The nature of Central Auditory Processing Disorder in children

Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) is a diagnosis sometimes given to children who seem to have trouble with listening, especially in noisy situations, despite having normal hearing when tested by an audiologist. It affects up to 10% of children in the UK.

[Studentship, 2007-2009]

Typically, children diagnosed with APD will have difficulty with tasks like identifying or discriminating between different sounds. The assumption is that, while the ear and the nerve that sends signals on towards the brain are intact, later stages of auditory processing contain some degree of abnormality, resulting in problems developing normal language and literacy skills. However, there is controversy both about the definition of APD and also about its cause.

Supervised by Professor Dorothy Bishop at the University of Oxford, Piers Dawes studied records from children who had been referred to a specialist APD clinic to find out which symptoms occurred in these children compared to similar children without a diagnosis of APD, which other conditions were present that might have bearing on their ability to process sounds, and to shed light on possible causes of the disorder.

Results from 89 children seen at Great Ormond Street Hospital, 32 of whom were diagnosed with APD, were analysed for the study. No difference was found between the APD and non-APD groups in the occurrence of a range of symptoms such as difficulty with spoken instructions, reading spelling and poor concentration. Nor was there any difference between groups in the number of children with additional conditions like autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.