Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) is a neurological disorder that affects the way the brain processes sound. It’s not a hearing problem—someone with APD can still hear sounds, but they have difficulty understanding or interpreting them correctly. This can lead to problems in communication, academic achievement, and social relationships. 

People with APD may experience difficulty following verbal instructions, distinguishing between similar sounding words, or remembering what they heard. They may also have trouble understanding conversations in noisy environments or recognizing subtle changes in pitch or inflection when someone is speaking to them. These difficulties are usually more severe if the person has an additional learning disability such as dyslexia or ADHD. 

Diagnosis

APD is typically diagnosed by an audiologist who will use a variety of tests and questionnaires to assess the patient’s hearing, memory, language skills, and other factors.  The testing is conducted with a sound booth and a two-channel audiometer. This allows different words and sentences to be presented simultaneously to the two ears. The audiologist will evaluate the patient’s ability to complete a variety of auditory tasks.

Treatment

The goal of the therapies includes retraining the brain, attempt to improve its ability to detect and process sounds and teach remediation strategies.

Treatment usually involves a combination of these strategies including speech therapy, psychological counseling, educational intervention, acoustic training, and auditory aids such as FM systems or hearing aids.  

Kalady Audiology is now providing Evaluation of Auditory Processing Disorder.  Treatment will be coming soon!

Call today with any questions or to schedule your central auditory processing evaluation.

If you’d like to learn more about central auditory processing disorder, Dr. Teri James Bellis has an excellent book about this topic, entitled “When the Brain Can’t Hear”.