4APD affects a child’s ability to interpret information (a problem when so much of it is delivered verbally in the classroom), which is fundamental for learning.Īuditory Processing Disorder: Diagnosis Challenges Academic challenges: Poor auditory processing abilities could put children at a greater risk for learning difficulties, 3and research suggests that many children with APD also have comorbid language or reading impairment.

Anxiety: When children can’t trust that what they’ve heard is accurate, they may feel flustered and stressed, which could contribute to anxiety, which further impairs auditory processing.

They might withdraw from social settings or compensate by acting as the class clown, or by pretending they don’t care.

Poor social skills: Difficulty keeping up with conversations, especially in loud, active environments (like the playground, school auditorium, and classroom), can cause children to miss out on friendships and other connections.

Teachers sometimes assume that students with undiagnosed APD are ignoring instructions and displaying defiance. They may react by becoming defensive, or cover by acting disinterested.

Behavior problems: Auditory processing issues can cause children to feel embarrassed and frustrated.

In addition to these communication difficulties, APD may trigger the following additional challenges for students:

Noticeable delay in responding to conversational questions.

Trouble following multi-step directions in the correct order.

Difficulty distinguishing similar-sounding words, like “coat” and “boat”.

Trouble following conversations with multiple speakers or background noise, no matter how minimal (“It’s too noise in here!”).

A blank stare when spoken to may appear distracted or unfocused.Trouble following verbal directions (“Huh? What did you say?”).The signs of auditory processing disorder often include the following daily challenges and manifestations: Auditory cohesion difficulty, or problems processing when undertaking higher-level listening tasks (e.g., difficulty drawing inferences from conversation, picking up on tone and inflection, understanding riddles.) 2Īuditory Processing Disorder: Common Signs and Challenges.Auditory figure ground: discerning and processing a single audio input amid competing stimuli (e.g., background noise).Auditory sequencing: recalling words and directions in the correct order.Auditory memory: remembering what was heard.Auditory discrimination: noticing and differentiating similar but unique sounds.Difficulties associated with APD commonly fall into these categories: Auditory processing disorder may cause deficits at any point in this process. Normal auditory processing occurs when the brain receives auditory input and processes the information into something meaningful at an acceptable speed. It is a misunderstood and largely overlooked condition that may appear in 3% to 5% of all children. It may cause communication difficulties, but it does not show up in traditional auditory tests for hearing loss. This misalignment can cause a range of challenges – struggles with auditory discrimination, with listening in noisy environments, with remembering what you’ve heard, and with recalling the sequence of words spoken – that may resemble (and co-occur with) other conditions.ĪPD may interfere with learning, however it is not correlated with intelligence. Auditory processing disorder (APD) throws a child’s ears and brain out of sync.

Auditory processing disorder apd