Tidbits of Information

Over the last few years the term Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) has become a term used to describe children with different behaviors which has lead to the label APD being applied (often incorrectly) to a wide variety of disorders. The symptoms of auditory processing disorder are similar to those associated with ADHD, language processing disorders, autism as well as a number of other disorders.    This article is going to focus on language processing and how it isn’t APD.    

Remember your first day in Spanish class and the Spanish teacher came in saying everything in Spanish…you recognized all of the sounds and possibly some of the words, but generally speaking you felt “lost.”  This phenomena is due to your not being able to process the language—not an auditory processing problem.  Children with a language processing disorder will experience difficulties with expressing themselves, following directions, reading and writing.  

A language processing disorder can only be assed by a Certified Speech-Language Pathologist.  The testing should encompass a comprehensive assessment that looks at expressive and receptive language skills and how the child is able to apply these skills at different levels-single word as well as in connected speech. 

It may surprise some, but as a Certified Speech Language Pathologist who works with children with possible auditory processing disorders, I am not able to diagnose an auditory processing disorder.  This diagnosis can only be made by a certified audiologist and it entails much more than a simple hearing test.  The testing does not look at the child’s ability to process language but does entail the child’s ability to process incoming auditory information. 
 

If you suspect your child if having difficulty with processing language or sounds you should contact a speech-language pathologist to determine what type of evaluation maybe appropriate for your child.