AUDITORY PROCESSING DISORDERS TESTING

The ears and the brain work as a unit to identify, and take meaning from sound. An auditory processing disorder interferes with the ability to make sense of what is heard.

There are many aspects of auditory processing, such as:
 

• hearing speech in noise (auditory figure ground, binaural separation)
• being able to tell one speech sound from another (auditory discrimination),
• being able to block out some sounds to hear others (temporal resolution)
• being able to hear stresses in speech (prosody)
• being able to figure out a message when it is distorted or half heard (auditory closure)
• being able to remember what someone said (auditory memory)

Auditory processing disorders have similar characteristics to that of ADD, dyslexia, hearing loss, behavior and learning difficulties and can lead to language, academic and social problems.

Auditory processing is only one facet of a child. It is recommended that the child have had a recent psychological, psycho-educational or educational assessment, or a speech-language assessment.