Communication Connections Salon 8-12-2025: Breaking Down Silos: What Happened When APD Experts, Parents, and AI Developers Got Together

Today I hosted a Zoom discussion that started with auditory processing disorder (APD) and ended up covering everything from artificial intelligence (AI) ethics to therapy trauma. Sometimes the best conversations are the ones that refuse to stay in their lane.

This group perfectly demonstrated why flexible conversations matter. Instead of staying scripted to one topic, we explored wherever the expertise in the room took us. And what a wide range of expertise it was.

The participants included parents navigating complex diagnoses, burned-out special educators, a tech developer building neurodivergent-led AI tools and resource communities, AAC specialists, myself as an AuDHD audiologist who pioneers low-gain hearing aids for children with normal hearing thresholds but auditory processing difficulties and sound sensitivities like misophonia and hyperacusis (common in autism and ADHD), a student heading into an MSW program who comes from an autism treatment background, and a former daycare owner with special education experience (and an autistic son plus a son who struggles with mental health) who now works as a bookkeeper specializing in neurodivergent business owners.

Many participants wore multiple hats, bringing both lived experience and professional expertise to the conversation.

What emerged was both inspiring and frustrating: incredible innovation happening in pockets, but massive communication breakdowns preventing real progress.

The Problem: We’re All Working in Silos

When I talk to people about challenges in our field, two words come up constantly: “silo” and “layered.” Everyone’s working on pieces of the same puzzle, but we’re doing it in isolation.

Perfect example from today: Our AAC (augmentative and alternative communication) grad student researcher, who is a part-time AAC user themselves, works with gestalt language processing and communication devices for kids with speech challenges but had never heard of low-gain hearing aids (LGHAs). I’m pretty familiar with AAC myself (my previous assistant works in that area), but meanwhile, most speech pathologists and AAC specialists have no idea what I do with LGHA technology for kids with APD, many of whom could benefit from AAC approaches.

The knowledge gap isn’t anyone’s fault. It’s systemic. Most speech-language pathologists get one paragraph on APD in their training. Most audiologists focus on adults and kids with hearing loss, and those who work on APD typically focus either on diagnostics or auditory training. Some might fit FM systems, but very few actually work with low-gain hearing aids as a daily practice. They might do it occasionally, but it’s not a strong concentration within their clinic. Result? Families bounce between professionals who each see only part of the picture.

Real Story: When Technology Actually Works

One parent shared their game-changing experience. Their five-year-old daughter had APD, barely spoke despite endless speech therapy, was sound-sensitive, and had no friends. Multiple audiologists gave vague suggestions that went nowhere.

Then they tried hearing aids—even though her audiograms were normal.

Within 2-3 weeks: clearer speech, expressing needs and wants, forming sentences, learning to play with friends. The aids eliminated her sound sensitivity (no more terror of auto-flush toilets) and blocked classroom background noise so she could actually hear her teacher.

The local audiologist called these dramatic improvements “coincidence.”

This is what happens when professionals don’t understand each other’s tools. Kids miss critical development windows because we’re protecting professional territories instead of collaborating.

The AI Revolution: Built by Us, for Us

The most exciting part of today’s discussion centered on Ocean AI, being developed by Gus through NeuroDivergent by Design. His vision? Education systems that automatically record sessions when students step out, AI that dims noise when environments get overwhelming.

“In cafeterias, I can’t concentrate at all,” Gus explained. “This will help kids sit longer and focus.”

What sets Ocean AI apart: it’s designed to protect and guide users, not just give answers. They’re building in safeguards to prevent over-reliance—kids need foundational skills before AI does the work.

This is neurodivergent-led design at its core. Gus is building these tools partly because of his own workplace discrimination: two major depression episodes from anti-neurodivergent managers. Now he’s assembling a neurodivergent team to create the systems they wish they’d had.

AI Trust Issues Are Real

Trust dominated our AI ethics conversation. While I’ve been paying $200/month for ChatGPT, participants noted Claude provides better understanding and context. UCAP (an autistic-led AI ethics group) recommends Claude, Notebook LLM, then ChatGPT—and Ocean AI already aligns with their guidelines.

