is the importance of auditory separation for educators? Donald Rampp (1972) provided the best example uncovered by this writer:
Auditory Separation

The deficiencies existing in figure-ground manifested by these children may be exemplified by the parent who spends several hours on the evening prior to her child's spelling test. The parent is confident when her child walks out the frontdoor the next morning that he knows those spelling words frontwards and backwards;however, the child with the auditory processing disturbance does poorly on the test. The parent does not understand;the teacher doubts that the parent spent that much time going over the test words; the child is caught in the middle. What is not understood by either is that a

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one-to-one teaching relationshipat home is completely different from thirtyor thirty-five-to-one relationshipsoften found in the school. The noise level in the classroom is quite different from the noise level in the home. It is simply easier for a child with an auditory processing disturbanceto attend when the background noise is attenuated. The signal-to-noise ratio or the speech-to-noise ratio is of extreme significance with these children and their performance in school, (p. 99) Probably in the day when classrooms were filled with quiet, passive youngsters (if they ever existed), most of them- even if they had a deficient skill- would not suffer because the environment was relatively quiet. However, with the concept of the "open classroom" becoming more popular, perhaps it is more important than ever that teachers realize not all students are able to perform at their best under those conditions, that teachers be watchful for students unable to select one sound from others around them, and that such students be given special consideration in the "open classroom" setting. The next two parts of Heasley's hierarchy- auditory blending and closure- represent legitimate trouble spots. Some people are unable to synthesize parts of words, and no one would disagree with this concept, as Dale R. Jordan illustrates (1972) very clearly: In Chapter 1 an example was given of Mary's attempt to read aloud from a science text. The heart of her decording handicapis faulty blending, which leaves her unable to cope with one of the major skills of accurate word analysis.The entire auditory dyslexic syndrome seems to focus upon Mary's problems in 'sounding out' words as she reads. For example, a familiar word like 'bug' can become a major hurdle for the dyslexic reader. Laboriously Mary breaks the word apart: 'buh-uh-guh.'As this effort illustrates,she has never accurately identified the vocal production for the consonants b and g. When she feels somewhatconfident that she has the separateelements in mind, Mary takes the plunge: 'Blug.' Again she has failed. 'Yellow' comes out yelelow, 'bridge' turns into burge. Children like Mary quickly grow defensive and insecure when forced to expose themselves into such public failure. Traditional instruction in phonics which emphasizes blending is usually beyond the comprehension of auditory dyslexics. It is possible for students like Mary to achieve success in simple word analysis after long-range drill and rote memorization of key word patterns. This technique, called overteaching, saturatesthe child with intensive, highly structured practice with regular word forms until an automatic response occurs. Children like Mary seldom come to a true understandingof blending and word analysis,although they can often achieve an independent level of reading, (pp. 42-3)
Auditory Blending and Auditory Closure

Closure has to do with the ability to pull words together to derive meaning from what is said, which is made possible by redundancy in either read or spoken language. As Miller (1951) and Smith (1971) have pointed out, generally when a person speaks or writes, he often uses extraneous words or he repeats his main idea throughout his oral or written communication. Goldberg et al. (1972) have noted that part of this general problem of closure is perhaps related simply to efficient listening: "One other interesting observation is that

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the rate of thought is five times the rate of speech and good listeners utilize this time gap more efficiently than poor listeners."(p. 102) Because there is so much redundancy, the listener becomes auditorily lazy as Nichols and Lewis explain in Listeningand Speaking (1959):
The core of the problem of effective listening is the development of the utmost possible concentrationin the immediatelistening situation.Concentration by the learner, however, is inseparablyinter-twined with two variables largely beyond his control: his own speed of thought and the rate of speech of the communicator. The tenth and last component of effective listening, and without much doubt the most significantof them all, requiresreconciliation of thought speed and speech speed. How does the vast differentialbetween thought speed and speech speed affect listening comprehension?The truth is that the differentialserves as a tremendous handicap to the untrained learner. Although the disparity of rate can with training be made to expedite learning, it presently operatesfor the vast majority of us as a snare, a pitfall, and a delusion. It gives us a distinctly false sense of security during aural assimilationand encourages us to embark upon risky and unprofitablemental tangents, (pp. 23-4)

Besides revealing the meaning of auditory blending and closure, this explanation and these illustrationsbegin to show the difficulty of distinguishing where poor listening skills end and auditory processing difficulties begin. One may legitimately ask if a continuum even makes sense.
Re-auditorization

