Family Learning Center

     

by Dr. Pamela Cooper, M.A., MBA, PhD.

Educational Diagnostician

Dr. Pamela Cooper, educational diagnostician, learning disabilities teacher-consultant (LDT-C), Winslow Township, Camden County, familylearningcenter676223749.com-pamela3068@icloud.com

“Auditory Processing Disorder in students, also known as ADP, is a disorder involving the Central Processing portion of the brain. It is commonly mistaken for a hearing problem, behavior disorder or attention deficit disorder (ADD).” (American Speech-Language Hearing Association – ASHA)

Students with auditory processing disorder (APD) are unable to process verbal information the same way other students can, due to the ears and brain not working together correctly. There is a delay from the information they hear to be processed by their brain, this delay can be 10 seconds or longer. By the time the brain begins to process the first word that was spoken to the student, the person speaking has already said the entire sentence. This means the student with auditory processing disorder may have only heard the first word, or the first few words spoken. Often, students with auditory processing disorder are thought to be easily distracted, not focused, not paying attention, do not care about what is happening, lazy, disrespectful, or may need to be medicated. Students with auditory processing disorder can have difficulty doing schoolwork, especially if instruction is long or has multiple steps. These students also commonly have speech and language difficulty, as they cannot decipher the difference between letter sounds that are alike.

Auditory processing difficulties can manifest in ways; no two students face the same auditory processing challenges. Students may experience difficulties with effective listening skills, understanding what is being said, working memory, executive functioning, social skills, auditory processing delays, learning to read-write-perform math, engage in conversation, processing words and/or word meanings. Example, words that start with “Pr” and “Dr” may sound the same to a student with auditory processing disorder (APD). Students with auditory processing delay will need additional help from a Speech-Language Pathologist to stay at the same speech and language level as their peers.

Students with auditory processing disorder also have Auditory Memory problems and based upon learning styles, can then rely on visual processing skills. Visual aids in the classroom can help the student learn or know what steps to do next in class. Executive Functioning and poor organizational skills are common with auditory processing disorder in students. These students may need a friend or help from an aide in the classroom when organizing schoolwork to bring home in their backpacks or within the classroom. Students who have auditory processing disorder may also suffer from Auditory Attention problems, especially if there is an abundance of background noise in the home or classroom. It may appear that the student has a hearing disorder; simply not listening or that they have attention deficit disorder (AD/HD), (a common misdiagnosis) as their brain tries to keep up with processing verbal information.

Researchers are still working to identify the exact cause of auditory processing disorder. Some researchers report that exposure to lead, trauma to the head, heredity, prenatal drug/alcohol exposure, or chronic ear infections may be contributing factors. Proper screening can come from evaluations from a Learning Disabilities Consultant (LDT-C), School Psychologist, and/or a Speech-Language Pathologist knowledgeable in auditory processing disorder or from an Audiologist who specializes in the diagnosis of Central Auditory Processing Disorders. Proper diagnosis can help the student succeed in school and at home, as parents, teachers and other aides can work together to provide the right support and services in the home and school.

There is general agreement that auditory perceptual abilities and language development are interrelated, as are auditory processing skills and pre-literacy skills (Corriveau et al., 2010); it can be difficult to separate the influence of auditory and language skills about academic demands (Richard, 2012, 2013). The act of processing speech is complex and involves the engagement of auditory, cognitive, and language mechanisms, often simultaneously (Medwetsky, 2011).

Auditory processing disorder (APD) or central auditory processing disorder (CAPD) is an umbrella term for any kind of hearing disorder where the brain and the Central Nervous System cannot process sound properly; most cases start in childhood. It is estimated that about 1 in every 20 students has auditory processing disorder because their brain cannot process sound properly.

