What is the difference between pathological auditory processing delays and underdeveloped listening skills? I have been asking myself this for weeks now.

As of this writing, my son is 9 years old. He is diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, a very mild, high-functioning form of autism, as well as attention deficity hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and sensory integration dysfunction. He used to quite a bit less mild, and I think there are still many social subtleties with which he struggles – indeed, with which he may always struggle, but after four years of homeschooling and actively working on his social skills and expanding his understanding of things like sarcasm and idioms and chit chat and social etiquette, his pediatrician (the father of a profoundly autistic daughter himself, and pediatrician to dozens of children on the spectrum) says he believes that my son no longer qualifies for the Asperger’s/HFA label. His diagnosis is now PDD-NOS with “severe” hyperactivity and mild attention deficit.

It is true that my son is not nearly as impaired with his social understanding as he was a few years ago. However, he still struggles with may attention difficulties, especially in the retention of information that he has heard. After running a few preliminary tests, his previous physical therapist told me that he did not exhibit any signs of having any kind of auditory processing delays, but I was dubious about this conclusion. This is a child that watches television with the closed captioning on so that “I don’t miss any of the words”; he often asks me to repeat things over and over; sometimes he will, when asked to do something in the next room, go to that room, and return, asking “I’m sorry – what did you want me to do again?” He was often not able to answer basic questions about a passage we just read out loud. Something was going on; I just wasn’t sure what. Now, I am taking him to an audiologist this month to rule out physiological issues, but he passes every hearing screening with flying colors, and in fact, has eavesdropped on whispered conversation from the other side of the house. I seriously doubt he has any kind of hearing loss. Still – the fact remains, he does not retain or even appear to catch much of what he hears.

This year, for history and literature, we use the Story of the World curriculum by Susan Wise Bauer. We’re doing Volume 3; I loosely covered the topics of Volumes 1 and 2 in the previous two years on my own, but I was not able to use Volume 1 with him when he was of first grade age as per their recommendations. I tried for a few weeks, but it would literally go in one ear and out the other for him. He could not sit still for one section of it, and he could certainly not remember anything I had read, sometimes even with me just reading the one sentence and asking him to parrot what I just said.

After the third or fourth try when we were both near tears with frustration, I gave up and used the first grade history curriculum from Christian Liberty Press. It wasn’t bad, but I was so disappointed – SOTW is an excellent curriculum, and I would’ve loved to have been able to use it, but it is a curriculum that relies on strong listening skills,a nd it was rapidly becoming obvious that my child was not at all an auditory learner.

This year, he reads well enough to read it on his own, so I tried it again to great success. Simultaneously, about halfway through this year, I discovered Charlotte Mason’s gentle philosophies of child rearing and educating and fell in love. The trouble is, the act of narration – the child describing his thoughts, impressions and recollections from the narrative you just read the child – is an underpinning of her educational approach and philosophy. I have tried unstructured narration with SOTW Vol 3 and it was a mess. Much prompting was necessary and since we did “buddy reading” of the passages – he would read a paragraph, I would read the next – he still didn’t retain much of what I was reading, nor, in fact, was he retaining much of what HE was reading, either.

A few weeks ago I had a “lightbulb moment.” It occurred to me that narration is nothing more than the training of the child’s attention. The child has to PAY ATTENTION to what you’re saying in order to narrate effectively and, indeed, learn at all.

I realized then that this is what is causing my son so much difficulty. He does not have auditory processing delays. He does not have hearing loss. What he does have is the attention span of a gnat. He misses what’s said because he simply isn’t paying enough attention. If he were in a public school, he would certainly be heavily medicated by now. Thats was the near-instant recommendation by the school professionals during his few weeks of kindergarten, as well as the physical therapist (who was a very impatient and harsh woman – we stopped going to her within a matter of weeks because of her terrible attitude toward children).

I have never considered medicating him for academic purposes, because he tests well above grade level in every subject and is an otherwise happy and well-adjusted child, so I didn’t see the point, but I am seeing now that his attention deficit has cost him dearly in many areas of life, and desperately needs remediation. So per Miss Mason’s recommendations, I still require narration, I just “meet him where he is.” Instead of reading the entire passage, I only read one or two paragraphs before asking him to “tell me everything you remember about what I just read.” Initially, this was too vague, so I would say, “Tell me three things that you thought were interesting about what I just read.”

It is crucial to tell him ahead of time that he will be expected to listen to the passage and narrate it afterwards for me; I have to make sure to tell him that it will only be read once. In this way, he knows he has to – you guessed it – pay attention! And guess what? He does. In fact, it is amazing how well he does. Best of all, I have noticed that since I began implementing narration as part of our homeschool, his attention span has improved by leaps and bounds in all areas of life.

Don’t get me wrong; it is still a work in progress. Usually, when I read the first paragraph, he can’t remember anything because he hasn’t been paying attention. It’s still something he has to actively “turn on” in his brain. I know that eventually it will be second nature; I realize that we are in the process of literally “rewiring” his cognizance, so he still often warms up with that first paragraph or passage.

There is no punitive measure against this, of course. I simply remind him that we are to do our best with schoolwork and that we are now going to do the second paragraph and that he is to try much harder. If, let’s say, it is a four-paragraph passage, invariably by the fourth paragraph, not only is he retaining everything I said, he is EAGER to narrate. He can hardly wait for me to finish reading so he can proudly show off everything he remembers. He is not just parrotting, either – he is asking questions and even, at times, editorializing about what we just read. It is amazing to watch this unfold.

Eventually, I will be reading longer passages. Eventually, I will include dictation. He is now able to sit still and listen to an entire chapter of a book and still more or less be able to summarize what happened in the chapter. We are going through Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of N.I.M.H., one of my own favorite books as a child, which he initially said would be “totally boring,” but he is now begging me to read “just one more chapter!” and for the first time in his life, actively asking questions about the story. (Considering that this year the only books that have caught his attention were Charlotte’s Web, Babe the Gallant Pig, The Adventures of Paddington Bear, A Cricket in Times Square and now this, it is safe to say that my child loves stories that anthropomorphize animals.) For the first time, I have verifiable proof that he really is listening – and comprehending. For the first time, we are actually discussing and appreciating literature together! I am so excited about this, it goes beyond words.

We have a very long way to go, but I will say that when I first started diving into the CM method of doing things, I never dreamed it would be therapeutic for my son, as well as educational. Homeschooling helped my child overcome dyslexia (thanks to Handwriting Without Tears), a diagnosis which he no longer has; it has helped him overcome a great deal of his autistic struggles; and it looks as though it is now going to help him overcome his significant attention deficit and, in the process, get SO much more out of the world around him.

I thank God every day that I am able to homeschool, and that I discovered Charlotte Mason’s philosophies and approach. It has transformed not just our homeschool – but our home, as well.