Auditory Processing Disorder

It often presents from early childhood. A child’s hearing is rarely impaired and he/she can hear the sounds perfectly, but cannot process the meaning. This can lead to a number of difficulties as the child grows up.

A child with APD may have no problems one day and then have difficulty understanding sounds the next.

Symptoms of APD in children include:

• Delayed language development

• Inability to listen effectively

• Trouble in sequencing the sounds of words

• Difficulty perceiving high frequency sounds (‘t’, ‘f’ ‘s’, ‘k’, ‘p’, ‘th’, ‘sh’)

• Confusion when faced with similar sounds

• Poor comprehension in a noisy environment

• Easily distracted by irrelevant background sounds

• Poor speech comprehension, often asking ‘What?’

• Misunderstanding and poor memory for oral messages

• Inconsistent responses to the same auditory stimuli

• Inability to follow directions

• Difficulty in expressing desires

• Poor phonemic awareness leading to poor reading, spelling or comprehension

If you notice any of the above signs in your child, visit your audiologist, GP or paediatrician.  

There are a number of types of APD. These include:

• Associative deficit – difficulty associating sounds with written language

• Auditory decoding deficit – problems recognising sounds and decoding words or messages

• Auditory integration deficit – trouble combining sound with other sensory cues that contribute to a message (for example, seeing a written word and knowing what it would sound like when spoken)

• Organisational deficit – difficulty in organising sound to effectively decode the meaning of a given message

• Prosodic deficit – speaking in a monotone, without rhythm or intonation, and not perceiving these subtleties in other speakers

• Auditory hypersensitivity – background sounds cannot be ignored.

Although it cannot be cured, APD can be treated with interventions such as speech therapy, auditory training and phonemic awareness.