Understanding Auditory Processing Disorder

1. The student cannot locate the source of sound and may lack a skill called auditory localization. The student has trouble identifying precisely where a sound is emerging from. Auditory localization is essential in most daily activities. Imagine trying to walk through a busy hall between class or crowded cafeteria without being able to identify where sounds are coming from.
2. The student cannot understand the order of sounds. Students with auditory processing disorder may lack a skill called auditory sequencing and may be confused about the order of sounds. Their brain cannot store and recall auditory stimuli, sounds in the exact order. Not being able to store and recall makes it difficult for students to learn anything by repetition, say a poem or even remembering music. The student would have difficulty following verbal instructions or understanding the consequences.
3. Students with auditory processing disorder cannot differentiate between similar sounding words like crash and cash or eighteen and eighty. This is due to a limited ability for auditory word discrimination and sound discrimination.
4. The student with auditory processing delays does not always understand speech. They are lacking in the skill of auditory discrimination, having difficulty understanding speech when more than one person is talking, or there’s noise in the background, or the quality of sound is bad. This is because the student cannot differentiate between sounds of different frequency, duration, and intensity and cannot distinguish speech from background noise. The student may not understand when someone speaks fast. The rate at which we process sound is known as temporal processing. For a student with APD, temporal processing is slow. As a result of slow temporal processing, there is a bigger time gap between hearing a sound and processing it.
5. APD affects auditory memory or the ability to store sound information and recall them, as necessary. When the speed of processing sound is low, students take more time to understand spoken instruction, directions, or command. The student may ask that information be repeated, or they form a habit of guessing.
6. The student with APD gets distracted easily by noises, self-distractions and/or environmental distractions. If the child has auditory processing disorder, they are easily distracted by noise and may find it difficult to listen in a noisy place, classroom, hallway, school bus, etc. The student may not be able to identify the primary sound from background noise, a necessary auditory skill known as auditory figure-ground. Students with auditory processing disorder may also have a short auditory attention span.
7. Students with APD become tired easily, may be observed with their head down on their arm, pretending to be involved in the lesson, eyes closed, or staring. A noisy place can be tiring due to the increased need to put in more effort to listen above the noise or not be distracted. In fact, the daily effort of listening may become so strenuous that the student may just stop trying to adjust. This is known as auditory fatigue.
8. Students with APD have poor spelling, reading, recall and singing skills. While instructing a student with APD to spell or read, make sure to speak in a clear, distinct way with pauses and repetitions. Students with APD mispronounce words and leave out syllables. While singing, they might change both the lyrics and the tune. Learning to read, spell, or sing depends on auditory skills as identifying and joining syllables, attaching meaning to sounds, and remembering the sequence of sounds and words. Students with APD lack these basic skills, they perform poorly in any area that is dependent on hearing and display limited vocabulary.
9. Students with auditory processing disorder may not perform well at school. Sometimes, when a part of a sentence is missing or garbled, we make sense of the context and fill the gap using common sense. For example, in the sentence, “The __ rises in the east,” we can easily fill in the missing word, sun, from what we know, known as auditory closure. We all use auditory closure to understand what is being said. Students with auditory processing disorder might constantly have to rely on auditory memory and auditory closure. Since the student with APD needs to allocate extra mental resources (energy) just to understand what is being said, they are often left with a reduced capacity for other schoolwork, homework, or socialization.
10. Students with APD struggle being able to engage or hold conversations and may speak in a way inappropriate for the moment, their age, either saying too much or too little, using inappropriate language, following along with a conversation topic, or difficulty organizing thought or by getting off topic.

Examples of accommodations teachers can use to assist with auditory processing disorder in the classroom.

Classroom seating, materials, and routines

• Provide a quiet area for independent work.
• Let the student sit near the teacher and away from auditory distractions, like doors and windows.
• Check in frequently to make sure the student understands the work.
• Give extra time for testing.

Giving instructions and assignments

• Give step-by-step instructions, and have the student repeat them.
• Use attention-getting phrases like “This is important to know because….”
• Decide with the student on a nonverbal signal to show that a key point is being made.
• Say directions, assignments, and schedules aloud, and rephrase as needed.
• Repeat key information throughout the lesson and rephrase as needed.
• Use visual tools, images, and gestures to enhance and support spoken lessons.
• Break down test or classwork instructions into short, written steps.
• Highlight key words and ideas on worksheets.
• Modify, reduce, and adjust quantity of homework. Give written homework instructions.

Introducing new concepts/lessons

• Speak clearly and slowly when presenting information.
• Give material on a new concept to the student before it is taught to the whole class (so the student can become familiar with the material ahead of time).
• Give a list of or highlight key vocabulary and concepts for upcoming lessons.
• Give a brief review or connection to a previous lesson before teaching something new.
• Give the student an outline of the lesson.
• Grade based on the student’s completion of the lesson goal. (For instance, do not grade spelling errors if that is not what the student was supposed to learn.)
• Consult with the learning disabilities teacher-consultant and/or speech pathologist for additional support and strategies.