Listening and Learning

Recognising children with auditory processing disorder

Does your child ask you to repeat things over and over yet continue to misunderstand? Do you sense they are not listening or appear to be selective listeners? You may even suspect your child has hearing loss and take them to an audiologist, only to find there is absolutely nothing wrong with their hearing. With hearing loss ruled out, you may be confused by why the problem persists.

Interpreting what we hear

Auditory Processing is how the brain interprets sound from the ears. Sometimes, a child’s brain has a difficult time taking sounds and converting them into understandable language; sometimes mixing up the sequence of what they hear and at other times their brain may be switched off from listening completely. When auditory processing challenges persist, it could lead to a condition known as Auditory Processing Disorder (APD).

Whilst APD is neurological in nature, it may be inherited or a result of developmental problems. Children with neurodiverse conditions are more susceptible to APD as well as children who suffered from constant ear infections as babies.

How does Auditory Processing Disorder affect listening and learning?

Children develop critical language skills between 4 months to 3 years of age. Language centres within the brain learn to make ‘sound maps’ and store these ‘sound maps’ for language processing. If a child suffers from constant middle ear infections during this critical period, the ability to process language/ speech can be affected. Sounds typically imprinted in the brain’s memory and language centres must be adequately established to create the sound maps. If their ‘sound maps’ are not correctly created, mishearing occurs because the brain recognises aural information differently from what it actually is. While hearing can be perfectly normal, the brain cannot process those sounds accurately due to insufficient reference. vocabulary and understanding language) have difficulty with reading, comprehension, spelling and vocabulary

This inability of the brain to process what is heard accurately on a continuous basis results in the Auditory Processing Disorder condition.

Children with APD have also been observed to: have trouble paying attention to and remembering information presented orally have problems carrying out multi-step directions have poor listening skills need more time to process information have low academic performance have behaviour problems have language difficulties (e.g. they confuse syllable sequences and have problems developing

How APD can impact academic progress:

Children experiencing APD may seem bright and capable, but they can quickly get overwhelmed with verbal information which can be devastating when trying to reach their optimum ability. If a child is unsure of what is heard at the early stages of learning it could have negative effects at the foundational stages of learning.

Supporting Children with Auditory Processing Disorder

Raviv Practice London has several solutions for those suspected of APD, such as a structured language program called Fast ForWord. With this program, children typically make around a year’s worth of reading gains in three months of work. This program is suited for children at mainstream schools struggling with possible Auditory Processing Disorder or with co-existing neurodiverse conditions from ADHD, Autism, Dyslexia and DCD.

USHA PATEL Neurocognitive Therapist, Raviv Practice London www.ravivpracticelondon.co.uk