APD Lorraine Driscoll April 4th release
Bianca: [00:00:00] Today what we're gonna talk about is what auditory processing is and what it affects, what can cause poor auditory processing, and what people can do to overcome auditory processing issues.
It has become important to me within the last year when I started noticing these things and somebody just mentioned it to me. So then I, I dug into it a little bit and I thought, oh my God, that's totally me. I never knew about this thing. And it's huge.
And it's so, complex too, that I think more people should know about it. So I'm really excited to share what you do with everybody, and especially because of what I do. It's, it's often the case that you have a lot of information in English, but not always in other languages, particularly with medical related things.
Lorraine: Right.
Bianca: And so I, I feel like it's really important that we bring that to people whose first language isn't English, because it might be actually much harder for them to find that.
Lorraine: Right.
Bianca: And it might be there as well. Yeah. Excellent. Excellent.
Lorraine: Yeah, totally.
Bianca: I myself, I'm pretty sure that I have some issues around this, so it really hits home okay[00:01:00] with me personally because I know I need to inform myself a lot more about it. And I know a lot of people that I work with or that follow me, they, they might have these issues too, and not even know about it.
First, what about you? Can you tell us a little bit about how you got to this point and what your passions are?
Lorraine: Yeah, totally. Uh, so to try to make, uh, without telling you a entire life story, I'm a former teacher and I was super frustrated with the school system and, uh, basically was teaching grade seven and eight and just saw a lot of kids who, by the time they'd reached grade eight, had had IEPs and accommodations and, you know, diagnoses from the time they were 6, 7, 8 years old and were really making minimal progress and, um, I was basically, you know, went through the same training as every other teacher and it was kind of, these kids just have to learn how to manage these conditions and so forth.
Um, but I started going down a rabbit hole whenever I started. I have always had an interest in neurosciences and so forth. And then my daughter became sick. I won't go into too [00:02:00] much detail about that, but it involved a neuro- immune condition where a lot of different functions were affected. And so I was almost kind of forced down on a rabbit hole of how different factors like nutrition, gut health, and also our different connections in our brain all impact how well we learn self-regulate, um, our emotions, our speech, our listening abilities, all of that. And I was blown away to learn. There is decades and decades of research to show, to show how the brain can change and, um, that a lot of the things that we think are just conditions we have to manage can actually be overcome.
Um, and so slowly I started to make my way into a new career . And here I am today where I specialize in working with people who have learning, um, I say behavior, but really attention self-regulation issues is really what they are. Um, And to help them actually overcome that as opposed to just managing that, so.
Bianca: Wow, wow. It's so funny [00:03:00] how life takes us on these different paths and we end up in a place where we never thought we were gonna be. Yeah, definitely.
Lorraine: A hundred percent.
Bianca: Wow. Yeah, it's very interesting. And, and for me, a lot of the people that I talk to, obviously English isn't their first language, so at any point
did you ever talk to people who were not only struggling with the language but maybe had something else going on as well?
Lorraine: Totally. Um, both in the past and to this day, I work with people who have multiple issues or layers that are going on, whether it's people who English is not their first language and they have a learning disability or speech issue or attention issue. Um, and then also add to that, you know, what I find is that people think that their issues are separate and they're often linked. So just a, a random kind of example is: one of the questions I'll ask parents whenever I first meet them is, does your child have any skin issues or gut issues? And they'll be like, yeah, what does this have to do with their learning difficulty?
Right? Like, what does eczema have to do with auditory [00:04:00] processing? Um, but I would say like, I don't know, probably like 70% of my clients have some kind of skin issue, like eczema and so forth, and that has a lot to do with auditory processing.
Bianca: What?
Lorraine: So, a lot of the time, our separate issues are connected, are, are, aren't as separate as we think.
And you know, mom's going maybe taking her son to a dermatologist and taking her child here for this problem and this problem when they're all connected to causing overall breakdown biochemically with the brain. So, yeah.
Bianca: Mm-hmm. And I didn't even know this about you and when we first started talking, I said, oh, what did you have for lunch or breakfast?
And you said, sauerkraut. And I'm like, no, wait. I eat sauerkraut too because I have an autoimmune issue. So I'm on this thing called the Autoimmune Protocol, where I'm trying to find out kind of what, what I'm eating that might be causing other issues. So maybe, maybe it turns out that something that I am eating might be related to some of my auditory processing, although... Also, I don't know if I told you this already, but I had a brain tumor several years ago.
Lorraine: Okay. Really?
Bianca: And [00:05:00] so, uh, the, you know, the nerve is completely gone on this side, and I'm deaf completely in this
Lorraine: OK
Bianca: this ear. So I don't know if that had something to do with it before. I really can't quite remember if I had auditory processing issues before that. But I, I find myself, you know, saying what a lot and, and taking longer.
I always have the subtitles on. You know, there are definitely things there that made me think, oh, I didn't know about this, but this is a thing and then this might be me too. So other people have found that there are other things going on that may or they don't think are related, but in fact are related. Eczema is one of them.
Lorraine: Right
Bianca: Are there some other things that you could tell us that might be something that you've noticed in the past about people and, and patterns?
Lorraine: Totally. Um, so auditory processing, there's several factors that are occurring when kids have, or people have auditory processing issues.
Um, and it doesn't mean that they have all of those factors, but they're the factors that we definitely wanna look at. And so the first place I [00:06:00] always start is what I call the biology of learning or the biochemistry of learning. And as a functional nutritionist, that basically involves looking at things like number one, toxicity.
So, um, heavy metal toxicity is a factor. It actually will damage the auditory nerve is particularly sensitive to heavy metals. Um, and it can damage the auditory nerve. So, um, one of the things we do is we might look at is their heavy metal toxicity? Do we need to work on, you know, gently draining and detoxing and then healing the auditory nerve so that functions better.
Um, another thing that is a big one is, um, food sensitivity. So the minute I have a kid who has auditory processing disorder, um, the, one of the first things I will look at is sensitivities to dairy. That that one is number one allergen period, but it's just a mucusy food. Mm-hmm. . So it's going to affect, um, you know, the whole auditory system a lot more.[00:07:00]
But anything that is inflammatory to the body can affect the auditory processing. And so whether it's a gluten for this person in corn for another, um, so we wanna look at is food sensitivities playing a role. So those are the two big ones in terms of biochemical. But other things are, if I'm working with someone who, either they're a child or an adult, but they have a history of ear infections.
Um, it doesn't have to be a ton of ear infections. A lot of people will say, oh, I've only had like two, and no, it wasn't a big deal. But what the research shows is that. Someone could even just have one bad ear infection and it can damage the celia in their ear, and that's going to affect their auditory processing.
The good news is we can heal the celia in the ear with certain protocols and nutrition and so forth. So, um, those are the three kind of big biochemical ones that, um, Have a big impact that I like to look at as factors. And then other factors with auditory processing are [00:08:00] things like, um, so the first one is retain primitive reflexes, which unless you have a child with special needs, and you've been going through this a long time, you probably haven't heard of this.
And yet, if any, anyone who's a mom who's had a baby, um, totally has seen this. So if you remember, whenever you have been around a newborn or your own baby, they will do things like you put your, you know, index finger in the palm of their hand and they wrap their fingers automatically around. the pinky, and you think, oh my goodness, they love me so much. No, they don't.
Yeah, they totally do. But that is what we call the Palmar reflex. And so another example is we put our baby on the change table on their back and they fling their arms and legs out like a starfish.
Um, so we have all kinds of reflexes and they're there, number one, to keep us alive, and number two, to help with brain development. However, they should integrate, meaning disappear, basically meaning integrate into the nervous [00:09:00] system by three years of age, but typically much sooner. If they do not, then it hinders brain development of certain areas of the brain, depending on how many reflexes are retained, which ones are retained, and other factors that are at play.
So there's certain retained reflexes that will affect auditory processing in terms of the auditory cortex in the brain. Yeah. So super fascinating. So one of the things that I do with clients in my program is we work on integrating those reflexes, after we've gone through the biochemical piece and the research shows that almost always when there's auditory processing, there's almost always retained reflexes.
So I would say that is definitely one that you wanna be working on if you do have auditory processing. And then the other thing that, um, is huge is what we call, uh, left brain weakness and right brain [00:10:00] overdevelopment. So this is not the same as the debate around right brain dominant, left brain dominant, and does that exist and all of that type of stuff.
This is literally on brain scans neurologically. We can look at the brain hemispheres and see that in certain individuals they have ahighly developed right side of their brain and a underdeveloped left side of their brain. So meaning there's not as much electrical activity or connections on that side of the brain.
So left side of the brain is where the auditory cortex is.
Bianca: Ah, and now I see the connection here. And would this have anything to do with if somebody is right-handed or left-handed, or is there, is there no connection? ,
Lorraine: Not necessarily. Um, there's more people with dyslexia, like 50% of dyslexics are left handed.
Um, and there is a lot of people with auditory processing who have dyslexia. It's often a component of dyslexia. So it could be, but it's definitely not like a determining factor. That you [00:11:00] would, you know, wanna say that's for sure the case. But what I find really interesting is, um, in connection to some of the work that you do is, you're probably working with a lot of artists, um, people who have that art artist brain, right? And so a lot of the kids and adults I work with who have a left brain weakness, who have auditory processing issues are these super creative imaginative people. They're really good at the arts.
So they have this, that's their zone of genius. They have this beautifully overdeveloped right brain. That's why they have those gifts. But they have this weak left brain and they have this, uh, auditory cortex that is really needing some more connections. So another piece of my program is we stimulate the weaker side of the brain, the left side of the brain, and so forth, um, to get more connectivity with the auditory cortex.
Um, so that's for the most part the big things that we look at when there's auditory processing issues. So as you can see, it's multi- [00:12:00] therapy, if you will. The biochemistry and then we call the functional neurology, so, meaning the actual connections in the brain that could be impacting You know, someone's ability.
