Learn more about building confidence in children with specific learning difficulties. The tragedy for children with a learning difficulty or disorder is they may be told they are not paying attention or deliberately disobeying the rules, when in reality they fail to follow instructions due to listening comprehension deficits. This can be problematic because kids with APD have a harder time understanding and remembering multi-step instructions, particularly if they are not repeated multiple times. A child who has a hard time following instructionsīefore a child can read, most task instructions are provided by parents and teachers aurally. However, dyspraxia and auditory processing disorder, and autism and auditory processing disorder can also co-present. Note noise sensitivity issues are often seen in dyspraxia and autism. Loud environments can also provoke strong emotional responses in kids with APD, including frustration, anger, and anxiety which is a result of impaired comprehension. You may find comprehension is improved in quiet, distraction-free spaces compared to environments with a lot of background noise, echoes or overlapping speakers. A child who is hypersensitive to noise in their environmentĬhildren with an auditory processing disorder may respond differently depending on the noise levels in their environment. Some children may engage in attention seeking behavior at school in an attempt to distract teachers and classmates from listening problems – this is even more common when APD and ADHD co-present. It could also be that the response is completely unexpected given the child, the speaker, and the question. A child who responds in unexpected waysĪ child with APD may respond in a way that shows he or she has only partially understood what has been said. It can also make it harder for parents and teachers to identify the disorder, given there’s less evidence of comprehension problems. Over time, not engaging in speech with others can have serious social and emotional consequences. Sometimes children avoid speaking because they don’t want to call attention to themselves and/or have problems with speech production. Staying quiet is a way of preventing any embarrassment a child might feel as a result of giving an answer that shows he or she has not understood the question. Identifying children who struggle with auditory processing A child who is overly quiet Words appear on screen, are played aloud and then typed, which combines visual, auditory and kinetic stimuli to reinforce language through a phonics-based curriculum. Touch-type Read and Spell is an Orton-Gillingham based typing program that has been used to help kids with an auditory processing disorder, ADHD and/or dyslexia learn keyboarding and familiarize themselves with English sounds. Multi-sensory learning can also be a powerful technique for APD. For example, teachers may include a text-based version of a prompt. One of the most common classroom-based accommodations is supplementing auditory stimuli with visuals. Speech therapy assists with the perception of sounds, electronic devices can enhance and clarify audio signals, and self-monitoring strategies enable a learner to be pro-active about auditory distractors in his or her environment. There are a number of approaches that can help a child with an auditory processing disorder improve his or her confidence and skill. Parents and teachers might notice differences in speech production, particularly the pronunciation of certain sounds and placement of stress.Īs phonological awareness is central to early reading, decoding skills can additionally be impacted. It may also be tricky for kids with APD to follow directions provided aurally.

Students with an auditory processing disorder can particularly struggle in the classroom, where background noise and echoes make it harder to focus on what the teacher is saying. They may have problems hearing the ends of words or distinguishing between words which sound similar. This is because listening comprehension skills and memory for learning auditory information may both be impaired.Īuditory processing disorders, also called central auditory processing disorders, range in severity and no two individuals will experience the same set of symptoms.Ī child may have trouble following conversations, particularly when there are multiple and overlapping voices. Kids with APD are often labelled poor listeners at home and at school. It is not an indication of hearing loss or impairment, but rather a disruption to how the brain makes sense of sounds, including language. An auditory processing disorder can cause difficulties with understanding in listening.

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