What is auditory processing?

Auditory processing is what happens when your brain recognizes and interprets the sounds around you. The process of hearing involves energy that is recognized as sound.  This energy travels through the ear and is changed into electrical information that can be interpreted by the brain. When someone has difficulty with auditory processing, something is adversely affecting the processing or interpretation of the information.

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What types of auditory processing difficulties are there?

Auditory processing difficulties manifest in many different ways.  You may have a child who cannot stand loud sounds, covers their ears when you vacuum or run the garbage disposal, or becomes upset when you try to sing to them.  This is called auditory defensiveness. To them, most sounds are experienced as too loud and can elicit a pain response.

Another processing difficulty is called auditory processing disorder or central auditory processing disorder.  Children with this difficulty have a hard time processing what is heard.  They may mix up words or miss important information, especially in noisy environments.

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What causes auditory processing differences?

In short, we are not sure. Human communication relies on taking in complicated perceptual information from the outside world through the senses, such as hearing, and interpreting that information in a meaningful way. Human communication also requires certain mental abilities, such as attention and memory. Scientists still do not understand exactly how all of these processes work and interact or how they malfunction in cases of communication disorders. Even though your child seems to "hear normally," he or she may have difficulty using those sounds for speech and language.

The cause of processing difficulties is often unknown. In children, auditory processing difficulty may be associated with conditions such as dyslexia, attention deficit disorder, autism, autism spectrum disorder, specific language impairment, pervasive developmental disorder, or developmental delay.