Bianca: No kidding, because I've been speaking with you for about five minutes and already you've exploded my brain about all this and, and so much that I didn't know even though. I knew it existed at least, right? I, I kind of stuck my toes in the water a little bit, but I had no idea about all these interconnected things or things you wouldn't think of.
So I wanna, I definitely wanna hear more about your program later and let people know how you can help people. But can we back up first and can we kind of
Lorraine: Totally
Bianca: Just talk about what auditory processing is? And maybe talk a little bit more about the label itself or how should we think about it and some things like that.
Can we back up for that?
Lorraine: Yeah, totally.
Bianca: Awesome.
Lorraine: Um, so basically auditory processing. First of all, it can present differently in different people, right? It's like anything. I mean, um, you have an autoimmune condition, so, you know what I'm talking about in terms of it can [00:13:00] look, you know, in 10 different ways for different people.
So, Some of the symptoms though that can appear, uh, typically are things like one of the big ones that I see with a lot of people. The auditory processing disorder is a hard time following multi-step instructions, particularly when given orally. So, you know, if I'm dealing with a child, I'll say, Mom can, you know, little Johnny, uh, follow instructions if you say, I want you to take a shower, brush your teeth, go eat breakfast, and then pack your backpack. And they're like, Nope.
Bianca: Gone after shower.
Lorraine: Like, he can't. Yeah, exactly. You can remember the first instruction. Um, so that's a big one. Um, another one is saying, huh, or what? A lot. So you, your hearing is fine.
Bianca: Guilty.
Lorraine: Right? Yeah. So hearing is fine, but you, it's like the processing of the information for your brain to understand the meaning of it is a little bit slower. So then that's where we say, huh? Or what, because that gives us time to process. And then sometimes the person repeats the question and you're already answering it before they [00:14:00] finish repeating the question. Because now, you've had time to process, right?
Bianca: Exactly. I would use it as a stalling technique sometimes, and not only in English, in situations where I was speaking in another language because that gave me time, literally to process the question. And I, and I knew there was sound there. I don't know how quite, to describe it. I knew there was sound there. I knew I was hearing something, but I didn't know what it was. Or sometimes I could pick out the main words and I was trying to decide, was that a question?
And you're trying to think of somebody's intonation at the same time and maybe cultural differences. And so it's, it's a lot of layers Um, and to break it down, You know, it wasn't that I wasn't listening to you. I'm sorry I wasn't, I was absolutely listening. I'm just getting there a little bit slower, you know?
Lorraine: Yeah.
Bianca: So I'd have trouble with that.
Lorraine: Exactly.Yep. Um, often, uh, people have issues with focus. Again, particularly if they're in a situation, um, like I encountered this a lot with university or college students where they're like three hour lecture just having to listen and use my auditory system for three hours, they feel like their brain is gonna explode. They can [00:15:00] only take in so much auditory information. And I wanna add to that. I actually had a man come to see me, he was probably 58, 59, um, a few years ago, and he said that it was affecting his marriage because he felt like, I mean, women always have this running joke that, you know, man, it goes through one ear out the other.
But he was like, like, this is serious. He's like, my wife thinks that I really don't care. I'm not paying attention. But he's like, she talks and I, I literally tap out. I can't take in too much auditory information. He was an engineer, so super smart, but he's like, it, it affected his ability to do his job well as well.
You
Lorraine: know, it, it, there were certain things that really impacted him as a engineer and he was like, I don't care if I'm 58. I, I wanna fix this even if it's just for my relationship. So it's not always how it affects our learning or academics or our career, it's also how it affects our relationships, whether it's the child to the parent or the parent to the child or within a, you know, marital relationship and [00:16:00] so forth.
Bianca: Hmm. I have a roommate and Yeah. And, you know, bless him, he, he is very patient and he knows about this too, but he gets frustrated sometimes when, when I say what, you know, it's, it's totally understandable.
He, he really likes, I don't know if I told you, I live in Mexico and my roommate is Mexican, but his English is phenomenal. So when we watch things in English. We often have the subtitles on , not necessarily for him, but for me
Lorraine: Right
Bianca: Because I enjoy having the subtitles on and that's how I'm kind of, I'm kind of listening through reading.
But I've heard stories of other people who get really frustrated with just, just having the subtitles on and they'll just walk out of the room and they don't wanna participate in sharing that entertainment with the person just because the subtitles are on and I see can see how that would strain a relationship, too.
Lorraine: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. There's a lot of layers to it in terms that go, you know, much further than, um, academics or learning, but definitely connected to the academics, um, when someone is a child. So if I'm working with an adult who has auditory [00:17:00] processing disorder, I will ask, like, did you have speech difficulties when you were a child?
Um, that's really common. Did you have a hard time learning to read or a hard time blending sounds? Did you have a hard time, um, you know, rhyming or anything, uh, with, you know, putting words together and so forth? And oftentimes there is some of that that's taken place. Um, some of it's been overcome, some of it's still, you know, an issue.
Bianca: Hmm, Hmm. That's making me think about, um, my, my own, my own issue with this too, and I'm trying to think like, because of my autoimmune issue, it's a chicken and egg thing. Like, I'm wondering, I'm trying to now think if, when I was a kid, I don't think I had trouble blending sounds. I don't think I had trouble with rhymes.
And far from being, um, let's say unfocused. I think I had the opposite. And even now, I am hyper-focused on what people say
Lorraine: Right.
Bianca: Probably because I need, I need that focus. And so, you know, what I do in my work is, you know, what, six hours a day, I'm usually one-on-one with somebody just really paying attention to what [00:18:00] they say and how they say it.
For example, you say, you say processing and I say processing. Um, right. And I'm just, I just can't help it anymore. I just pick up every little thing. But I think it was a coping mechanism, probably starting
Lorraine: Interesting.
Bianca: Sometime, I'm just guessing, maybe starting when the autoimmunity started. Plus, I have this deafness issue on one side.
Lorraine: Yup.
Bianca: So for example, riding in a car, if I'm not the driver, at least if you drive on the, the right side of the road, like in many countries then, if I'm not the driver, I have a really hard time just hearing the driver. Like, let's say the windows are open, that's worse.
And then I hear, I finally hear it, and then I have to process it too. So, for example, when I'm driving with my roommate and he, and he's saying something, you know, sometimes that's when he gets really frustrated So I'm, I try to notice as much as possible.
Lorraine: Yeah. Okay. And that's so, I'm so glad you mentioned that because there seems to be two spectrums with that, where it's either, um, the person who has auditory processing issues might, um, have what I call the volume turned up really [00:19:00] high.
So they could be, say the kid in the classroom who gets really overwhelmed with too much sound, or the adult who gets overwhelmed with too much sound and is like, I don't wanna hear anything. When they get home, they just, they don't even wanna drive home with the radio on because they are just o they have what I call sensory overload.
Or auditory overload. And for children, this will look like, these are the kids they come home and they have a meltdown. They're having tantrums because their system is overloaded. As adults though, okay, most of us aren't having tantrums, but it can look like anxiety or overwhelm or just not being able to, to do another thing.
Um, and yes, then there is the other spectrum where they're not as highly attuned to the sounds and they're not picking up on it. Like the dyslexic, who can't tell the difference between /b/ and /d/, you know, or /p/ and /b/. So, um, and, and you're absolutely right, auditory processing is also very much connected to ADHD and ADD.
So there could be the person who, um, has a hard time focusing. Or there could be the person who has hyper-focused, or like a lot of [00:20:00] people, um, who have ADHD, they have a hard time focusing, but if they're s if they're super interested in something, then they have hyperfocused and could zero in all day. Right. Um. Yeah. So yeah,
Bianca: Uhhuh. I'm so glad we're talking today because all these things are really ringing true for me and I hope they're hitting home for other people who are listening, too. So we're talking about, um, auditory processing and how there can be issues with that and how it's affecting relationships, how it's affecting ability to study, maybe your focus.
What other things do you wanna mention about auditory processing and what it affects before we go back to the causes and maybe reiterate some of those causes?
Lorraine: Um, I think we covered it. Like basically the big, like the big thing, I get a lot of people reaching out to me is, you know, learning and reading is huge.
So, any kind of history regarding that? Um, definitely a spillover is going to be, you know, affecting your relationships. And, um, of course that attention and [00:21:00] focus piece. So those are the three main pieces that I see occurring. And just one other add-on is another cue that someone might have auditory processing issues is just if they, uh, prefer to or access information visually as opposed to just listening. So, um, I remember when I was teaching and you know, I even still see this, where people are like, no, I can't, I can't just listen to you read that. I need to see it, or I need the book in front of me, um, you know, so yeah. Basically they can't just focus on auditory information for any amount of time, or they just kind of shut down.
Bianca: Oh yeah. Those are my subtitles. Give me, gimme the slides. Give me the, gimme the book. Gimme the text too. Yeah. It's not, to me, it's not too much. It's just an extra channel. And also I'm super kinesthetic as well, so anything you can give me to touch or hold or manipulate, I'm, I'm cool with that, you know?
Yeah. But auditory only? Often I just kind of zone out. I just turn it off and start wandering around inside my own brain.
Lorraine: Yeah.
Bianca: And, and everything you've [00:22:00] said so far, does any of thatonly apply to children or can all of this be applied to adults? And do we have other things to mention for adults as well?
Lorraine: Um, so one other factor that I should mention is head injuries, um, you know, that obviously that can affect any area of the brain. So, um, and head injuries by the way, so, as I mentioned, when we're born, we have these primitive reflexes that should integrate in infancy, but because those reflexes are a survival mechanism, if we get a head injury, those reflexes can come back.
So we might have been a perfectly well-developed infant, everything's fine. And then 21 years old, we get into a car accident and as a protective mechanism, basically those reflexes will unintegrated. And so you can actually develop issues with auditory processing as an adult or a teen or whatever out of nowhere because of an accident or injury and so forth. So always considering the fact, has there been a head injury, concussion or something of the sort. [00:23:00] Um, and also, the other factor is stealth infections, um, which is really getting deeper into that functional neurology piece. But as someone who's had Lyme, um, you know, or chronic lime, that can affect a lot. Brain inflammation can affect a lot. We know that food sensitivities on a smaller level, there's that neuroinflammation. Um, so if we're also dealing with things like, you know, Lyme or mold toxicity or any toxicity or any other stealth infection that can also affect auditory processing and other functions as well.
