Notes from Integrated Therapy: Auditory Processing Disorder

What is Auditory Processing Disorder (APD)?
I’ve noticed many parents coming to me concerned over their child’s auditory processing abilities and its effect on learning. For instance, a common concern sounds like this – “My child’s teacher told me that my son can’t hear properly in class. He is starting to fall behind in reading and spelling. The school counsellor said that I should have him assessed for auditory processing disorder. How do you assess an auditory processing disorder, and if he has APD, can you do anything to help him?”

APD is defined as a deficit in the auditory pathways of the brain that results in the inability to listen (Richard, 2001). As such, a multi-disciplinary screening process conducted by educational psychologists, audiologists and speech therapists is recommended to eliminate the influence of other factors such as IQ, attention, language disorders, peripheral hearing losses and memory on a reported listening and learning dysfunction. Once these factors have been ruled out, a comprehensive diagnostic audiological assessment can be conducted to determine which aspects of the auditory pathways are affected.

Management

These are generic management options, therefore it is strongly recommended that you consult your speech therapist regarding managing your child’s APD. Every child’s APD profile is different.

• Phonological awareness training
• Same/different training for the identification of non-speech sounds
• Prosody training (i.e., therapy for interpreting tone-of-voice cues)
• Exercises which require child to multi-task (e.g., sing and draw at the same time; processing of heard information in the presence of noise)
• Modifying the classroom and home environment
• Speech therapy for APD

References

Richard, G.J. (2001) The source for processing disorders. East Moline, IL: LinguiSystems, Inc
Cameron, S and Dillon, H (2005) Auditory Processing Disorder – from Screening to Diagnosis and Management – A Step-by-Step Guide.Audiology Now (Winter, 47-55)