I’m not going to go into the specifics of the parts of the ear and the way it does that because this article is focused on auditory processing specifically. Because sound is constantly changing, it’s also broken up by time as a function of that presentation. What Structures Are Needed For Auditory Processing?Īs I started to describe above, your ear breaks sound down based on pitch and loudness. And a breakdown in any of those skills can lead to communication problems. So as you can see, auditory processing is a complex process involving many different skills. You can think of it like playing a real-time game of Wheel Of Fortune but on the order of milliseconds instead of whole minutes. And it has to do all of that very quickly. It has to access situational and emotional context to formulate a response. And it has to attach meaning to the words and sentence. It has to recognize each syllable and put all of them back into the right order to create whole words. And since pitch and loudness change very rapidly in speech, your brain has a lot that it needs to do. Your ear actually breaks sound up into its fundamental parts – pitch and loudness – and sends those along the auditory nerve up to the brain as it perceives them. Your ear doesn’t just send whole words up to the brain and instantly understand them. The HEARing Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) is also currently undertaking research to better understand and treat individuals with APD.Auditory processing is the way your brain makes sense of the sound that it hears. There are a variety of therapies, training programs, and strategies available to help children and adults manage the condition, including SPD. The video below taken from the ABC TV’s Catalyst Show provides a good overview on Auditory Processing Disorders, including Spatial Processing Disorders. Unlike other more common hearing problems, APD can occur infrequently so that individuals can have no problems processing different sounds one day and the next day, they struggle to make sense of the sounds that surround them. Children who have APD can experience difficulty learning in a classroom environment. ![]() ![]() Symptoms of Auditory Processing DisordersĪs a result, APD sufferers experience difficulties in hearing and understanding conversations over background noise or have trouble locating certain sounds. The result is a frustrating inability to hear and locate specific sounds in a listener’s immediate environment. It occurs when the brain’s normal auditory processing abilities are unable to selectively focus on sounds coming from one direction and suppressing sounds coming in from other directions. Spatial Processing DisordersĪ common type of APD is called Spatial Processing Disorder (SPD). Instead, it causes individuals to have difficulty in understanding speech and working out what direction certain sounds are coming from. In short, the brains of people with APD cannot fully understand the information contained in sound.Īs a hearing disorder, it’s important to note that APD does not impact on the ability to hear. Auditory Processing Disorders if left untreated can interfere with a child’s learning abilities.Īuditory Processing Disorders (APD) – also known as Central Auditory Processing Disorders (CAPD) – is an umbrella term that describes a variety of hearing disorders which result from a breakdown in the brain’s hearing and listening processing abilities.
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