What is Auditory Processing

A person with an auditory processing disorder is someone that struggles with processing with how the brain understands speech (Belsky, n.d.) . There are four main skills that a student with an auditory processing disorder may look like: 

• Auditory discrimination:  where the student struggles with deciphering between sounds

• Auditory figure-ground discrimination: the ability to decipher sounds with a noisy background

• Auditory memory: the ability to recall what you have heard 

• Auditory sequencing: understand and recall the order of sounds and words 

It is important to remember that those struggling with auditory processing do not struggle with cognitive ability but it will  impact the students ability to learn if accommodations and modifications aren’t made. 

Some common things in a classroom that can hinder a students auditory processing are:

• Bells

• Timers

• Music

• Clocks (they make noise even if we can’t hear it)

• Pencil sharpener

• Door opening and closing

• Pencils/pens writing

• Coughing/sneezing

• Partners all talking at once