Symptoms

poor listening skills

difficulties with nuances in speech

poor comprehension - particularly of spoken language

poor auditory memory

difficulty following instructions

DISLIKES NOISY ENVIRONMENTS

problems with spelling

meltdowns

UNDERACHIEVEMENT at school, regardless of effort

high levels of anxiety

easily distracted

difficulties socialising

behavioural problems

CLUMSINESS

DAYDREAMING

DELAYED SPEECH OR LANGUAGE

POOR SHORT TERM MEMORY

SLOW PROCESSING SPEED

low self esteem

LEFT/RIGHT CONFUSION

HYPERACTIVE/RESTLESS/FIDGETY

POOR SENSE OF BALANCE OR RHYTHM

OVER-SENSITIVE TO SOUNDS

If you, or someone you know, check three or more of the above symptoms it may be as a result of auditory processing difficulties and we recommend getting in touch and getting assessed.

Statistics

1 in 20 children may suffer from APD

typically affects boys more than girls

significant overlap of APD with conditions such as dyslexia, ADD/ADHD, language impairment and reading disorders

What is Auditory Processing Disorder?
 

Efficient processing of auditory information is critically important for individuals to be successful in learning situations (work or school), social development, relationships, and general well-being. When the brain in unable to process auditory information correctly its impact can be far reaching. If an individual is unable to correctly process what it being said then important information can be either misunderstood or lost completely.

In order for people to learn the information input into the brain must make sense, if for some reason the input is disjointed, muffled, partially lost then it follows that the individual will struggle to process and use that information correctly therefore affecting their ability to learn or use that information in other situations. This can often also be observed in terms of their ability to follow instructions, if the instructions being “heard” don’t make sense then it makes it very hard for those steps to be followed and completed accurately.

As humans, we listen using either our ears (binaural listening), which gives us advantages over listening with just one, particularly in difficult listening conditions such as cafes or school classrooms where there is lots of competing auditory stimuli. It is often observed that children with Auditory Processing difficulties have uneven development of their processing abilities between the two ears. They may have normal “hearing” in both ears, but their ability to process that information in each ear is significantly different. This is commonly detected in their scores on the dichotic listening assessments such as competing words and competing sentences in the Scan C test. The asymmetry appears to diminish the efficiency of the auditory system in a way similar to if they were deaf in one ear.

Individuals with Auditory Processing difficulties often also struggle in situations where one must recognize that some sounds (voices) are more important than others and to give those sounds priority and attention. For example, a teachers voice in a loud classroom, or your friends voice in a busy restaurant. When one sound is given priority a mature auditory system will then filter and suppress the other sounds present that aren’t relevant. When the auditory system is immature then all the sounds can blend into one chaotic listening environment and can be very overwhelming, frustrating and difficult for individuals.Often children with immature systems such as this find such environments difficult to be in and will often act out by either becoming louder, get distracted by everything, tuning out completely or by having tantrums or meltdowns.