Bianca: You are making my day today because I have had Lyme. I grew up in upstate New York, right? So everybody in their brother has Lyme.
Lorraine: OK, Got it. Yes.
Bianca: So, uh, where are you located? Where are you now?
Lorraine: I'm just like 30 minutes from the upstate New York border. So I live, I'm between Montreal and Ottawa.
Bianca: Yes, we, we used to go to Montreal all the time on the weekends.
Lorraine: Yeah.
Bianca: Cuz it was so close. I lived, I dunno if you know Glens Falls, do you know Queensbury area?
Lorraine: Yes.
Bianca: Probably not. Yes? That's my hometown. So yeah. Yeah. Lyme disease. Rampant. I [00:24:00] definitely have Lyme disease. And uh, there was something else you went... oh, concussion. I was snowboarding one time and this person came behind me totally outta control, "kkkkkkk"
All I heard, all I heard was "kkkkkkk", and then I woke up, um, who knows how long later. I was soaked, so I was laying in the snow for a while. Couldn't move, couldn't move any of my extremities. The person was nowhere there. It was like a Tuesday. Nobody else was on the mountain. and yeah, and, and I, after about an hour, I was able to wiggle my, I think an hour, able to wiggle my toes and then my feet and finally get down to like a, like a ski station.
And um, so maybe there's that as well. I also had like the brain tumor, so who knows, you know, where all this stuff comes from. Is there a test that people can take? Is there maybe an online survey at least where they can get some ideas? We can put these in the show notes later. Um, you can just say, yes, it's available, or, or like, no, contact me directly.
Is there some way that people can kind of start to self-assess before they come to you?
Lorraine: [00:25:00] Um, yeah, so, you know what? I actually don't have a self-assessment for auditory processing, but now you're, you've got me thinking, but I do have a pretty, uh, an extremely detailed, uh, articleon my blog on what auditory processing is, and here's the signs and symptoms.
Um, so you can definitely, I mean, the more boxes that you're kind of ticking in that list in terms of here are the symptoms. Um, that's more, you know, you can kind of be sure, um, that that's probably a factor at play. And I also wanna caution people. I'm not a doctor and so people will say to me, um, you know, can you, can you diagnose me with auditory processing and find, like, can you find out if I have it or not?
And I'll say, no, I can't. But I wanna caution people to not get too hung up on the diagnosis. And the reason I say that is I have a lot of parents come to me and they'll be like, well, we got him checked for auditory processing disorder. And he doesn't have it, but he has this symptom, the symptom, this symptom.
And the way the diagnosises work is like you have to have so many, you have to tick so many, so many boxes to hit. [00:26:00] That, that line or that threshold of if it's a diagnosis or not. And if it's not a diagnosis, then it's nothing. So that's where now I'm like, okay, maybe you don't have a learning disability, or maybe you don't have auditory processing disorder, maybe you have a glitch, right?
Bianca: You have something to work on. Yeah. You, you still need some help. Obviously you need some support.
Lorraine: Yeah, exactly. So, um, and I say that just because I don't know that all of your, you know, clients have insurance and like, from what I understand, most people are paying around three to $4,000 for these diagnoses.
And they're not getting, that's just for the diagnosis, not for the actual help. So, um, you know, if you feel like you're ticking all the boxes, um, and you don't have insurance that diagnosis isn't gonna help you get funding, then, um, , it might not be in your economic best interest to put all your money in, in getting that label.
Bianca: Mm-hmm. . Okay. So let's start with that then. For example, I'm, I'm living here in Mexico. You know, the, the healthcare's really quite good, but I don't... there's still a lot of kind of holes that I see and so [00:27:00] I'm, I, I have to say, I'm a little bit skeptical that if I were to find somebody here and I ticked all the boxes, blah, blah, blah, I don't know that I would be able to get the help that I need right? Even if I have the money to pay for it. So, do you have anything that somebody can do, even if they suspect some of these things? Like where can somebody start even with, let's say, very little money?
Lorraine: Okay, with very little money, first of all. Yeah. Hop on my website. Check and see if you you know, if you kind of sounds like you have auditory processing disorder, just go into the blog, type in auditory processing in the search, and you'll find probably more information than you're looking for.
Um, that's step one. the next step. If you don't have a lot of money. I would start with the things that I've mentioned, like number one, do I have food sensitivities that are not being addressed or haven't been identified, I should say? Um, and again, you can pay for a food sensitivity panel through a functional medicine or naturopathic doctor or a functional medicine nutritionist like myself. But if you can't afford [00:28:00] that, do an elimination diet. You know, eliminate the top foods that are known. You can, you can search that on the internet, the top allergenic foods or food sensitivities. Eliminate those. I would say minimum six to eight weeks.
And then you slowly add one in back at a time and see the difference. Um, quick little story. I had a client who they had tried everything, um, for their child's auditory processing disorder. as soon as we removed dairy and gluten,like it was like a totally different child, both with focus, attention, reading, um, everything.
To the point where they were like, come on,cause dad was super skeptical. I'm like, how is dairy and gluten doing this, right? And then, um, they, they removed it. and we're kind of like, yeah, no, this can't be, this can't be, this is like, gotta be something else. So they added it back in and within a week and a half, everything slid backwards.
Bianca: Wow.
Lorraine: [00:29:00] And then again, remove the food. Totally different child. Um, is it always that simple? I wish. Um, there was usually multiple layers, but just wanted to share. It's pretty powerful sometimes how much these things can affect the brain, so
Bianca: Oh, no kidding. No kidding. I'm on the, uh, Autoimmune Protocol right now.
Which, which I'm, I'm gonna try to do it, a lot of people do it one to three months from what I've read, and I'm gonna try to do it six months so that I can really get, like, I think I hope more data about how, how something might affect me when I'm reintroducing it. But I can tell you already that, yeah, cra crazy as it sounds,
it's sometimes true. When I, well, the reason I started, let me rewind. The reason I started this Autoimmune Protocol was because of my, uh, autoimmune, um, disease, which is Hashimoto's. And I, I was on the medication, you know, I'm, I'm maxed out on the medication. Still can't lose weight, still get night sweats, you know, um, my asthma's terrible.
Uh, what else? Uh, I had, uh, knee surgery twice, and that was three years ago. My knee still hurts every day, [00:30:00] right? So I was really at the end and I decided to try this because I ate pretty healthy, honestly before
Lorraine: Right
Bianca: One thing though, I didn't really eat much meat. I ate a lot of eggs. and pretty much the minute we cut out eggs and it was just a little test before I did the whole AIP, I was like, I can't believe this.
My knee feels better. Can't believe this. My asthma's getting better, right? Mostly just from eggs. And then I, I, I think I put eggs back into play and I was like, yep, I think it is eggs. At least one thing. So now I'm doing the whole protocol to see if there's anything else that's hiding in there. You know,
It could be dairy, it could be gluten, often, very often gluten for people with my, my thing. But yeah, I'm gonna do the whole thing so I can try to weed out as much as possible. So that's, that's where I'm at.
Lorraine: Yeah. Yup.
Bianca: What else? What else can people do?
Lorraine: Right. So if you've kind of tackled that, then I mean the next one is considering if there's heavy metal, um, toxicity.
Um, I see that. I would say enough in my clients, like mm-hmm. I'm gonna see 40, 50%. [00:31:00] It's pretty common though, with, especially when I, you're working with learning disabilities, which is not necessarily the case with someone who just has auditory processing. Um, but that's definitely one to tackle and I'm am going to caution you not to tackle heavy metal detoxification on your own.
Um, because it can make things worse if you're not doing things right. The body is, as we know, is extremely wise and will deposit the heavy metals in areas that are less dangerous, like the and, um, you know, the other tissues. So you don't wanna start drawing that out and having that circulate in the blood and crossing the blood brainin barrier, um, unless you're doing this properly to make sure it's actually going through the detox organs.
So I will say that one is definitely not a do it yourself. Um, but even just looking at, am I exposed to heavy metals? Like what is your, what's up with your waters, whether it's city water or well water. Um, you know, what am I putting on my face every day? Um, you know, what am I washing with? What am I eating?
Um, I have a client recently who her [00:32:00] six or seven year old son had a lot of, has insane issues with rage. And they actually lived in the Northern Dominican Republic for two years and they found out that the pesticides are, you know, in terms of what's legal there is different.
And the child had very high levels of lead and something else anyway. And, um, they suspect that it most likely came from living in the Dominican and eating all this food and so forth. There's obviously some other genetic variations at play too that affected his ability to detox.
But, um, You know, so what am I being exposed to? I think is definitely something you ought to consider. Or what have I been exposed to? Um, then as far as the neurological piece or functional neurology piece, you know, finding out do I have retained primitive reflexes? Is that affecting me?
Again, you can find a lot of that on my website, some good information about the different reflexes and what it affects and so forth. And, um, [00:33:00] then, stimulating the left side of the brain can definitely be, um, a bit of a trick. There's different tools and so forth to do, um, but if you kind of just go online, um, there are things you can do that it will give you some tips.
I don't know if it'll be, you know, totally get you over the, over the cliff, but, um, it'll definitely help, so.
Bianca: Hmm. Mm-hmm. So. Mm-hmm. So, For most people, a really good starting point would be your website, first of all. And I'm gonna link that in the show notes, obviously, but can you say the name, spell the name, give us a way to remember how to find you there, and so that we can kind of remember that auditorially, let's say?
And then of course, we'll put the link down below in the show notes too.
Lorraine: Totally. So my website is my name Lorraine Driscoll.com. Driscoll like the strawberries. Um, I say that cuz that just seems to be what people remember.
Bianca: Let me pause you there for a second because, let me tell you something. You may not know this.When you buy Driscoll berries of any kind, they come from about an [00:34:00] hour of where I live, so right near Lake Chapala.
