Auditory Processing DisorderHave you heard this term but are not really sure what it means or how it may apply to your child?
Many parents will share concerns during a consult/intake session that their child has trouble “processing” or often misses what was said. Some have heard the term before, but no one has clearly explained what it means and who actually diagnoses it. One thing to know is that auditory processing is largely a set of skills, like language, reading, or riding a bike, that a child develops over time. So even if you think this may be an area of weakness for your child, it is not necessarily a deficit; it is merely a skill that may require more support to develop. Some parents have asked, “Is this a problem with my child’s ability to hear?” And the answer is, no, not exactly. It is actually a difficulty with the brain's efficiency in processing information accurately heard (difficulty with hearing is a separate medical condition).
So what can auditory processing disorder look like? Let me give an example: take the word “cantaloupe”; someone with APD might incorrectly blend or process the individual sounds and hear “cantaloupe” as “antelope”, despite knowing the meaning of both words and knowledge of letter-sound associations. If a child has difficulty discriminating the durations and or prosody (tone) of sounds, this may affect phonemic awareness, which are the most basic sounds that are merged together to form words, especially in languages where prosody is important to communicate meaning.
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