Management of auditory processing disorders

Hearing is one of the cornerstones of human communication. The term ‘Auditory Processing Disorder (APD)’ refers to a hearing disorder resulting from impaired brain function. Diagnosis and management of APD requires a multidisciplinary approach, given the potential impact of APD on listening, communication and academic outcomes, and considering the frequent comorbidity of APD with related language and learning difficulties. Intervention strategies can be divided into five main categories, namely environmental modifications, signal enhancement strategies, teacher/speaker based adaptations, formal and informal auditory training, and compensatory strategies. While outcome studies – other than single case studies – are lacking for informal auditory training and compensatory strategies, these are low-cost procedures that have been long employed in children's education. There is some recent evidence to suggest that formal auditory training by means of computerized games leads to improvements in phonological awareness and educational performance in these children. However, further research is needed to understand how and why intervention works and which is the most cost-effective intervention for individual case