Lorraine: Okay, cool.
Bianca: Yeah. In Mexico, the biggest lake in the country is called Lake Chapala. And just outside of there, between my city, Guadalajara, and there, you drive and you go through all the fields and you'll see all the Driscolls farms and things like that. And they have planes leaving full of berries every day.
So next time, next time you get some berries or you think about your last name, or if you're trying to remember Lorraine's website, remember I have a special rapport withthe Driscoll strawberries.
Lorraine: Very cool. Love it. That's awesome. Um, or you can just type in Building Better Brains into Google.
And my, uh, website is what pops up
Bianca: Nice. Building Better Brains. Excellent. Perfect.
Lorraine: Yeah.
Bianca: Perfect. So let's just make sure that we've got all the bases covered, right? We talked about what auditory processing is and what it affects, and how this kind of disorder can, can wreak havoc on somebody's life.
What can cause it, right? There's a lot of different things that can can cause this, is there anything else people can do to overcome this? Anything maybe that's not on the website specifically, or it's not, let's say more [00:35:00] medical in a way. Something that how we can connect with other people and tell them about this.
Is there something else that we can share, either as a person who may have problems with this or somebody we know, we love, or just people in general? What else could you advise us for for that? Outside of medical things, what can we, as, as people, kind of do to help ourselves, help each other? Is there anything else that we can, that we can do?
Lorraine: So, I mean, the one thing I like to say is like, just becoming aware of auditory processing and what it is and how it's impacting you can be huge as well, because then you know even how to help yourself even before, you know, you start pursuing interventions that are corrective.
Um, just knowing, you know, oh, okay. Like I can't tell you how many teenagers I've worked with are like, oh, okay, so I'm not dumb. You know, I just need to access how I learn more visually at this point. Um, you know, so just knowing how your brain works at this point, whether you're gonna, you know, shift that or not is immensely [00:36:00] important.
Or letting people in your family know. I would say 80% of my clients are children, but whether they're children or not, um, yes, the moms know. Okay, when I'm, talking to little Johnny, Um, I have to break those instructions down one at a time and so forth. So just knowing that, um, that has to happen.
And so if you are the person with auditory processing, telling the people around you, look, I have auditory processing disorder. Um, and so if you give me like, five things at once, I'm probably not gonna remember it. If you write it down, that's gonna help me a lot. Um, so just first of all, being self-aware of how it's affecting you and what you need, and then basically, basically asking for your needs to be met um, can, can really help take some of the stress out of how it's impacting your life.
Bianca: Mm-hmm. , oh, another, speaking of quick stories, so here I am living in Mexico, right? My, my, my roommate speaks English and sometimes we speak French. Very rarely do we speak Spanish, but I have friends that come over and we'll watch something in English and I'll, I just always have the [00:37:00] subtitles on and they think I'm putting on the subtitles for them, and I think they get a little bit insulted and they're like, I don't need subtitles.
I'm like, it's not for you, it's for me. Sorry. Like, it's
Lorraine: Right.
Bianca: It's something that I don't, I don't think enough to to say out loud, because I'm so used to accommodating for that, you know? But just saying these things out loud and maybe more often I think might be more helpful.
Lorraine: Right, exactly. It's like, um, I was talking to an adult recently who has auditory processing disorder, but also, um, has that, you know, ADHD or ADD, that hyperfocus. And has since tuned into it and told their family, okay, like, if you notice that I'm getting really sucked into something, I'm not even stopping to eat, please. Um, please make me aware of that, you know? Like, help me with it, so,
Bianca: Mm-hmm. Yeah. I have trouble with the meals thing too. I get, yeah. I just get really into what I'm doing. And I don't know if it's related to the autoimmune issue, like I just, I don't experience hunger very often, I've [00:38:00] found that over time, I, I just don't feel very hungry, so I don't have that physical, like, like reminder and, um, I don't know if this happens to other people, but I, I have to be reminded when was the last time you ate? I'm like, oh, I don't, um hmm. It's definitely something I experienced.
And you mentioned something also that was interesting. How things we're exposed to, they might, um, they might damage parts of our auditory processing, at least the, the biology of it.
Is there anything else that we can be aware of? What we eat? What are our toxicity might be, what we might be exposed to. I know we can't really look at that ourselves, but is there any other considerations that we can just kind of think about and be aware of?
Lorraine: There's definitely research that points to, um, if there's gut issues that that can affect auditory processing. So I won't bore anyone to death about the biology of that. But you know, the brain is just another organ in the body and I like [00:39:00] to remind people of that. Because it's really easy for us to think, well, how could what's going on in my gut affect what's going on in my brain?
Because it's another organ in the body. A lot of us, I think by now, have heard about the brain gut connection. So, you know, the brain gut connection is huge. Um, and a lot of people that I work with, once we improve and heal their gut, that can improve their auditory processing. So as you know, you're on the AIP diet. Um, you know, to anyone listening, you don't have to do the AIP diet to heal. Maybe it can be helpful. Maybe that's your path, but it doesn't have to be.
Bianca: It's a bit core for some Yeah.
Lorraine: It totally is hardcore. Yep. Um, so just doing things like being more conscious. How much sugar am I, am I eating? Am I eating too many excess carbohydrates?
Um, am I getting enough protein? Am I eating foods that are nourishing to my gut? Like, I don't know, bone broth? Or sauerkraut or ferments or whatever, right? I always tell people this is not like [00:40:00] new age nutrition as some people coin gut healing.
It's stuff that our great grandparents did as part of their normal way of living a long time ago right? So if we just go back to what we call an ancestral diet, um, we can really improve our gut health in that way alone.
Bianca: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, definitely. Definitely. And what about, um, coping strategies, and we can end with this.
Any kind of other strategies or mechanisms that people might be able to do if they don't have the diagnosis, let's say, but they suspect like, oh, I'm having trouble with this. What are some ways that I can manage some of these things? Do you have any thoughts on that?
Lorraine: Letting people know. Your best friend is a notepad because also, I don't even know if I mentioned this, a big part of auditory processing definitely can be poor short-term memory.
Um, again, the short-term memories on the left side of the brain, long-term memories on the right side of the brain. Um, so, you know, definitely writing stuff down or typing stuff in your phone is really, really important. Um, I, I would say [00:41:00] that one is huge.
Bianca: Yeah, I'm the queen of Post-it notes. I've got post-it notes everywhere. I've got reminders on my phone if, uh, like everything is on my calendar because I can't, I can't remember what I need to do, but, but then I think, well, I don't have to remember it. That's why I have a phone. Like, I have this thing in my pocket that can do all of this for me.
So yeah, I've definitely learned to rely a lot on that. And even this week, I think it was last Wednesday, I, I was supposed to pay rent and I, I went over and I paid rent. I know that I did because it's in my phone. And if it's not in my phone, it doesn't get done. And if it's in my phone, no problem.
And, but then I was thinking on Friday, did I? Because I couldn't remember if I actually had, but because I have everything really automated, like I know, I know that I did, but I checked and she's like, yeah, of course. So it's the same for me.
Lorraine: Yeah. I would definitely say writing things down is your best friend.
Um, you know, tapping in or capitalizing on that, most likely the fact that you probably have an overdeveloped visual cortex, use that to your advantage, you know? [00:42:00] Use the visual cues, all of that type of stuff. A hundred percent.
And just the other thing too, because attention issues and hyperfocus is such an issue often when people with auditory processing, sometimes literally putting timers into your phone to force you to remember to go take a break to eat or to drink the water or whatever, you know, so
Bianca: Yeah, it has to be in my calendar. And also, um, my water bottle is always right in front of me. So those are, yeah, those are, it's really nice to hear. To me, it's very hopeful to hear like, oh, I'm already doing some of these things, and I was never told to do it, but I, I kind of
figured out what worked for me along the way.
Lorraine: Right..
Bianca: So I think that gives other people hope too that they can kind of figure out a lot of this on their way because I, it seems to me like this is not the kind of thing that you go to medication for, right? It seems like, it seems like you're looking at changing habits.
It's looking at how you're eating things, what you're consuming, and this is really the answer. Would you say that's true?
Lorraine: Definitely. Um, definitely what I call the biology of learning [00:43:00] and then, that functional neurology piece in terms of, you know, our brain has an incredible ability to change and adapt if we stimulate it in the right way.
So if you can access that, um, you know, it can make life easier. Some people can completely overcome it, some people, you know, to a certain degree. But there's definitely a lot of potential that, in ways that it can make life a lot easier for sure.
Bianca: Yeah, andI feel like there's some little things in there that's gonna make me say like, oh, I gotta ask Lorraine about that.
Oh, , I feel like we're gonna have to have another episode about this. So keep, keep in mind anything about language or,
Lorraine: Yep.
Bianca: English as a second language, like learning the language and deciphering. For me it's often like, you know, like in Spanish it's often like, because the syllables are different, the syllable stress is different.
Like I have to kind of change my strategy for that, if that makes sense. You know? So if there's anything you notice
Lorraine: Totally
Bianca: Uhhuh , we can have another discussion about that. Uhhuh .
Lorraine: Yeah, totally. I know that. [00:44:00] The minute that, um, I mean people who are learning just their language, right?
Like say a six-year-old or seven-year-old isn't often, might be in speech therapy for auditory processing disorder issues. So definitely now adding in a second language. Yeah, that's definitely gonna be that much harder for sure.
Bianca: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Or if we learned it as adults, you know, how we, how we process that auditory stuff might be very different as well.
Because you know, things change too. Yeah. And then if you learn in a school versus if you learn, you know, in a different way or something like that, also your learning modalities and things like that. So I feel like we have another episode, that's already written itself, if that's up, if that's something you're up for, you know, we can talk about that later.
Lorraine: Okay.
Bianca: Mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm. I think that's a great place to end because it's full of hope.
And it's, and it's, and we know where to go. We know to go to your website. We know that we can start with that. And to me that's just like a, a lot of hope right there.
I wanna thank you so much for joining us today and talking about auditory processing and auditory processing disorder.
Lorraine: Thank you.
