Auditory processing disorder (APD) may occur as part of your child's cognitive development. APD primary impacts the way that they can hear and understand everyday spoken language. Children with APD, may often be misdiagnosed with a hearing disorder, but this is not the case since they would usually produce normal results in a hearing test.
At SpeechAim we take a very tailored approach to our lessons to ensure that your child is properly diagnosed and in fact has auditory processing disorder.
The signs of auditory processing disorder can be observed in your child in a few ways. These include:
Lack of understanding speech in noisy situations: Your child's ability to understand everyday speech, particularly in noisy situations may be limited. Such situations include background noise, multiple people speaking and when a person is speaking quickly. This can lead to issues regarding reading and writing, as well as issues with their own speech.
Lack of understanding or enjoying music: Your child may not understand the lyrics of many songs, or may not like music at all.
Lack of ability to distinguish similar sounds: For example, your child may misunderstand shoulder and soldier or two other words that sound similar but have completely different meanings.
It's important to recognize that symptoms of APD can vary in terms of severity. If you think that your child may have difficulty processing sounds, you can ask yourself questions such as:
At SpeechAim, in order to determine whether or not your child has APD, we conduct a number of tailored sessions to determine the symptoms. These tests may include:
Once we determine that your child has symptoms that are consistent with APD, we can begin to work alongside you to develop the most appropriate therapy sessions both at home, at play, and during our sessions. By working with a trained therapist at SpeechAim, we can help improve your child's ability to make and understand sounds.
Our sessions will usually involve a form of auditory training, in which your child will engage in a variety of activities, designed to help their brain analyze sounds. The activities that we use will be tailored to meet your child's needs and will be designed to be as effective as possible. Our staff are here to help you and your child. Whether it be at home, school or therapy sessions, we can help. But there also things that you can do as parents!
For example, parents of children with ADP can boost auditory attention with specific games that implement listening strategies. You can have your child listen to a story tape and whenever a particular event happens, you have your child raise their hand.
You can also help your child establish a routine which can provide them with security in more chaotic and unpredictable environments. For example, have your child check their assignment book/list before opening their school locker so they can figure out what is necessary to bring back home.
Small efforts like these, alongside therapy sessions with our supportive and experienced speech-language pathologists at SpeechAim will be beneficial for children with APD!