Heasley designates re-auditorization as the last item in her hierarchy and defines it in this way: "The unvoiced recollection and 'holding' of a sound production." (p. 31) Since she earlier (p. 30) used "re-auditorization" synonomously with "subvocalization," we can assume the latter in her eyes is closely related to the former or means the same as the former. Apparently, however, one must re-auditorize, must remember and hear a sound in one's mind before he can sub-vocalize or talk quietly to himself. Perhaps Myklebust (1973) is talking about the same concept when he explains the three basic language systems: Language acquisition, as a cognitive process, can be understood as comprising three basic systems: inner language (integration), receptive language (input), and expressive language (output) (Myklebust, 1971 a,b). The child first acquires an experience, and then learns the words that symbolize this experience; the word dog has no significance until the experience dog has been attained. Therefore, inner language is use of words to internalizesymbolic meaning; it is the process of relating experience and symbol and precedes actual use of receptive and expressive language. After inner language has been acquired to some degree, it is possible to comprehend what is said by others. As comprehensionis initiated, a process critical to language development is established because reciprocal enhancement is fostered. When inner language develops, facility with receptive language increases,and likewise, comprehensionaugmentsinner languagegrowth. In working with exceptional children one observes that the child's disability affects this vital cognitive process, (pp. 8-9)

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Jordan (1972) has nothing to say about re-auditorization, but he does point out why subvocalizing is so important for the beginning and dyslexic readers. At the same time, he offers a number of reasons for educators being concerned with this difficulty in some children:
. . . Dyslexic students must subvocalize, if they are to succeed in translating writing into meaningful thought. Because of the underlying problem in associating sounds with written symbols, dyslexic readers must use a variety of stimulus channels to verify their decoding impressions. A child with no impairment can learn to decode through visual stimulus alone. A perceptually impaired child cannot. This frustrating need to reinforce visual cues with vocal response along with the tactile impression of following words with a finger on the page, should not upset classroom teachers. . . . The important consideration is that dyslexic children must respond to reading in a variety of ways in order to check their impressions for accuracy. When the teacher snaps her fingers and hisses 'Shhhhhhhh!' she is cutting off an essential learning channel for auditory dyslexics. The result can only be increased frustration and failure. This need to reinforce symbol translation with vocal and tactile response also appears when auditory dyslexics are engaged in written arguments. These students need to subvocalize during spelling tests, or while writing stories or essays. If dyslexics are allowed to cross-check their impressions of oral and written symbols, they can learn to correct many mistakes in reading and spelling, (p. 42)

Before discussing the implications of the material studied to date on auditory disorders, a recapitulation appears in order. At the outset, the three major types of auditory difficulties were identified and explained: total or partial hearing loss due principally to damage or flaws within the ear, total or partial hearing loss due primarily to damage within the central nervous system, and inefficient hearing as the result of some problem in auditory processing. As this paper unfolded, the problems of processing were broken into the components suggested by Bernice E. Heasley (1974):
A RECAPITULATION

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Awareness of sound Auditory attention Auditory attention span Localization of sound Discrimination for sound Auditory memory Auditory memory span

8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.

Sound sequencing ability Auditory projection ability Auditory separation Auditory blending Auditory closure Re-auditorization (p. 18)

Although Heasley's hierarchy was followed throughout the paper, this writer compared her work to the contributions of others in the field. Viewing all the elements in processing, one comes to the conclusion that these particular components are probably the most important, serious or common and that these are the ones about which educators should be most concerned: attention, discrimination, memory, separation, and closure. At this point the reader probably feels this information is "nice to know/'

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but he is puzzled about how it applies to him. In case the point has not been recognized earlier, this writer wants to make it clear that elementary or special education students are not the only ones who have trouble with auditory processing. Since some states still have no mandatory tests of hearing, one should not be surprised to know that screening for auditory processing problems is the exception rather than the rule across the country. Now the reader probably says to himself: "Well, there are probably so few cases of auditory processing difficulties that mass screening is unnecessary. Anyway, if a student isn't performing well, a teacher would probably be able to detect any processing difficulty." To answer some of the implied questions in these two sentences, note what some authorities have said on the subject. It appearsthat ten to fifteen percent of the school age population experiences this strange inability to handle language symbols, in spite of good mental ability, comfortable economic status, or instructional efforts within the classroom. (A. B. Templeton et al. [1969] as adapted by Dale R. Jordan [1972].) Commenting on that same Templeton report, Donald Rampp (1972) says, "Certainly a portion of that percentage is traceable to auditory processing disturbances. The most damaging manifestation of a learning disability or of an auditory processing disturbance is the difficulty in learning the reading process." (P- 97) Joseph Wepman goes beyond reading to other areas affected by processing inadequacies (Rampp, 1972): "From such studies it is apparent that auditory perception rather than relating to speech development alone relates to all aspects of communicative language skills, to reading, language usage, spelling, and even arithmetic. The underlying factor in underachievement in some children, as this study indicates, may be found in their poorly developed auditory perceptual abilities." (p. 175) In short, the beginnings of academic failure appear early and become more and more serious as the years go by. Some of this failure is related to perceptual development, primarily visual and auditory. Apparently unknown numbers of students enter first grade with inadequately developed perceptual skills, including auditory processing, which may not mature until the fourth grade or later. Despite this possible lag, most students are taught as if their perceptual skills are mature. Consequently, without the requisite skills, some students are unable to learn as well or as fast as their peers and gradually fall further and further behind, particularly in language acquisition. This academic failure creates problems for both the students and their teachers. The students naturally become frustrated with their unsuccessful efforts to learn, and they gradually develop poor self-concepts, often manifesting themselves in behavioral and disciplinary problems. The teachers begin to view these students as apathetic or intellectually limited because they have fallen so far behind academically. Therefore, by the fourth or fifth grade a poor self-concept- rather than immature perceptual skills- may have become the principal contributing factor in academic failure. THE What, then, are the implications of all these findings to IMPLICATIONS the classroom? What can be done? Obviously a number of authorities have suggested approaches to solving our major