Yeah. Thank you for having me.
Bianca: [00:00:00] Today what we're gonna talk about is what auditory processing is and what it affects, what can cause poor auditory processing, and what people can do to overcome auditory processing issues.
It has become important to me within the last year when I started noticing these things and somebody just mentioned it to me. So then I, I dug into it a little bit and I thought, oh my God, that's totally me. I never knew about this thing. And it's huge.
And it's so, complex too, that I think more people should know about it. So I'm really excited to share what you do with everybody, and especially because of what I do. It's, it's often the case that you have a lot of information in English, but not always in other languages, particularly with medical related things.
Lorraine: Right.
Bianca: And so I, I feel like it's really important that we bring that to people whose first language isn't English, because it might be actually much harder for them to find that.
Lorraine: Right.
Bianca: And it might be there as well. Yeah. Excellent. Excellent.
Lorraine: Yeah, totally.
Bianca: I myself, I'm pretty sure that I have some issues around this, so it really hits home okay[00:01:00] with me personally because I know I need to inform myself a lot more about it. And I know a lot of people that I work with or that follow me, they, they might have these issues too, and not even know about it.
First, what about you? Can you tell us a little bit about how you got to this point and what your passions are?
Lorraine: Yeah, totally. Uh, so to try to make, uh, without telling you a entire life story, I'm a former teacher and I was super frustrated with the school system and, uh, basically was teaching grade seven and eight and just saw a lot of kids who, by the time they'd reached grade eight, had had IEPs and accommodations and, you know, diagnoses from the time they were 6, 7, 8 years old and were really making minimal progress and, um, I was basically, you know, went through the same training as every other teacher and it was kind of, these kids just have to learn how to manage these conditions and so forth.
Um, but I started going down a rabbit hole whenever I started. I have always had an interest in neurosciences and so forth. And then my daughter became sick. I won't go into too [00:02:00] much detail about that, but it involved a neuro- immune condition where a lot of different functions were affected. And so I was almost kind of forced down on a rabbit hole of how different factors like nutrition, gut health, and also our different connections in our brain all impact how well we learn self-regulate, um, our emotions, our speech, our listening abilities, all of that. And I was blown away to learn. There is decades and decades of research to show, to show how the brain can change and, um, that a lot of the things that we think are just conditions we have to manage can actually be overcome.
Um, and so slowly I started to make my way into a new career . And here I am today where I specialize in working with people who have learning, um, I say behavior, but really attention self-regulation issues is really what they are. Um, And to help them actually overcome that as opposed to just managing that, so.
Bianca: Wow, wow. It's so funny [00:03:00] how life takes us on these different paths and we end up in a place where we never thought we were gonna be. Yeah, definitely.
Lorraine: A hundred percent.
Bianca: Wow. Yeah, it's very interesting. And, and for me, a lot of the people that I talk to, obviously English isn't their first language, so at any point
did you ever talk to people who were not only struggling with the language but maybe had something else going on as well?
Lorraine: Totally. Um, both in the past and to this day, I work with people who have multiple issues or layers that are going on, whether it's people who English is not their first language and they have a learning disability or speech issue or attention issue. Um, and then also add to that, you know, what I find is that people think that their issues are separate and they're often linked. So just a, a random kind of example is: one of the questions I'll ask parents whenever I first meet them is, does your child have any skin issues or gut issues? And they'll be like, yeah, what does this have to do with their learning difficulty?
Right? Like, what does eczema have to do with auditory [00:04:00] processing? Um, but I would say like, I don't know, probably like 70% of my clients have some kind of skin issue, like eczema and so forth, and that has a lot to do with auditory processing.
Bianca: What?
Lorraine: So, a lot of the time, our separate issues are connected, are, are, aren't as separate as we think.
And you know, mom's going maybe taking her son to a dermatologist and taking her child here for this problem and this problem when they're all connected to causing overall breakdown biochemically with the brain. So, yeah.
Bianca: Mm-hmm. And I didn't even know this about you and when we first started talking, I said, oh, what did you have for lunch or breakfast?
And you said, sauerkraut. And I'm like, no, wait. I eat sauerkraut too because I have an autoimmune issue. So I'm on this thing called the Autoimmune Protocol, where I'm trying to find out kind of what, what I'm eating that might be causing other issues. So maybe, maybe it turns out that something that I am eating might be related to some of my auditory processing, although... Also, I don't know if I told you this already, but I had a brain tumor several years ago.
Lorraine: Okay. Really?
Bianca: And [00:05:00] so, uh, the, you know, the nerve is completely gone on this side, and I'm deaf completely in this
Lorraine: OK
Bianca: this ear. So I don't know if that had something to do with it before. I really can't quite remember if I had auditory processing issues before that. But I, I find myself, you know, saying what a lot and, and taking longer.
I always have the subtitles on. You know, there are definitely things there that made me think, oh, I didn't know about this, but this is a thing and then this might be me too. So other people have found that there are other things going on that may or they don't think are related, but in fact are related. Eczema is one of them.
Lorraine: Right
Bianca: Are there some other things that you could tell us that might be something that you've noticed in the past about people and, and patterns?
Lorraine: Totally. Um, so auditory processing, there's several factors that are occurring when kids have, or people have auditory processing issues.
Um, and it doesn't mean that they have all of those factors, but they're the factors that we definitely wanna look at. And so the first place I [00:06:00] always start is what I call the biology of learning or the biochemistry of learning. And as a functional nutritionist, that basically involves looking at things like number one, toxicity.
So, um, heavy metal toxicity is a factor. It actually will damage the auditory nerve is particularly sensitive to heavy metals. Um, and it can damage the auditory nerve. So, um, one of the things we do is we might look at is their heavy metal toxicity? Do we need to work on, you know, gently draining and detoxing and then healing the auditory nerve so that functions better.
Um, another thing that is a big one is, um, food sensitivity. So the minute I have a kid who has auditory processing disorder, um, the, one of the first things I will look at is sensitivities to dairy. That that one is number one allergen period, but it's just a mucusy food. Mm-hmm. . So it's going to affect, um, you know, the whole auditory system a lot more.[00:07:00]
But anything that is inflammatory to the body can affect the auditory processing. And so whether it's a gluten for this person in corn for another, um, so we wanna look at is food sensitivities playing a role. So those are the two big ones in terms of biochemical. But other things are, if I'm working with someone who, either they're a child or an adult, but they have a history of ear infections.
Um, it doesn't have to be a ton of ear infections. A lot of people will say, oh, I've only had like two, and no, it wasn't a big deal. But what the research shows is that. Someone could even just have one bad ear infection and it can damage the celia in their ear, and that's going to affect their auditory processing.
The good news is we can heal the celia in the ear with certain protocols and nutrition and so forth. So, um, those are the three kind of big biochemical ones that, um, Have a big impact that I like to look at as factors. And then other factors with auditory processing are [00:08:00] things like, um, so the first one is retain primitive reflexes, which unless you have a child with special needs, and you've been going through this a long time, you probably haven't heard of this.
And yet, if any, anyone who's a mom who's had a baby, um, totally has seen this. So if you remember, whenever you have been around a newborn or your own baby, they will do things like you put your, you know, index finger in the palm of their hand and they wrap their fingers automatically around. the pinky, and you think, oh my goodness, they love me so much. No, they don't.
Yeah, they totally do. But that is what we call the Palmar reflex. And so another example is we put our baby on the change table on their back and they fling their arms and legs out like a starfish.
Um, so we have all kinds of reflexes and they're there, number one, to keep us alive, and number two, to help with brain development. However, they should integrate, meaning disappear, basically meaning integrate into the nervous [00:09:00] system by three years of age, but typically much sooner. If they do not, then it hinders brain development of certain areas of the brain, depending on how many reflexes are retained, which ones are retained, and other factors that are at play.
So there's certain retained reflexes that will affect auditory processing in terms of the auditory cortex in the brain. Yeah. So super fascinating. So one of the things that I do with clients in my program is we work on integrating those reflexes, after we've gone through the biochemical piece and the research shows that almost always when there's auditory processing, there's almost always retained reflexes.
So I would say that is definitely one that you wanna be working on if you do have auditory processing. And then the other thing that, um, is huge is what we call, uh, left brain weakness and right brain [00:10:00] overdevelopment. So this is not the same as the debate around right brain dominant, left brain dominant, and does that exist and all of that type of stuff.
This is literally on brain scans neurologically. We can look at the brain hemispheres and see that in certain individuals they have ahighly developed right side of their brain and a underdeveloped left side of their brain. So meaning there's not as much electrical activity or connections on that side of the brain.
So left side of the brain is where the auditory cortex is.
Bianca: Ah, and now I see the connection here. And would this have anything to do with if somebody is right-handed or left-handed, or is there, is there no connection? ,
Lorraine: Not necessarily. Um, there's more people with dyslexia, like 50% of dyslexics are left handed.
Um, and there is a lot of people with auditory processing who have dyslexia. It's often a component of dyslexia. So it could be, but it's definitely not like a determining factor. That you [00:11:00] would, you know, wanna say that's for sure the case. But what I find really interesting is, um, in connection to some of the work that you do is, you're probably working with a lot of artists, um, people who have that art artist brain, right? And so a lot of the kids and adults I work with who have a left brain weakness, who have auditory processing issues are these super creative imaginative people. They're really good at the arts.
So they have this, that's their zone of genius. They have this beautifully overdeveloped right brain. That's why they have those gifts. But they have this weak left brain and they have this, uh, auditory cortex that is really needing some more connections. So another piece of my program is we stimulate the weaker side of the brain, the left side of the brain, and so forth, um, to get more connectivity with the auditory cortex.
Um, so that's for the most part the big things that we look at when there's auditory processing issues. So as you can see, it's multi- [00:12:00] therapy, if you will. The biochemistry and then we call the functional neurology, so, meaning the actual connections in the brain that could be impacting You know, someone's ability.
Bianca: No kidding, because I've been speaking with you for about five minutes and already you've exploded my brain about all this and, and so much that I didn't know even though. I knew it existed at least, right? I, I kind of stuck my toes in the water a little bit, but I had no idea about all these interconnected things or things you wouldn't think of.
