WHY TEST FOR APD?
- Undiagnosed APD could be a factor in your child’s academic struggles- it could be the primary source. It is important to identify if APD is present. This is why when APD is suspected, the first step in the process is to see an Audiologist that is specially trained in the diagnosis and treatment of APD.
- Undiagnosed APD can be the missing puzzle piece causing delays and/or failure to progress in other therapies targeted at remediating language and/or learning disorders. Once APD is identified and supported and treated, we will often begin to see progress move forward in other areas.
- It is not enough to assume some type of APD is present based on observed behavior characteristics or low scores on auditory screening tests. A complete APD diagnostic test battery performed by an Audiologist trained to evaluate APD is required in order to diagnose what type of APD is present. In order to target the APD effectively, we need to know where the break down is occurring in the central auditory processing pathways.
- For example-
- All individuals with APD will have difficulty hearing in noise, however, the reason why (and how to target remediation and support) will be different depending on which type of APD is present.
- Decoding deficit will have trouble hearing in noise because they can’t quickly and accurately process speech at a phonemic level.
- Integration deficit will have difficulty hearing in noise because the two ears are not processing speech in a balanced manner and that imbalance (or delay) causes difficulty hearing in noise or remembering what is heard.
- Prosody deficit will have difficulty hearing in noise because the timing or patterning of speech sounds are not processed accurately causing extraction of key information to be missed or misunderstood.
- All individuals with APD will have difficulty hearing in noise, however, the reason why (and how to target remediation and support) will be different depending on which type of APD is present.
Therefore, how we would go about helping these individuals to hear better in noise would be directly related to what type of APD deficit is present. Appling a one size fits all approach to all APD patients will most often miss the mark and may prove ineffective. A deficit specific diagnosis (what type of APD is present) allows us to understand what type of difficulties a person is likely to be challenged with and what type of interventions will be most effective.