Auditory Training

Auditory training is a therapeutic approach designed to improve the skills of people with auditory processing disorders, or APD. APD affects how the brain interprets sounds, which makes it difficult to recognize and understand them—particularly in environments with background noise.

Auditory training, OR APD Therapy, is done one-on-one with our speech language pathologist. The duration and frequency of treatment may vary depending on the severity of your APD and progress over time. Often, treatment can be done for 30-60 minutes, once or twice a week.

How Does It Work?

Auditory training aims to enhance abilities through focused listening exercises and activities. Depending on the biggest areas of weakness, our therapy aims to improve auditory processing in the following areas.

• Sound Discrimination Exercises: These involve identifying differences and similarities in sounds, including pitch, volume and duration to improve sound recognition and interpretation.
• Figure-Ground Activities: These are designed to help you focus on a single sound source amidst background noise and improve the ability to concentrate on speech in noisy environments.
• Auditory Closure Tasks: Exercises that require you to fill in missing parts of a word or sentence, improving listening comprehension and predicting abilities.
• Phonemic Awareness: Activities aimed at recognizing and manipulating the smallest units of sound in speech, contributing to better phonological processing and literacy skills.
• Memory Training: This improves auditory memory capabilities through the repetition and recall of lists, numbers and sequences of sounds, benefiting both short-term and working memory for auditory information.
• Directional Hearing Exercises: Tasks that help improve the ability to locate the source of a sound, aiding spatial hearing and awareness.
• Binaural Integration: Training that focuses on processing different sounds presented to each ear simultaneously, fostering the ability to integrate and process complex auditory inputs.
• Use of Auditory Training Apps and Software: Technology-based tools offer interactive listening exercises, games, and simulations tailored to individual needs and progress levels. These games can be used during your child’s treatment in the office, but also at home!