So I wanna, I definitely wanna hear more about your program later and let people know how you can help people. But can we back up first and can we kind of
Lorraine: Totally
Bianca: Just talk about what auditory processing is? And maybe talk a little bit more about the label itself or how should we think about it and some things like that.
Can we back up for that?
Lorraine: Yeah, totally.
Bianca: Awesome.
Lorraine: Um, so basically auditory processing. First of all, it can present differently in different people, right? It's like anything. I mean, um, you have an autoimmune condition, so, you know what I'm talking about in terms of it can [00:13:00] look, you know, in 10 different ways for different people.
So, Some of the symptoms though that can appear, uh, typically are things like one of the big ones that I see with a lot of people. The auditory processing disorder is a hard time following multi-step instructions, particularly when given orally. So, you know, if I'm dealing with a child, I'll say, Mom can, you know, little Johnny, uh, follow instructions if you say, I want you to take a shower, brush your teeth, go eat breakfast, and then pack your backpack. And they're like, Nope.
Bianca: Gone after shower.
Lorraine: Like, he can't. Yeah, exactly. You can remember the first instruction. Um, so that's a big one. Um, another one is saying, huh, or what? A lot. So you, your hearing is fine.
Bianca: Guilty.
Lorraine: Right? Yeah. So hearing is fine, but you, it's like the processing of the information for your brain to understand the meaning of it is a little bit slower. So then that's where we say, huh? Or what, because that gives us time to process. And then sometimes the person repeats the question and you're already answering it before they [00:14:00] finish repeating the question. Because now, you've had time to process, right?
Bianca: Exactly. I would use it as a stalling technique sometimes, and not only in English, in situations where I was speaking in another language because that gave me time, literally to process the question. And I, and I knew there was sound there. I don't know how quite, to describe it. I knew there was sound there. I knew I was hearing something, but I didn't know what it was. Or sometimes I could pick out the main words and I was trying to decide, was that a question?
And you're trying to think of somebody's intonation at the same time and maybe cultural differences. And so it's, it's a lot of layers Um, and to break it down, You know, it wasn't that I wasn't listening to you. I'm sorry I wasn't, I was absolutely listening. I'm just getting there a little bit slower, you know?
Lorraine: Yeah.
Bianca: So I'd have trouble with that.
Lorraine: Exactly.Yep. Um, often, uh, people have issues with focus. Again, particularly if they're in a situation, um, like I encountered this a lot with university or college students where they're like three hour lecture just having to listen and use my auditory system for three hours, they feel like their brain is gonna explode. They can [00:15:00] only take in so much auditory information. And I wanna add to that. I actually had a man come to see me, he was probably 58, 59, um, a few years ago, and he said that it was affecting his marriage because he felt like, I mean, women always have this running joke that, you know, man, it goes through one ear out the other.
But he was like, like, this is serious. He's like, my wife thinks that I really don't care. I'm not paying attention. But he's like, she talks and I, I literally tap out. I can't take in too much auditory information. He was an engineer, so super smart, but he's like, it, it affected his ability to do his job well as well.
You
Lorraine: know, it, it, there were certain things that really impacted him as a engineer and he was like, I don't care if I'm 58. I, I wanna fix this even if it's just for my relationship. So it's not always how it affects our learning or academics or our career, it's also how it affects our relationships, whether it's the child to the parent or the parent to the child or within a, you know, marital relationship and [00:16:00] so forth.
Bianca: Hmm. I have a roommate and Yeah. And, you know, bless him, he, he is very patient and he knows about this too, but he gets frustrated sometimes when, when I say what, you know, it's, it's totally understandable.
He, he really likes, I don't know if I told you, I live in Mexico and my roommate is Mexican, but his English is phenomenal. So when we watch things in English. We often have the subtitles on , not necessarily for him, but for me
Lorraine: Right
Bianca: Because I enjoy having the subtitles on and that's how I'm kind of, I'm kind of listening through reading.
But I've heard stories of other people who get really frustrated with just, just having the subtitles on and they'll just walk out of the room and they don't wanna participate in sharing that entertainment with the person just because the subtitles are on and I see can see how that would strain a relationship, too.
Lorraine: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. There's a lot of layers to it in terms that go, you know, much further than, um, academics or learning, but definitely connected to the academics, um, when someone is a child. So if I'm working with an adult who has auditory [00:17:00] processing disorder, I will ask, like, did you have speech difficulties when you were a child?
Um, that's really common. Did you have a hard time learning to read or a hard time blending sounds? Did you have a hard time, um, you know, rhyming or anything, uh, with, you know, putting words together and so forth? And oftentimes there is some of that that's taken place. Um, some of it's been overcome, some of it's still, you know, an issue.
Bianca: Hmm, Hmm. That's making me think about, um, my, my own, my own issue with this too, and I'm trying to think like, because of my autoimmune issue, it's a chicken and egg thing. Like, I'm wondering, I'm trying to now think if, when I was a kid, I don't think I had trouble blending sounds. I don't think I had trouble with rhymes.
And far from being, um, let's say unfocused. I think I had the opposite. And even now, I am hyper-focused on what people say
Lorraine: Right.
Bianca: Probably because I need, I need that focus. And so, you know, what I do in my work is, you know, what, six hours a day, I'm usually one-on-one with somebody just really paying attention to what [00:18:00] they say and how they say it.
For example, you say, you say processing and I say processing. Um, right. And I'm just, I just can't help it anymore. I just pick up every little thing. But I think it was a coping mechanism, probably starting
Lorraine: Interesting.
Bianca: Sometime, I'm just guessing, maybe starting when the autoimmunity started. Plus, I have this deafness issue on one side.
Lorraine: Yup.
Bianca: So for example, riding in a car, if I'm not the driver, at least if you drive on the, the right side of the road, like in many countries then, if I'm not the driver, I have a really hard time just hearing the driver. Like, let's say the windows are open, that's worse.
And then I hear, I finally hear it, and then I have to process it too. So, for example, when I'm driving with my roommate and he, and he's saying something, you know, sometimes that's when he gets really frustrated So I'm, I try to notice as much as possible.
Lorraine: Yeah. Okay. And that's so, I'm so glad you mentioned that because there seems to be two spectrums with that, where it's either, um, the person who has auditory processing issues might, um, have what I call the volume turned up really [00:19:00] high.
So they could be, say the kid in the classroom who gets really overwhelmed with too much sound, or the adult who gets overwhelmed with too much sound and is like, I don't wanna hear anything. When they get home, they just, they don't even wanna drive home with the radio on because they are just o they have what I call sensory overload.
Or auditory overload. And for children, this will look like, these are the kids they come home and they have a meltdown. They're having tantrums because their system is overloaded. As adults though, okay, most of us aren't having tantrums, but it can look like anxiety or overwhelm or just not being able to, to do another thing.
Um, and yes, then there is the other spectrum where they're not as highly attuned to the sounds and they're not picking up on it. Like the dyslexic, who can't tell the difference between /b/ and /d/, you know, or /p/ and /b/. So, um, and, and you're absolutely right, auditory processing is also very much connected to ADHD and ADD.
So there could be the person who, um, has a hard time focusing. Or there could be the person who has hyper-focused, or like a lot of [00:20:00] people, um, who have ADHD, they have a hard time focusing, but if they're s if they're super interested in something, then they have hyperfocused and could zero in all day. Right. Um. Yeah. So yeah,
Bianca: Uhhuh. I'm so glad we're talking today because all these things are really ringing true for me and I hope they're hitting home for other people who are listening, too. So we're talking about, um, auditory processing and how there can be issues with that and how it's affecting relationships, how it's affecting ability to study, maybe your focus.
What other things do you wanna mention about auditory processing and what it affects before we go back to the causes and maybe reiterate some of those causes?
Lorraine: Um, I think we covered it. Like basically the big, like the big thing, I get a lot of people reaching out to me is, you know, learning and reading is huge.
So, any kind of history regarding that? Um, definitely a spillover is going to be, you know, affecting your relationships. And, um, of course that attention and [00:21:00] focus piece. So those are the three main pieces that I see occurring. And just one other add-on is another cue that someone might have auditory processing issues is just if they, uh, prefer to or access information visually as opposed to just listening. So, um, I remember when I was teaching and you know, I even still see this, where people are like, no, I can't, I can't just listen to you read that. I need to see it, or I need the book in front of me, um, you know, so yeah. Basically they can't just focus on auditory information for any amount of time, or they just kind of shut down.
Bianca: Oh yeah. Those are my subtitles. Give me, gimme the slides. Give me the, gimme the book. Gimme the text too. Yeah. It's not, to me, it's not too much. It's just an extra channel. And also I'm super kinesthetic as well, so anything you can give me to touch or hold or manipulate, I'm, I'm cool with that, you know?
Yeah. But auditory only? Often I just kind of zone out. I just turn it off and start wandering around inside my own brain.
Lorraine: Yeah.
Bianca: And, and everything you've [00:22:00] said so far, does any of thatonly apply to children or can all of this be applied to adults? And do we have other things to mention for adults as well?
Lorraine: Um, so one other factor that I should mention is head injuries, um, you know, that obviously that can affect any area of the brain. So, um, and head injuries by the way, so, as I mentioned, when we're born, we have these primitive reflexes that should integrate in infancy, but because those reflexes are a survival mechanism, if we get a head injury, those reflexes can come back.
So we might have been a perfectly well-developed infant, everything's fine. And then 21 years old, we get into a car accident and as a protective mechanism, basically those reflexes will unintegrated. And so you can actually develop issues with auditory processing as an adult or a teen or whatever out of nowhere because of an accident or injury and so forth. So always considering the fact, has there been a head injury, concussion or something of the sort. [00:23:00] Um, and also, the other factor is stealth infections, um, which is really getting deeper into that functional neurology piece. But as someone who's had Lyme, um, you know, or chronic lime, that can affect a lot. Brain inflammation can affect a lot. We know that food sensitivities on a smaller level, there's that neuroinflammation. Um, so if we're also dealing with things like, you know, Lyme or mold toxicity or any toxicity or any other stealth infection that can also affect auditory processing and other functions as well.
