Those with Auditory Processing Disorders typically have normal hearing and intelligence, however, something is affecting the interpretation and/or processing of the information heard.

Children with APD might not hear little differences in words; For example: "Tell me how couch and chair are alike", to the APD child it may sound like, "Tell me how cow and a hair are alike." For further detailed information on APD, go to the following links:

http://www.asha.org/public/hearing/disorders/understand-apd-child.htm

http://www.nicd.gov/health/voice/auditory.asp

http://www.bbbautism.com/auditory-processing-disorder.htm

Some symptoms may be:

*demonstrates poor listening skills - needs things repeated over and over again until understood.

*has trouble paying attention to and remembering information presented to him/her verbally;

*needs more time to process the information;

*has problems with multi-step tasks - directions;

*has difficulty with reading comprehension; reading in general, vocabulary, spelling and word problems;

*has low academic performance;

*has behavior problems

*has language difficulties - eg. understanding language, problems developing vocabulary, and confuses syllable sequencing.

Initial steps to diagnosis:

1). Talk to your pediatrician -

2). Audiologist testing

3). Speech Language Pathologist

Practical Solutions for Parents & Teachers:

*Key is to improve functioning for the APD child, is to make sure that their learning environment is and/or has most of the below to start with:

- Make sure you are very close to the child when speaking ;

-Don't move around when speaking to child;

-Limit background noise when speaking to child;

-Always give cues to let the child know that speech is starting.

**Teaching Tools for Teachers/Schools:

-Earobics

-Smartboards

-Picture Exchange Program by Boardmaker

-FM Acoustics System in classroom

-Lessons on power point

-Implementation of the Multiple Intelligences in lessons/assignments

-Lots of Visuals in classroom

-Auditory Trainers - (try)

-multi-step tasks broken down

-Find out how the child learns best- give Multiple Intelligence Test

In summary, this is just the basics outlined here. For more information, please see the above links to gain in-depth knowledge about children with Auditory Processing Disorders.