What Teachers Should Know about Auditory Processing Disorder (APD)
Auditory processing is the system that transfers and decodes what we hear into what we understand.
The ear can hear and differentiate many different sounds. These sounds must be accurately received by the ear, then be sent to the relevant parts of the brain to be analysed and acted upon.
Auditory Processing Disorder (APD), also known as Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD) is an umbrella term for a variety of disorders that mean that the brain has difficulty making sense of the sound that it hears.
People with APD have a normal ability to hear sounds, but have difficulty understanding what the sounds mean. The brain cannot make sense of what the ears hear because the auditory signal is distorted in some way.
APD is estimated to affect 5% of people.
What Teachers Should Know
Students with auditory processing disorder (APD) can't process the information they hear in the same way as others because their ears and brain don't coordinate as they should.
Children with APD often have difficulty recognizing subtle differences between sounds in spoken words, even when the sounds are loud and clear enough to be heard. This usually happens when there's background noise, like in a typical classroom. In addition, loud or sudden noises can easily distract or bother students with APD.
Children with APD have normal hearing. APD may be confused with certain learning disabilities or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), though it is also possible to have APD as well as language impairments, learning disabilities, or ADHD.