Bianca: You are making my day today because I have had Lyme. I grew up in upstate New York, right? So everybody in their brother has Lyme.
Lorraine: OK, Got it. Yes.
Bianca: So, uh, where are you located? Where are you now?
Lorraine: I'm just like 30 minutes from the upstate New York border. So I live, I'm between Montreal and Ottawa.
Bianca: Yes, we, we used to go to Montreal all the time on the weekends.
Lorraine: Yeah.
Bianca: Cuz it was so close. I lived, I dunno if you know Glens Falls, do you know Queensbury area?
Lorraine: Yes.
Bianca: Probably not. Yes? That's my hometown. So yeah. Yeah. Lyme disease. Rampant. I [00:24:00] definitely have Lyme disease. And uh, there was something else you went... oh, concussion. I was snowboarding one time and this person came behind me totally outta control, "kkkkkkk"
All I heard, all I heard was "kkkkkkk", and then I woke up, um, who knows how long later. I was soaked, so I was laying in the snow for a while. Couldn't move, couldn't move any of my extremities. The person was nowhere there. It was like a Tuesday. Nobody else was on the mountain. and yeah, and, and I, after about an hour, I was able to wiggle my, I think an hour, able to wiggle my toes and then my feet and finally get down to like a, like a ski station.
And um, so maybe there's that as well. I also had like the brain tumor, so who knows, you know, where all this stuff comes from. Is there a test that people can take? Is there maybe an online survey at least where they can get some ideas? We can put these in the show notes later. Um, you can just say, yes, it's available, or, or like, no, contact me directly.
Is there some way that people can kind of start to self-assess before they come to you?
Lorraine: [00:25:00] Um, yeah, so, you know what? I actually don't have a self-assessment for auditory processing, but now you're, you've got me thinking, but I do have a pretty, uh, an extremely detailed, uh, articleon my blog on what auditory processing is, and here's the signs and symptoms.
Um, so you can definitely, I mean, the more boxes that you're kind of ticking in that list in terms of here are the symptoms. Um, that's more, you know, you can kind of be sure, um, that that's probably a factor at play. And I also wanna caution people. I'm not a doctor and so people will say to me, um, you know, can you, can you diagnose me with auditory processing and find, like, can you find out if I have it or not?
And I'll say, no, I can't. But I wanna caution people to not get too hung up on the diagnosis. And the reason I say that is I have a lot of parents come to me and they'll be like, well, we got him checked for auditory processing disorder. And he doesn't have it, but he has this symptom, the symptom, this symptom.
And the way the diagnosises work is like you have to have so many, you have to tick so many, so many boxes to hit. [00:26:00] That, that line or that threshold of if it's a diagnosis or not. And if it's not a diagnosis, then it's nothing. So that's where now I'm like, okay, maybe you don't have a learning disability, or maybe you don't have auditory processing disorder, maybe you have a glitch, right?
Bianca: You have something to work on. Yeah. You, you still need some help. Obviously you need some support.
Lorraine: Yeah, exactly. So, um, and I say that just because I don't know that all of your, you know, clients have insurance and like, from what I understand, most people are paying around three to $4,000 for these diagnoses.
And they're not getting, that's just for the diagnosis, not for the actual help. So, um, you know, if you feel like you're ticking all the boxes, um, and you don't have insurance that diagnosis isn't gonna help you get funding, then, um, , it might not be in your economic best interest to put all your money in, in getting that label.
Bianca: Mm-hmm. . Okay. So let's start with that then. For example, I'm, I'm living here in Mexico. You know, the, the healthcare's really quite good, but I don't... there's still a lot of kind of holes that I see and so [00:27:00] I'm, I, I have to say, I'm a little bit skeptical that if I were to find somebody here and I ticked all the boxes, blah, blah, blah, I don't know that I would be able to get the help that I need right? Even if I have the money to pay for it. So, do you have anything that somebody can do, even if they suspect some of these things? Like where can somebody start even with, let's say, very little money?
Lorraine: Okay, with very little money, first of all. Yeah. Hop on my website. Check and see if you you know, if you kind of sounds like you have auditory processing disorder, just go into the blog, type in auditory processing in the search, and you'll find probably more information than you're looking for.
Um, that's step one. the next step. If you don't have a lot of money. I would start with the things that I've mentioned, like number one, do I have food sensitivities that are not being addressed or haven't been identified, I should say? Um, and again, you can pay for a food sensitivity panel through a functional medicine or naturopathic doctor or a functional medicine nutritionist like myself. But if you can't afford [00:28:00] that, do an elimination diet. You know, eliminate the top foods that are known. You can, you can search that on the internet, the top allergenic foods or food sensitivities. Eliminate those. I would say minimum six to eight weeks.
And then you slowly add one in back at a time and see the difference. Um, quick little story. I had a client who they had tried everything, um, for their child's auditory processing disorder. as soon as we removed dairy and gluten,like it was like a totally different child, both with focus, attention, reading, um, everything.
To the point where they were like, come on,cause dad was super skeptical. I'm like, how is dairy and gluten doing this, right? And then, um, they, they removed it. and we're kind of like, yeah, no, this can't be, this can't be, this is like, gotta be something else. So they added it back in and within a week and a half, everything slid backwards.
Bianca: Wow.
Lorraine: [00:29:00] And then again, remove the food. Totally different child. Um, is it always that simple? I wish. Um, there was usually multiple layers, but just wanted to share. It's pretty powerful sometimes how much these things can affect the brain, so
Bianca: Oh, no kidding. No kidding. I'm on the, uh, Autoimmune Protocol right now.
Which, which I'm, I'm gonna try to do it, a lot of people do it one to three months from what I've read, and I'm gonna try to do it six months so that I can really get, like, I think I hope more data about how, how something might affect me when I'm reintroducing it. But I can tell you already that, yeah, cra crazy as it sounds,
it's sometimes true. When I, well, the reason I started, let me rewind. The reason I started this Autoimmune Protocol was because of my, uh, autoimmune, um, disease, which is Hashimoto's. And I, I was on the medication, you know, I'm, I'm maxed out on the medication. Still can't lose weight, still get night sweats, you know, um, my asthma's terrible.
Uh, what else? Uh, I had, uh, knee surgery twice, and that was three years ago. My knee still hurts every day, [00:30:00] right? So I was really at the end and I decided to try this because I ate pretty healthy, honestly before
Lorraine: Right
Bianca: One thing though, I didn't really eat much meat. I ate a lot of eggs. and pretty much the minute we cut out eggs and it was just a little test before I did the whole AIP, I was like, I can't believe this.
My knee feels better. Can't believe this. My asthma's getting better, right? Mostly just from eggs. And then I, I, I think I put eggs back into play and I was like, yep, I think it is eggs. At least one thing. So now I'm doing the whole protocol to see if there's anything else that's hiding in there. You know,
It could be dairy, it could be gluten, often, very often gluten for people with my, my thing. But yeah, I'm gonna do the whole thing so I can try to weed out as much as possible. So that's, that's where I'm at.
Lorraine: Yeah. Yup.
Bianca: What else? What else can people do?
Lorraine: Right. So if you've kind of tackled that, then I mean the next one is considering if there's heavy metal, um, toxicity.
Um, I see that. I would say enough in my clients, like mm-hmm. I'm gonna see 40, 50%. [00:31:00] It's pretty common though, with, especially when I, you're working with learning disabilities, which is not necessarily the case with someone who just has auditory processing. Um, but that's definitely one to tackle and I'm am going to caution you not to tackle heavy metal detoxification on your own.
Um, because it can make things worse if you're not doing things right. The body is, as we know, is extremely wise and will deposit the heavy metals in areas that are less dangerous, like the and, um, you know, the other tissues. So you don't wanna start drawing that out and having that circulate in the blood and crossing the blood brainin barrier, um, unless you're doing this properly to make sure it's actually going through the detox organs.
So I will say that one is definitely not a do it yourself. Um, but even just looking at, am I exposed to heavy metals? Like what is your, what's up with your waters, whether it's city water or well water. Um, you know, what am I putting on my face every day? Um, you know, what am I washing with? What am I eating?
Um, I have a client recently who her [00:32:00] six or seven year old son had a lot of, has insane issues with rage. And they actually lived in the Northern Dominican Republic for two years and they found out that the pesticides are, you know, in terms of what's legal there is different.
And the child had very high levels of lead and something else anyway. And, um, they suspect that it most likely came from living in the Dominican and eating all this food and so forth. There's obviously some other genetic variations at play too that affected his ability to detox.
But, um, You know, so what am I being exposed to? I think is definitely something you ought to consider. Or what have I been exposed to? Um, then as far as the neurological piece or functional neurology piece, you know, finding out do I have retained primitive reflexes? Is that affecting me?
Again, you can find a lot of that on my website, some good information about the different reflexes and what it affects and so forth. And, um, [00:33:00] then, stimulating the left side of the brain can definitely be, um, a bit of a trick. There's different tools and so forth to do, um, but if you kind of just go online, um, there are things you can do that it will give you some tips.
I don't know if it'll be, you know, totally get you over the, over the cliff, but, um, it'll definitely help, so.
Bianca: Hmm. Mm-hmm. So. Mm-hmm. So, For most people, a really good starting point would be your website, first of all. And I'm gonna link that in the show notes, obviously, but can you say the name, spell the name, give us a way to remember how to find you there, and so that we can kind of remember that auditorially, let's say?
And then of course, we'll put the link down below in the show notes too.
Lorraine: Totally. So my website is my name Lorraine Driscoll.com. Driscoll like the strawberries. Um, I say that cuz that just seems to be what people remember.
Bianca: Let me pause you there for a second because, let me tell you something. You may not know this.When you buy Driscoll berries of any kind, they come from about an [00:34:00] hour of where I live, so right near Lake Chapala.
Lorraine: Okay, cool.