The distrust of certain platforms was striking. Multiple concerns about Elon Musk’s track record with data and people, extending to skepticism about Grok. Even OpenAI raised eyebrows, though less than other platforms.

For me, AI has been life-changing: not just saving my business, but letting me express ideas I couldn’t before because of memory issues. When we build AI for us, by us, it only gets better.

The Dark Side: Therapy Trauma Stories

The conversation took a sobering turn when we discussed therapy experiences. Multiple participants shared harmful practices: being locked in rooms as teens, phones and wallets confiscated, hospital staff threatening to “stick a needle in your eye” if you don’t sleep.

The social work student who currently has experience working with autism described “epistemic colonization”: clinicians overwriting your way of seeing the world. She learned to mask in therapy, performing wellness so therapists would declare her “healed,” which was actually dangerous for her development.

This connects to broader systemic failures. Wilderness programs where kids forage for food for days, sometimes facing assault. Residential programs that exist because insurance funds them, not because they help. Desperate parents get sold approaches that cause more harm than healing.

Many therapeutic approaches still use behaviorism on adults: teaching people to act neurotypical so clinicians can claim progress. Meanwhile, fast-processing autistic brains intellectualize feelings, and clinicians miss the real work.

Success Story: Early Intervention Done Right

Not everything was doom and gloom. The former daycare owner with special education experience shared how she identified my child with autism at 14 months, helping us access early intervention that made all the difference. She also guided another family through assessments, sitting through evaluations to ensure they were done properly.

“Without the right advocate, schools identify the least vulnerable because funding is limited,” she explained. Her daycare background gave her skills to help multiple families access appropriate services.

This is collaboration working: someone with expertise sharing knowledge across professional boundaries, ensuring kids get help regardless of which system they encounter first.

The Label Dilemma

We wrestled with diagnostic labels throughout the discussion. Gus noted that Ocean AI is designed to move past divisive labels like “gifted” or “twice exceptional” that create class systems in the neurodivergent community.

But labels serve important functions. As I pointed out, they provide comfort: proof you’re not alone. For people who grow up in families that don’t understand them, labels become lifelines.

This tension appeared in our APD discussion too. Some SLPs argue APD isn’t worth diagnosing because tests are wildly inconsistent (7.3% to 96% identification depending on which battery you use) and kids don’t get proper accommodations anyway.

I get the frustration with flawed testing, but throwing out the label would stall acceptance for decades. APD is heterogeneous: more like a raspberry cluster than one condition. Kids and adults would lose desperately needed services.

What Needs to Change

Today’s conversation convinced me that real solutions require systematic change:

**Cross-training between disciplines** so SLPs understand hearing technology and audiologists understand language processing

**Breaking down professional silos** where AAC specialists don’t know about LGHAs and audiologists haven’t heard of gestalt language processing

**Accessible technology** not locked behind professional gatekeepers: parents want LGHAs available entry-level without doctor’s permission

**Neurodivergent-led AI development** by people who understand the lived experience

**Respectful therapy approaches** that honor neurodivergent ways of being instead of trying to normalize them

**Interdisciplinary research** that brings together insights from multiple fields instead of reinforcing silos

The Research Gold Mine

As we wrapped up, we discussed research opportunities. In AAC: autism, autistic language development, the double empathy problem, daily AAC use. In APD and LGHAs: wide-open territory.

At 50, with two kids, a business, and a mission, I’m too old for another doctorate. But others in today’s group are considering research programs, and there’s no shortage of unexplored questions.

The key: research that breaks down silos rather than reinforcing them. Studies that cross disciplinary boundaries, include neurodivergent perspectives from day one, and focus on real-world family outcomes.

The Bottom Line

Will there be more crossover between fields than we realize? Absolutely, but only if we intentionally create it.

The future of neurodivergent support won’t come from any single profession. It’s going to emerge from conversations like today’s, where we set aside professional territorialism and focus on what actually works.

We have the knowledge. We have the technology. We have the passion.

Now we need to stop working in silos and start building bridges. Our kids (and the neurodivergent adults they’ll become) deserve nothing less.

______

What silos have you encountered in your journey?

What bridges need building in your experience?

Let’s keep this conversation going.