(APD) Auditory Processing Disorder Services

⦿ Difficulty understanding speech in the middle of background noise.

⦿ Difficulty with reading, spelling and comprehension of read material.

⦿ Difficulty remembering auditory information e.g remembering directions.

⦿ Difficulty organising sounds in the correct order or sequence.

⦿ Problems successfully combining auditory and visual information.

⦿ Difficulty with interpreting where sound is coming from.

⦿ Problems attending to different information presented to opposite ears.

⦿ A consistent delay in response to a question or instructions. i.e. slow to respond.

At Sonant Hearing Clinic, Kent we mainly use the Buffalo Model array of tests for diagnosing and treating auditory processing issues, which was developed by Jack Katz, Ph.D. at the University of Buffalo.  We assess patients (ages 5 years and older) on the degree to which they deviate from the norms on several listening tests. The tests measure a person’s performance in four categories:

Decoding: The ability to process phonemes quickly and accurately, or the building sounds of speech.

Tolerance-Fading Memory: The ability to understand speech while in competing noise and the necessary short-term memory capacity to do so.

Organization: The ability to organize and store orally presented information in the brain.

Integration: The ability for the left and right hemispheres of the brain to communicate.