Effective communication relies on the message being delivered and on the receiver being able to understand and draw meaning from the message. In essence, it is ‘what we do with what we hear’.
Auditory processing involves all the steps involved in hearing and understanding of sound and its meaning. The first 3 steps deal with our ears and their ability to hear sound (in essence the hardware we use to hear).
Step 1
First, our ears must collect all the sounds we hear around us. We then need to be able to detect them at even the softest levels, after which we transform the sound energy into electrical energy that the brain can deal with. Up to this point, we are dealing mostly with hearing and not processing as we don’t even need to be awake to hear.
Step 2
The next level in this process is attending to the message. This means that we focus on the important speech and sounds and hold on to this information so that it can be processed in higher levels. After focusing on this speech and sounds, we then have to discriminate and decode the message by hearing the subtle differences between speech sounds, for example, knowing whether we heard ‘cat’ or ‘cap.’
Step 3
Once we are sure of what we have heard we associate meaning to it and where we link what we have heard to the information stored in our brain. For example, knowing that c-a-t fit together and make ‘cat’ and then knowing from reference what a cat is. We then integrate all the sounds we have heard to make sense of the message and gain a sense of the bigger picture.
Lastly, we use our output-organisation skills to sequence and organise the information so that we can remember and recall it.
What is Auditory Processing?
It is the process that turns sound into usable information in the brain.
What is Auditory Processing Disorder (APD)?
An Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) is a disruption in the auditory nervous system’s network that can affect the brain’s ability to process sound accurately and efficiently.
Common Symptoms of APD
Auditory Processing Disorder is an umbrella term that describes various subtypes that affect how the brain perceives and processes what the ears hear.
- Frequently requesting repetition and/or rephrasing of information, saying “what” or “huh” often
- Difficulty understanding speech with competing talkers or background noise
- Difficulty following multiple-step or lengthy oral instructions
- Mishearing auditory information
