Auditory Processing Skills

Many people ask about the auditory processing skills. Auditory processing is how the brain identifies and understands sound information, and that includes many different skills.

Auditory processing skills are classified and named differently in different resources. Here is a simple way to describe them and explain their role and the effect of lacking them on everyday behavior.

1.Auditory discrimination is the inability to distinguish sounds that are similar but are actually different or distinct. For example back and pack or sat and fat. 

This can present as hearing loss. Candidates usually mishear oral communication and respond accordingly. This leads to language issues like spelling vocabulary and reading aloud resulting in learning, academic, and communication difficulties. 

This can be noticeable in schools, universities, social events and workplaces.

2.Auditory localization, which is the ability to locate the source or location of sound.

For example: Is it my phone that's ringing or another phone? or, which appliance is the sound coming from?

3.Auditory identification or association, is attaching a meaning to certain sounds or speech.

4.Auditory synthesis; the ability to put together sounds into a meaningful whole.

Lack of this skill leads to difficulty pulling ideas together in conversation & writing, and poor comprehension.

5.Auditory awareness, which is the ability to detect sound.

6.Auditory attention is filtering unnecessary sounds as well as shifting attention and sustaining it with focusing on certain sounds. 

Lack of this skill, will lead to a lack of responding or following directions when spoken to, or difficulty shifting from one topic to the next, and sustaining attention on topic during classes or conversations. 

7.Auditory figure ground is the ability to attend to specific sounds in competing background noise.

Lack of this skill shows up as having problems with group conversations or difficulty focusing when there is music, tv, or any background noise.