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academic problems, most of which don't seem, by themselves, to be the answers. In a very general fashion, John Holt (How Children Learn and How Children Fail) has simplistically implied that the fault lies within a repressive classroom created by the teacher and the publishers of unimaginative materials. After reading Holt, one would assume that improving one's self -concept would automatically overcome physical, perceptual, and academic deficiencies. Since Holt has done little or no controlled research, we have to take his word on his findings which, of course, hold a grain of truth. Hans Furth (1972), dealing with the general area of reading failure, has suggested that trying to teach everyone how to read in the first or second grades is foolish because of inadequate perceptual skill development. Furth would substitute the teaching of thinking and problem-solving skills, to those who are perceptually immature, until the fourth grade when reading would be taught and when the processing skills would be mature. By delaying reading instruction for those who are not ready for it, Furth hopes some poor self -concepts and some academic failure can be avoided. Both of these approaches seem unrealistic. Teachers - with five or more classes a day of 30 or more students- can never be as creative as Holt or anyone else would like them to be. And it is unreasonable to expect boards of education to reduce the number of classes or class size to allow teachers to function as they should. Although more realistic than Holt, Furth's notion would be difficult to sell to parents who are accustomed to seeing all first graders being taught how to read. But with some alterations, Furth's emphasis on skills- in conjunction with reading instruction might be realistic, acceptable, and worthwhile. What, specifically, should be done about auditory processing skills? After studying this question for some time, this writer has found two different approaches to the problem, assuming that no major changes are made in the timetable for teaching reading. First, if one were to follow the reasoning of the auditory specialists (psychologists, audiologists, and the like), one defines auditory processing as a highly technical problem which will be solved only after considerably more research, very detailed and time-consuming diagnosis, and perhaps only after long periods of remediation. In keeping with this definition, a number of books and materials have been developed, especially for the elementary student who has auditory processing problems. However, little or no research is available on the reliability or validity of these materals. Second, if one were to follow the reasoning of those who are interested in listening skills, one begins to suspect that all disorders labeled auditory processing dysfunctions may not be nearly as complicated or complex as the specialists have led one to believe. Some auditory processing problems may be nothing more than poor listening or auding skills. Nichols and Lewis (1959) cite a number of studies showing that "learning through listening seldom operates at a more than a 25 percent level of efficiency." (p. 4) In addition, they and Lundsteen (1971) give statistical evidence that listening can be taught. Although some materials have been developed to teach listening, apparently very little attention has been given to this skill at the elementary, secondary or college levels. What seems especially strange about these two approaches is advocates for each never appear to acknowledge each other. In other words, the specialists never mention, in any of the material reviewed by this writer, that the problem could stem from poor listening skills, and Nichols and Lundsteen never directly mention much

