Auditory Processing is the medical term for listening, it is how our brains interpret sound- both speech and non speech sounds. It is not the physical ability to hear, but what happens when sound travels down along the neural networks from our ears to our brain.

Many children, young people and adults pass hearing tests but report some challenges for example following instructions, hearing sounds in words and filtering out unwanted background noise.

Many children and young people also have other identified needs such as Developmental Language Disorders, Speech Disorder, dyslexia, ADHD, Autism, dyspraxia etc.

What challenges do children or young people have with Auditory Processing Difficulties?

• listening and hearing (despite passing hearing checks), especially if there’s a lot of background noise and distractions
• following verbal and written instructions
• concentrating and staying focused – for example, they might be easily distracted
• remembering spoken instructions
• telling the difference between letters that sound similar, like ‘p’ and ‘b’, or ‘t’ and ‘d’
• remembering to say the beginning or end sounds of words when they’re reading.
• May not easily “localise” where sound is coming from
• May find it harder to “listen and do”

This means that Auditory Processing Difficulties can appear as problems with attention, learning, listening, social interaction and communication, as well as reading and writing.