Autistic brains process sound slower than nonautistic ones.
…researchers discovered what they believe are “signatures of autism” that show a delay in processing individual sounds.
That delay is only a fraction of a second, but when it’s for every sound, the lag time can cascade into a major obstacle in speaking and understanding people, the researchers said.
Imagine if it took a tiny bit longer than normal to understand each syllable. By the end of a whole sentence, you’d be pretty confused.
Researchers at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia had 64 autistic children ages 6 to 15 listen through headphones to a series of rapid beeps while under the helmet-like device, which recorded the brain’s response to the sounds. Those brain waves, shown as highlighted areas on an imaging screen, were compared with responses in a group of non-autistic children.
In autistic children, response to each sound was delayed by one-fiftieth of a second.
Yet another reminder to speak slowly and clearly, and to wait for a response. I tend to pile more and more words on, when I don’t think I’m being understood, and in this case it likely just makes it worse!
November 30, 2008 at 7:42 pm
I’ll bet Bre’s delay is much slower than that ;-)
December 1, 2008 at 10:13 am
“Researchers at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia had 64 autistic children ages 6 to 15 listen through headphones to a series of rapid beeps while under the helmet-like device, which recorded the brain’s response to the sounds.”
Well, gee, that sounds like a barrel of fun. :\ Interesting and important to remember findings, though.
December 1, 2008 at 11:24 am
Hmm, I will keep that in mind. Josh has been getting harder and harder to get a long with. Maybe it really IS my fault.
December 3, 2008 at 2:46 pm
With K’s APD, I sometimes forget to be a bit clearer and talk too fast resulting in both of us going cuckoo.
December 3, 2008 at 8:00 pm
This is documented for Zane when he did the sedated hearing test. He is on the high end for an APD, but it is a signifigant delay compared to “normal” hearing.