Hello there, My name is Pete and I have a pair of three year old twins who were born at 28 weeks. My daughter has been diagnosed with auditory neuropathy and mild to moderate hearing loss as well. She has some verbal and through ASL is very close to her age in communication skills. My question is as follows: How can she have a hard time hearing above 2000 hz but be able to sing on key and on time with songs...... ? This baffles us. please help. thanks Pete.

Hello Pete,
Isn't auditory neuropathy confusing! You asked two excellent questions about your daughter's ability to sing: how is she able to sing on key and to keep correct rhythm? The answer about rhythm is easier to answer. Rhythm is comprised of sounds across all tones, so it is easy to hear. Even people who have sensory hearing losses which are severe in degree can sense the rhythm of a song.
Staying on pitch is much more difficult, and to try to understand how this is possible we need to define auditory neuropathy. Often audiologists refer to auditory neuropathy as "auditory dis-synchrony." In other words, sound is not transmitted through the hearing nerve in a synchronous manner. Sometimes sound is transmitted and sometimes it is not. You are probably aware of this during the day with your daughter. During some times she will be very aware of sounds, and then suddenly she isn't. So let's go back to our subject of singing. If your child's hearing nerve is often functioning in a synchronized manner, she is able to hear more tones, including more of the high frequencies.
And that brings us to the subject of auditory memory. Our brains remember sounds we hear and especially sounds we are able to vocalize. Your little girl's brain probably remembers the sounds that create a song, and even if her nerve isn't carrying the message of those sounds to her brain each time she sings, she knows them.
As I said in the beginning, auditory neuropathy is confusing. Other audiologists may have more thoughts, but hopefully these provide helpful information for you.
Sincerely,
Kathleen Sutherland