Auditory Processing Disorder

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Auditory Processing Disorder
Dickey LaMoure Special Education Unit
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How Does Auditory Processing Work?

• The ears detect sound
• Auditory stimulus travels along the neural
  pathways from the ear to the brain
• The brain processes the information, allowing
  the listener to
• Determine where the sound comes from
• Determine what type of sound it is
• Separate the sound from background noise and
• Interpret the sound.
• The listener stores, retrieves, or clarifies the
  information to make it useful.

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Causes of Auditory Processing Disorder

• Often unknown
• May be associated with the following conditions
• Dyslexia
• Attention deficit disorder
• Autism or Autism spectrum disorder
• Specific language impairment
• Pervasive developmental disorder
• Developmental delay
• Or, it may occur on its own

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Auditory Processing Disorder

• Children with Auditory Processing Disorder (APD)
  have trouble decoding sounds.
• The disorder part of APD is an impaired ability
  to
• attend to,
• discriminate,
• remember,
• recognize, or
• comprehend
• information presented auditorily.

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Characteristics of APD

• All learning is negatively affected by APD.
• Difficulty following directions is the most
  common complaint about children with APD.
  Students cannot
• Interpret oral directions
• Follow directions in the correct sequence
• Organize information presented
• Come to appropriate conclusions regarding data
• Categorize and compare data.

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Characteristics of APD

• Poor reading, comprehension, writing, and
  spelling
• Weak short-term memory
• Difficulty taking notes
• Difficulty learning foreign languages
• Verbal (word) math problems are difficult.

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Characteristics of APD

• Children with APD often do not recognize subtle
  differences between sounds in words, for example

• "Tell me how a chair and a couch are alike"
• may sound like
• "Tell me how a couch and a chair are alike."
• or
• "Tell me how a cow and a hair are alike."

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Characteristics of APD

• Auditory processing difficulties become more
  pronounced in challenging listening situations
• noisy backgrounds
• poor acoustic environments
• great distance from the speaker
• speakers with fast speaking rates
• speakers with foreign accents.
• Assistive listening devices may help.

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Characteristics of APD

• Problems understanding language developing
  vocabulary
• Poor language and academic skills may lead to
  further problems
• Behavioral,
• Psychological, and/or
• Social problems.

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Classroom Accommodations

• Use visual cues
• List assignments on the board
• Provide lecture outlines
• Use demonstrations and examples to clarify
  information
• Step out directions
• Use graphs or posters help students visualize the
  information or concept.

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Classroom Accommodations

• Use texts on CDs (check when ordering new texts)
• Ask students to fill in or predict information in
  class and conversations
• Repeat directions
• Give the child time to respond to questions
• Prepare the child in advance by giving the
  question and making sure he has the answer.

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Classroom Accommodations

• Allow the child to use a tape recorder or peer
  note-taker
• Use a cloze procedure for note taking
• Draw out math problems
• Use diagrams
• Develop memory techniques verbal rehearsal and
  mnemonics (chunking, cueing, chaining).

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Classroom Accommodations

• Use descriptive adjectives that express sensory
  input
• Provide models of paraphrasing or give the
  student 2 choices of how to paraphrase
• Reduce noise increase structure
• Give 1 direction at a time gradually build up to
  multi-tasking
• Allow preferential seating .

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Other Good Practices

• Teach and practice listening skills
• Teach and practice how to ask questions
• Ask the student to paraphrase information
• Preteach vocabulary and meanings
• Learn what works well and use it!

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The End
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Bibliography
http//www.med.umich.edu/1libr/yourchild/speech.ht
m http//www.thespeechy.com/speechprobs.asp http/
/www.asha.org/public/hearing/disorders/effects.htm
The Bridge to the Future Language Arts
Curriculum by the North Dakota School for the
Deaf http//www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/voice/auditor
y.asp http//ericec.org/digests/e634.html http//w
ww.kidshealth.org/parent/medical/ears/central_audi
tory.html