Auditory Processing Disorder (APD)
What is APD? | Causes | Symptoms | Treatment | Contact us
What is Auditory Processing Disorder?
A child with an auditory processing disorder (APD) has difficulty processing or interpreting auditory information. This is a common disorder in children, even in those children with normal hearing abilities and normal intelligence.
A child with an auditory processing disorder may have difficulty understanding speech in the presence of background noise, such as a noisy classroom. The child may be unable to understand and follow spoken directions. The child may have difficulty discriminating and identifying individual speech sounds.
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What Causes APD?
The causes of an APD are not known. Factors that may cause auditory processing disorders are chronic middle ear infections, head trauma, diseases of the central nervous system, and exposure to neurotoxins, such as lead or carbon monoxide.
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What are Some Symptoms of APD?
- Behaving as if a hearing loss is present, even though hearing sensitivity is known to be normal
- Requiring frequent repetitions—saying "what?" or "huh?" or "I didn't hear you"
- Having difficulty paying attention to auditory tasks and/or being easily distracted by background noise
- Requiring organization in the classroom; having an inability to work independently
- Having difficulty following complex or multi-step directions; having difficulty being able to localize sound
- Having difficulty with phonics or speech sounds
- Possessing poor reading, listening, or spelling skills
- Turning in a below-average academic performance despite normal I.Q. scores
- Showing a speech and language delay that is not improving despite therapy
- Having a short attention span
- Showing delayed responses to auditory information
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How are auditory processing disorders identified and treated?
A specially trained audiologist, through either a screening or diagnostic evaluation, identifies children with APD.
Children are evaluated for APD starting at age 8. Routine hearing and speech tests are given in a quiet environment. Assessment can include receptive and expressive language testing; articulation testing; reading decoding testing; and evaluation of auditory parameters such as memory, discrimination, figure-ground, cohesion, perception, and phonological awareness.
Treatment of APD may involve direct therapy, which includes the development of compensatory strategies and classroom modifications. The goal of treatment is to help the child to develop appropriate techniques that can be used to compensate for the problem and improve overall communication abilities.
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When to Call the Doctor
If your child's speech is a concern to you, contact the Speech Pathology Department at Cincinnati Children's at 513-636-4341. Ask to speak to a Speech Pathologist on the Auditory Processing Disorder Team.
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Why Cincinnati Children's?
As a national leader in pediatric speech pathology, Cincinnati Children's has a program for the treatment of auditory processing disorders. This program is staffed by speech-language pathologists who have undergone specific specialty training. We welcome referrals from primary care providers and specialty physicians.
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Contact us
For additional information on this or any Health Topic, please call the Family Resource Center, 513-636-7606, or your pediatrician.
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Written 11/06; Rev.10/07
