Visual Processing and Autitory Processing Part 2

Development of Processing:

Before discussing about the development of processing, we need to understand what is the 'processing' means! It is the ability to identify, interpret,attach meaning, and retrieve when required. The stimuli or out put may be auditory, visual, tactile and or kinesthetic mode. The most important modalities are auditory and visual processing!  

A. Auditory processing: first and foremost sensory area to be stimulated and developed. at the __weeks of gestational period the hearing apparatus will be fully developed and ready to be function. Auditory pathway matures faster due to the exposure to external sounds (needs citation). My personal experience and matter of fact sever people's experience with their babies suggests that the voice the fetus hears more during the gestational period will respond to it after the birth. I used to read and tell the stories to my little princess during her gestational period. When she was born, she responded to my voice with the smile. Matter of fact my wife needed to play my video to wake her up from her nap. I knew that they may not differentiate subtle differences of voices, for example, my daughter responded similarly for my dad's voice on the phone (from India). People say that I sound like my dad! One more fact we should consider when we are dealing with auditory processing which is the length of it from the inner ear to the auditory areas in the temporal lobe. It has several relay stations. In my opinion, this is the first pathway that connects subcortical to cortical region.

B. Visual Processing: even though the visual and auditory apparatus develop almost at the same gestational period, they mature differently. There will be a deprivation of visual stimuli and it is limited to exposure of fluids in the amniotic sac. This suggests the maturation of visual processing starts after the birth (needs citation). However, we need to consider the length of visual pathway which has fewer relay stations.

To conclude the development of processing, auditory processing starts in the womb whereas visual processing starts after the birth. This diference in maturation more evident in faster reaction time for auditory stimuli than visual stimuli even in adult life. The visual processing tries to catch up with auditory processing in later stages of life (however, never catches up completely). This is more evident when the integration of visual and auditory processing required. This process will help to form the associating fibers and associating areas in the brain.  For example, the infants associate the spoken word to the visual stimulus (picture/object/person).

Disorders of Processing:

I saw some people confused between the acuity and processing. People's visual acuity and auditory acuity may be normal but unable to process the information from the stimuli. The disorders of processing can be devided into following: 

To be Continued ......