Auditory Processing

 Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) is a disorder of the auditory (hearing) system that causes a disruption in the way that an individual’s brain understands what they are hearing. It is not a form of hearing loss, despite showing difficulty with hearing-related tasks.

Auditory Processing Disorder is a disorder of the auditory system at the level of the brain, in an area called the auditory cortex.

Auditory Processing Disorder, also referred to as Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD), can occur in both children and adults. It can only be tested for and diagnosed by an audiologist.

People with APD typically have normal hearing sensitivity but struggle to understand and interpret spoken language, especially in challenging listening situations. They may experience difficulties in areas such as:

1. Sound localization and discrimination: Difficulty identifying where sounds are coming from or distinguishing between similar sounds.
2. Auditory discrimination: Challenges in differentiating between similar speech sounds or detecting subtle differences in pitch, volume, or tone.
3. Auditory sequencing: Trouble comprehending and recalling the order of sounds, such as following instructions or remembering a series of spoken directions.
4. Auditory figure-ground discrimination: Difficulty focusing on specific sounds while filtering out background noise.
5. Auditory memory: Problems remembering and retaining auditory information, such as remembering instructions or conversations.

SLPs are responsible for evaluating and diagnosing problems in the linguistic processing of the auditory signal. Audiologists and SLPs share responsibility for diagnosing problems in the phonemic processing of the auditory signal