What is APD?

  Auditory processing, simply put, is what the brain does with information that the
  ears send to it. A child with an auditory processing disorder (APD) will very often
  have normal hearing, however they may appear to have a hearing loss because
  they demonstrate difficulty receiving and interpreting (making sense of) incoming
  auditory information.

  Common Problems

• Trouble with reading and spelling
• Frequently confuses words or directions and believes something else was said
• Performs more poorly on tests that require verbal language understanding
• Difficulty staying on task
• Has a history of chronic ear infections, upper respiratory concerns, or language
  delays
• Has difficulty knowing from where sounds are coming from
• Has difficulty remembering what was heard
• Responds to very simple instructions but leaves tasks out when instructions become more difficult
• Performs very inconsistently on similar tasks

  Reading & APD

  Learning language depends almost exclusively on hearing and a child must have a
  language base in order to learn to read. An APD can influence a child's ability
  to read in some of the following ways:

• Difficulty hearing similarities and differences in words
• Cannot break words into syllables or individual sounds
• Cannot remember sounds for the printed symbols or names for the printed word
• Difficulty relating a part of a word to the whole word
• Lack of retention of sounds and syllables long enough to make matches or blends
• Lack of discrimination in short vowels (e.g., pen, pin, pun)

  Evaluating the Child

  When evaluating the child for an auditory processing deficit it is very important
  to first rule out any deficits in the peripheral hearing system. The peripheral
  hearing system is the ear itself, so testing begins with a complete hearing
  assessment.

  Once a peripheral hearing problem has been ruled out, the child is screened in
  four broad areas of auditory processing. If no problem is found and there appears
  to be no need for further testing, then we can effectively rule out APD as a
  problem contributing to language and learning. However, if the child is borderline
  or fails any part of the screening process, then a more comprehensive assessment
  of the child's auditory processing abilities is performed.

  Once the diagnostic testing is completed, a thorough review of all information
  (parent questionnaires, peripheral and central results, and any information
  received from other providers) allows the audiologist to generate a profile of the
  APD. The parents and referring entity will receive a comprehensive report that
  details the testing performed, what each test assesses, how the child scored, the
  type of APD, how it may manifest, and the types of remidiation that will help
  improve the child's language and academic performance.