Bianca: Yeah. In Mexico, the biggest lake in the country is called Lake Chapala. And just outside of there, between my city, Guadalajara, and there, you drive and you go through all the fields and you'll see all the Driscolls farms and things like that. And they have planes leaving full of berries every day.
So next time, next time you get some berries or you think about your last name, or if you're trying to remember Lorraine's website, remember I have a special rapport withthe Driscoll strawberries.
Lorraine: Very cool. Love it. That's awesome. Um, or you can just type in Building Better Brains into Google.
And my, uh, website is what pops up
Bianca: Nice. Building Better Brains. Excellent. Perfect.
Lorraine: Yeah.
Bianca: Perfect. So let's just make sure that we've got all the bases covered, right? We talked about what auditory processing is and what it affects, and how this kind of disorder can, can wreak havoc on somebody's life.
What can cause it, right? There's a lot of different things that can can cause this, is there anything else people can do to overcome this? Anything maybe that's not on the website specifically, or it's not, let's say more [00:35:00] medical in a way. Something that how we can connect with other people and tell them about this.
Is there something else that we can share, either as a person who may have problems with this or somebody we know, we love, or just people in general? What else could you advise us for for that? Outside of medical things, what can we, as, as people, kind of do to help ourselves, help each other? Is there anything else that we can, that we can do?
Lorraine: So, I mean, the one thing I like to say is like, just becoming aware of auditory processing and what it is and how it's impacting you can be huge as well, because then you know even how to help yourself even before, you know, you start pursuing interventions that are corrective.
Um, just knowing, you know, oh, okay. Like I can't tell you how many teenagers I've worked with are like, oh, okay, so I'm not dumb. You know, I just need to access how I learn more visually at this point. Um, you know, so just knowing how your brain works at this point, whether you're gonna, you know, shift that or not is immensely [00:36:00] important.
Or letting people in your family know. I would say 80% of my clients are children, but whether they're children or not, um, yes, the moms know. Okay, when I'm, talking to little Johnny, Um, I have to break those instructions down one at a time and so forth. So just knowing that, um, that has to happen.
And so if you are the person with auditory processing, telling the people around you, look, I have auditory processing disorder. Um, and so if you give me like, five things at once, I'm probably not gonna remember it. If you write it down, that's gonna help me a lot. Um, so just first of all, being self-aware of how it's affecting you and what you need, and then basically, basically asking for your needs to be met um, can, can really help take some of the stress out of how it's impacting your life.
Bianca: Mm-hmm. , oh, another, speaking of quick stories, so here I am living in Mexico, right? My, my, my roommate speaks English and sometimes we speak French. Very rarely do we speak Spanish, but I have friends that come over and we'll watch something in English and I'll, I just always have the [00:37:00] subtitles on and they think I'm putting on the subtitles for them, and I think they get a little bit insulted and they're like, I don't need subtitles.
I'm like, it's not for you, it's for me. Sorry. Like, it's
Lorraine: Right.
Bianca: It's something that I don't, I don't think enough to to say out loud, because I'm so used to accommodating for that, you know? But just saying these things out loud and maybe more often I think might be more helpful.
Lorraine: Right, exactly. It's like, um, I was talking to an adult recently who has auditory processing disorder, but also, um, has that, you know, ADHD or ADD, that hyperfocus. And has since tuned into it and told their family, okay, like, if you notice that I'm getting really sucked into something, I'm not even stopping to eat, please. Um, please make me aware of that, you know? Like, help me with it, so,
Bianca: Mm-hmm. Yeah. I have trouble with the meals thing too. I get, yeah. I just get really into what I'm doing. And I don't know if it's related to the autoimmune issue, like I just, I don't experience hunger very often, I've [00:38:00] found that over time, I, I just don't feel very hungry, so I don't have that physical, like, like reminder and, um, I don't know if this happens to other people, but I, I have to be reminded when was the last time you ate? I'm like, oh, I don't, um hmm. It's definitely something I experienced.
And you mentioned something also that was interesting. How things we're exposed to, they might, um, they might damage parts of our auditory processing, at least the, the biology of it.
Is there anything else that we can be aware of? What we eat? What are our toxicity might be, what we might be exposed to. I know we can't really look at that ourselves, but is there any other considerations that we can just kind of think about and be aware of?
Lorraine: There's definitely research that points to, um, if there's gut issues that that can affect auditory processing. So I won't bore anyone to death about the biology of that. But you know, the brain is just another organ in the body and I like [00:39:00] to remind people of that. Because it's really easy for us to think, well, how could what's going on in my gut affect what's going on in my brain?
Because it's another organ in the body. A lot of us, I think by now, have heard about the brain gut connection. So, you know, the brain gut connection is huge. Um, and a lot of people that I work with, once we improve and heal their gut, that can improve their auditory processing. So as you know, you're on the AIP diet. Um, you know, to anyone listening, you don't have to do the AIP diet to heal. Maybe it can be helpful. Maybe that's your path, but it doesn't have to be.
Bianca: It's a bit core for some Yeah.
Lorraine: It totally is hardcore. Yep. Um, so just doing things like being more conscious. How much sugar am I, am I eating? Am I eating too many excess carbohydrates?
Um, am I getting enough protein? Am I eating foods that are nourishing to my gut? Like, I don't know, bone broth? Or sauerkraut or ferments or whatever, right? I always tell people this is not like [00:40:00] new age nutrition as some people coin gut healing.
It's stuff that our great grandparents did as part of their normal way of living a long time ago right? So if we just go back to what we call an ancestral diet, um, we can really improve our gut health in that way alone.
Bianca: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, definitely. Definitely. And what about, um, coping strategies, and we can end with this.
Any kind of other strategies or mechanisms that people might be able to do if they don't have the diagnosis, let's say, but they suspect like, oh, I'm having trouble with this. What are some ways that I can manage some of these things? Do you have any thoughts on that?
Lorraine: Letting people know. Your best friend is a notepad because also, I don't even know if I mentioned this, a big part of auditory processing definitely can be poor short-term memory.
Um, again, the short-term memories on the left side of the brain, long-term memories on the right side of the brain. Um, so, you know, definitely writing stuff down or typing stuff in your phone is really, really important. Um, I, I would say [00:41:00] that one is huge.
Bianca: Yeah, I'm the queen of Post-it notes. I've got post-it notes everywhere. I've got reminders on my phone if, uh, like everything is on my calendar because I can't, I can't remember what I need to do, but, but then I think, well, I don't have to remember it. That's why I have a phone. Like, I have this thing in my pocket that can do all of this for me.
So yeah, I've definitely learned to rely a lot on that. And even this week, I think it was last Wednesday, I, I was supposed to pay rent and I, I went over and I paid rent. I know that I did because it's in my phone. And if it's not in my phone, it doesn't get done. And if it's in my phone, no problem.
And, but then I was thinking on Friday, did I? Because I couldn't remember if I actually had, but because I have everything really automated, like I know, I know that I did, but I checked and she's like, yeah, of course. So it's the same for me.
Lorraine: Yeah. I would definitely say writing things down is your best friend.
Um, you know, tapping in or capitalizing on that, most likely the fact that you probably have an overdeveloped visual cortex, use that to your advantage, you know? [00:42:00] Use the visual cues, all of that type of stuff. A hundred percent.
And just the other thing too, because attention issues and hyperfocus is such an issue often when people with auditory processing, sometimes literally putting timers into your phone to force you to remember to go take a break to eat or to drink the water or whatever, you know, so
Bianca: Yeah, it has to be in my calendar. And also, um, my water bottle is always right in front of me. So those are, yeah, those are, it's really nice to hear. To me, it's very hopeful to hear like, oh, I'm already doing some of these things, and I was never told to do it, but I, I kind of
figured out what worked for me along the way.
Lorraine: Right..
Bianca: So I think that gives other people hope too that they can kind of figure out a lot of this on their way because I, it seems to me like this is not the kind of thing that you go to medication for, right? It seems like, it seems like you're looking at changing habits.
It's looking at how you're eating things, what you're consuming, and this is really the answer. Would you say that's true?
Lorraine: Definitely. Um, definitely what I call the biology of learning [00:43:00] and then, that functional neurology piece in terms of, you know, our brain has an incredible ability to change and adapt if we stimulate it in the right way.
So if you can access that, um, you know, it can make life easier. Some people can completely overcome it, some people, you know, to a certain degree. But there's definitely a lot of potential that, in ways that it can make life a lot easier for sure.
Bianca: Yeah, andI feel like there's some little things in there that's gonna make me say like, oh, I gotta ask Lorraine about that.
Oh, , I feel like we're gonna have to have another episode about this. So keep, keep in mind anything about language or,
Lorraine: Yep.
Bianca: English as a second language, like learning the language and deciphering. For me it's often like, you know, like in Spanish it's often like, because the syllables are different, the syllable stress is different.
Like I have to kind of change my strategy for that, if that makes sense. You know? So if there's anything you notice
Lorraine: Totally
Bianca: Uhhuh , we can have another discussion about that. Uhhuh .
Lorraine: Yeah, totally. I know that. [00:44:00] The minute that, um, I mean people who are learning just their language, right?
Like say a six-year-old or seven-year-old isn't often, might be in speech therapy for auditory processing disorder issues. So definitely now adding in a second language. Yeah, that's definitely gonna be that much harder for sure.
Bianca: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Or if we learned it as adults, you know, how we, how we process that auditory stuff might be very different as well.
Because you know, things change too. Yeah. And then if you learn in a school versus if you learn, you know, in a different way or something like that, also your learning modalities and things like that. So I feel like we have another episode, that's already written itself, if that's up, if that's something you're up for, you know, we can talk about that later.
Lorraine: Okay.
Bianca: Mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm. I think that's a great place to end because it's full of hope.
And it's, and it's, and we know where to go. We know to go to your website. We know that we can start with that. And to me that's just like a, a lot of hope right there.
I wanna thank you so much for joining us today and talking about auditory processing and auditory processing disorder.
Lorraine: Thank you.
Yeah. Thank you for having me.
