Auditory processing allows us to:
- Localize sound
- Use timing or temporal cues
- Integrate information from both ears
- Understand the prosodic/intonation cues of speech
- Listen and understand despite background noise
- Filter out sounds we don’t want to hear
- Focus on what we do want to hear
If a child has an auditory processing disorder, he or she is unable to interpret or use all these cues. The deficit may be in the left or right hemisphere of the brain or in the way the two hemispheres interact.
Children with auditory processing disorders may:
- Have poor speech or language skills
- Have poor reading, phonics or spelling skills
- Be easily distracted
- Be slow to respond to auditory information
- Have a short attention span
- Be disorganized
- Become anxious or stressed when required to listen
- Say “Huh?” and “What?” throughout the day
- Seem to hear but not understand what people say
Audiologists at the Providence Neurodevelopmental Center for Children audiology clinic assess a child's ability to process sound through a series of tests, including:
- A complete diagnostic hearing test
- Tests that require the child to use and integrate different information presented to each ear simultaneously
- Tests that measure how well the child can hear in noisy settings
- Tests that use degraded or filtered speech in order to assess auditory closure abilities
- Tests that measure the ability to use timing or temporal cues of speech
To schedule an appointment for an evaluation, your child’s speech pathologist, physician or school psychologist should call us to make a referral.