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of a relationship between poor listening skills and auditory processing difficulties. To attempt to solve this apparent dilemma, this writer suggests the problem be considered, for many students, as one of poor listening skills, and programs be developed for teaching listening. If students undergo this kind of training and are unsuccessful, then they should be diagnosed very carefully in case the problem is more sophisticated than a mere listening deficiency. At that time, serious research should begin on auditory processing, an approach seeming logical for the following reasons. First, research is already available, showing that many students do not automatically listen well, that most students are not taught how to listen, and that students can benefit from training. Second, research is not available, showing that an auditory processing difficulty is distinct from a listening skill deficiency and that auditory processing training has any benefits. Third, beginning with the assumption that the problem is highly complicated in most students would almost invariably mean many years passing before anything could be done to solve the problem. More and more students would fail as the specialists tried to determine what the problem is and how it can be remediated or solved. Fourth, beginning with the assumption that the problem may stem from poor listening skills would mean that work could begin sooner to help students because we know something about teaching listening. Probably not all students would improve with a curriculum or course on how to listen, but surely a large number would be helped. If they were, the complexity of the problem would be reduced for the specialists who could then turn their attention to those not succeeding. The scope of the problem, therefore, would be limited. REFERENCES
Broadbent, D. E. Perception and Communication.Oxford: Pergamon Press. 1958. Brown, Ann L. "The Development of Memory: Knowing, Knowing about Knowing, and Knowing How to Know." In H. W. Reese (Ed.) Advances in Child Development and Behavior, Vol. 10. New York: Academic Press. 1975. dd. 103-152. . "The Role of Strategic Behavior in Retardate Memory." In N. R. Ellis (Ed.) International Review of Research in Mental Retardation, Vol. 7. New York: Academic Press, 1974,pp. 55-111. Chalfant, James C. and Margaret A. SchefFelin.Editors. Central Processing Dysfunctions in Children: A Review of Research. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. 1969. Cohen, Sheldon, David C. Glass, and Jerome E. Singer. "Apartment Noise, Auditory Discrimination,and Reading Ability in Children,"Journal of ExperimentalSocial Psychology, Vol. 9, 1973,pp. 407-422. Flavell, John H. "Developmental Studies of Mediated Memory." In Hayne Reese and Lewis P. Lipsitt (Eds.) Advances in Child Development and Behavior. Vol. 5. New York: Academic Press, 1970, pp. 182-211. Furth, Hans G. Piaget for Teachers. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc. 1970. Gibson, Eleanor J. Principles of Perceptual Learning and Development. New York: AppletonCentury-Crofts, 1969. Goldberg, Herman K. and Gilbert B. Schiffman. Dyslexia: Problems of Reading Disabilities. New York: Grune & Stratton. 1972. Guilford, J. P. The Nature of Human Intelligence. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1967. Heasley, Bernice E. Auditory Perceptual Disorders and Remediation. Springfield, Illinois: CharlesC Thomas, Publishers,1974. Human Communicationand Its Disorders- An Overview. Bethesda, Maryland: National Institutes of Health, Public Health Service, 1969.

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Hunt. T. McV. Intelligence and Experience. New York: The Ronald Press. 1961. Jordan, Dale R. Dyslexia in the Classroom. Columbus, Ohio: Charles E. Merrill Publishing Company, 1972. Lundsteen, Sara W. Listening: Its Impact on Reading and the Other Language Arts, Urbana, Illinois: NCTE, 1971. Miller, George A. Language and Communication.New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company,
1951.

Morency, Anne. "Auditory Modality, Research & Practice." From Helen K. Smith (Ed.) Perception and Reading. Newark, Delaware: InternationalReading Association, 1968, pp. 17-21. and Joseph M. Wepman. "Early Perceptual Ability and Later School Achievement," The Elementary School Journal, March 1973, pp. 323-327. Myklebust, Helmer R. Auditory Disorders in Children. New York: Grune & Stratton, 1954. . Development and Disorders of Written Language, Vol. 1. New York: Grune & Stratton, 1965. Nichols, Ralph G. and Thomas R. Lewis. Listening and Speaking. Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C. Brown Publishing Co., 1959. Rampp, Donald L., Editor. Proceedings of the Memphis State Universitys First Annual Symposium on Auditory Processing and Learning Disabilities, 1972. (The place of publication and the publisher are not given.) Singh, Sadanand.Measurementin Speech, Hearing, and Language. Baltimore, Maryland: University Park Press, 1975. Smith, Frank. UnderstandingReading. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1971. Snyder, Robert and Peggy Pope. "Auditory and Visual Inadequacies in Maturation at the First Grade Level," Journal of Learning Disabilities, Vol. 5, No. 10, December 1972, pp. 620-625. Sticht, Thomas G., Lawrence J. Beck, Robert N. Hauke, Glenn M. Kleiman, and James H. James. Auding and Reading: A Developmental Model. Alexandria, Virginia: Human Resources Research Organization, 1974. Templeton, A. B. et al. Reading Disorders in the United States: Report of the Secretary's (HEW) National Advisory Committee on Dyslexia and Reading Disorders. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1969. Tulving, Endel and Stephen A. Madigan. "Memory and Verbal Learning."In Paul H. Mussen and Mack P. Rosenzweig (Eds.). Annual Review of Psychology. Vol. 21. Palo Alto, California: Annual Reviews, Inc., 1970. pp. 437-484.