5 year old son Auditory Processing Problems

My 5 year old son is placed in an Early Intervention preschool run by our public school district. He will turn 6 in June and he will enter Kindergarten this Fall. Several specialists suspect that he has APD. He also has a language delay but has normal speech. He speaks in 6-10 word sentences and puts sentences together i.e. “Ok mommy, I’m going upstairs to put on my red pants. I’ll be right back”. He communicates his wants, needs and feelings well. We can leave him with a sitter that he has never met and he will communicate with his routine to her so we don’t have to leave a note.

He often has difficulty answering simple questions, at times i.e. “when” and “where” questions. He will answer questions inappropriately at time i.e. “When do you go to bed? answer: “in your bed”. He has big problems with “how” questions and inconsitently answers “why” questions. His ability to answer question is inconsitent. Tonight, I asked him “What do you do with a tooth brush and what do you do with shampoo?-he answered these correctly. I asked him a series of similar questions last night. He answered a number of them incorrectly. When I re-asked him the same questions, he answered all, about6 correctly.

He does not tell stories the way most kids his age do i.e. “At school, we went to the library and I got a book about frogs”. Mike got sick and went home”. He will answer specific questions, in brief terms but never tells stories. He has problems with directions, again at times, other times he can follow a 3 step direction. At school he almost never self-initiates, he needs cueing and reassurance to act. He does not seem to have an attentional issue. He is very quiet and reserved at school. He only speaks when spoken to. He is cooperative and is described as “eager to please”. At home he self-initiates much more and is much more outgoing. I seems somewhat more immature than most kids his age, overall.

One thing I find particularly strange is that I do an activity with him where I ask him to “put 4 orange pegs on a peg board” He complies. “put 2 green ones” etc. He has very little problem locating the correct color and number of pegs from a coffee can and putting them on the board. This seems like an auditory processing activity?????

He seems to be bright. He has started reading sight words, learned about 40 in 6 weeks. He recognizes all letters of the alphabet and knows all letter sounds. He is learning to rhyme. He rote counts to 40 and counts objects to 20. He recognizes numerals 0-40 He knows shapes and all colors. If you ask him what shape a door is he can tell you “rectangle” and argyle pattern “diamond”.

He can copy a simple block design and other patterns. He can recite his name, address including city, phone number, mommy and daddy’s name, his birthdate, his age, his sister’s age. He catches a football from about 15’ and smaller balls from 10’ away. He throws well, hits a a ball off a tee well and can hit a ball pitched to him rather well. He writes his first name, strings beads, buttons shirts, cuts out shapes including circles with scissors independently. He can dress himself, zip his own coat and manage socks and shoes (velcro).

I recently was informed that he will not be accepted into a Catholic school for Kindergarten because he needs to have more assistance from an aide than they can provide for him there. This is due to his need for cuing and reassurance. So, we will put him in the public school with an IEP from the EI preschool. I am disappointed but I know this is best for my son. I am very nervous as to how he will do in school. Any insight or comments into this situation would be very much appreciated!! Thanks!!