What is Auditory Processing Disorder?

Key points

• Auditory Processing Disorder affects a person’s ability to understand what they hear
• It is most often noticed in early childhood when a child has language comprehension difficulties but doesn’t have hearing impairment
• There are a number of different types and symptoms of Auditory Processing Disorder

Auditory Processing Disorder often presents in early childhood. Usually, the child does not have hearing loss and they can hear the sounds perfectly, but they cannot always process the meaning. This can lead to difficulties as the child grows up —  children with Auditory Processing Disorder often benefit from extra support and help during schooling.

There is currently no known cause of APD, although it may be linked to chronic ear infections, premature birth or head trauma.

Children with APD may have no problems one day and then have difficulty understanding speech and sounds the next.

Symptoms of APD in children include:

• having delayed language development;
• struggling to listen effectively;
• trouble in sequencing the sounds of words;
• difficulty perceiving high frequency sounds, e.g. ‘t’, ‘f’ ‘s’, ‘k’, ‘p’, ‘th’, ‘sh’
• confusion with similar sounds;
• poor comprehension in a noisy environment;
• easily distracted by irrelevant background noise;
• poor speech comprehension;
• Inconsistent responses to the same auditory stimuli;
• difficulty with following directions; and
• delayed phonemic awareness, leading to difficulties with reading, spelling or comprehension.

If you notice any of these symptoms in your child, visit your audiologist, doctor or paediatrician. If your child is diagnosed with APD, you should be able to access support for their development, particularly through the education system.

There are a number of types of APD. These include:

• Associative deficit, i.e. difficulty associating sounds with written language;
• Auditory decoding deficit, i.e. problems recognising sounds and decoding words or messages;
• Auditory integration deficit, i.e. trouble combining sound with other sensory cues that contribute to a message (for example, seeing a written word and knowing what it would sound like when spoken);
• Organisational deficit, i.e. difficulty in organising sound to effectively decode the meaning of a given message
• Prosodic deficit, i.e. speaking in monotone, without rhythm or intonation, and not perceiving these subtleties in other speakers; and
• Auditory hypersensitivity, i.e. background sounds cannot be ignored.

Although it cannot be cured, APD can be treated with interventions that build auditory processing skills such as speech therapy, auditory training and phonemic awareness.

Providing quality early intervention for a child with a developmental delay or disability in their early years is critical to achieving the best outcomes. Effective early childhood intervention should be tailored to your child and family’s needs and include evidence-based practice and supports.

With the Disability Support Guide, learn more about your child and what early intervention means under the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

Under the NDIS, the approach that supports children up to the age of six who have a disability or developmental delay, is called early childhood intervention.

What type of supports are you seeking for your child with Auditory Processing Disorder?

Let the team at Disability Support Guide know on social media.

Related content:
How do people with disability utilise speech pathology?
Early intervention under the NDIS
Development delay and your child