Young girl smiling while sitting at a table in a classroom with other children, holding a green marker and surrounded by school supplies.

Auditory Processing

Auditory processing (AP) is what our brain does with what our ears hear, it describes the communication that takes place between our ears and our brain. Hearing and auditory processing are separate systems, but both must work well for us to be able to hear and then understand sound and speech.

Around 5% of school children suffer from Auditory Processing Disorder (APD), a disorder of the hearing system that causes a disruption in the way that our brain understands what we are hearing. The brain can’t make sense of what their ears hear due to a distorted signal.

Education and therapy outcomes are likely to be restricted in effectiveness if lower-level bottom-up processing (i.e. auditory processing ability) is not addressed.

Consider investigating your auditory processing ability if you:

  • Have a hearing loss

  • Have a history of ear infections

  • Are not making progress in therapy

  • Have poor phonemic awareness

Auditory processing ability is known to be tightly linked to literacy ability. A study conducted on 3-day old infants and their auditory processing measurements (electrode machine), could predict reading abilities 8 years later with 92% accuracy. 

Education and therapy outcomes (e.g. schooling, training, speech therapy) are likely to be restricted in effectiveness if lower-level bottom-up processing (i.e. auditory processing ability) is not addressed.

For 8–9-year-olds, when measuring the lowest 20% of a class, over 50% have a dichotic listening issue (Bellis, et al 2015). 70% of children with dyslexia also have a dichotic listening deficit. It has repeatedly been shown in studies that auditory processing ability can be correlated to reading skills. Auditory processing ability can predict higher level skills in a third grader (like phonology, reading, spelling) from as young as kindy age. 

When APD is diagnosed early, people (children especially) can get the help they need early so that they can have the best opportunity to learn. Treatment options may include auditory training, personal remote microphone systems or sound field systems.