Your Child’s Life with APD

APD affects every aspect of life, not just learning. It can be exhausting, confusing, and constant.

Below this infographic, there’s a description of the daily frustrations that come with APD.

A Child’s Day With Auditory Processing Disorder

Auditory processing disorder in children can be very challenging. When we are young, our day job is learning. Our primary focus is getting an education. With auditory processing disorder, a child’s school day may be more challenging, frustrating, and sometimes humiliating than anyone realizes.

• He may miss much of what the teacher is saying in class, especially in noisy classrooms.
• Homework can be frustrating and stressful.  This stems from not understanding the assignment, an inability to follow the lesson in class, and/or reading problems.
• Social conversations with peers are challenging, particularly in noisy playgrounds.
• Sometimes she feels humiliated when she has to answer in class before she understands the question.
• Reading out loud in class or to a parent is often another daily struggle.

These daily frustrations erode confidence and self-esteem. Furthermore, they create a negative connection to reading and learning that, over time, becomes hard to reverse. Consequently, many children with APD do eventually grow out of their processing delays, but they never become enthusiastic readers.

How To Identify APD and What To Do Next

As you might expect, recognizing central auditory processing disorder in children early on is important. ASHA, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, recommends formal testing through an audiologist. This testing normally occurs in a sound room. Different volume levels and sound combinations test temporal aspects of auditory discrimination (sequencing), auditory pattern recognition, and the ability to process degraded or distorted sound.

However, since auditory processing impacts a range of behaviors, there are tell-tale signs of APD you can observe using an APD symptoms checklist with signs of auditory processing disorder in children listed by age.

If you decide on formal testing, you will receive advice on managing auditory processing disorder for your child at home and school. However, that is about all you will get. There is no medicine or magic pill for APD. It is a delay in cognitive skill growth. And, like other physical or cognitive skills, the only way to improve auditory processing skills is through cognitive training like Fast ForWord.

If you are not sure if this is your child’s life experience, take our free Auditory Processing screening of symptoms and risk factors, and we will send our findings.