Diagnoses and Interventions Related to

Auditory Processing Disorder and

Parent/Provider Perceptions
Jade Clark, BS, Sarah Delaney, BS, Jamien Johnson, Sandra Grether PhD, Susan Eichert, AuD, Lisa Hunter PhD
Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and related Disabilities (LEND) Program
The Division of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
The University of Cincinnati University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities

Background Results

• Auditory processing disorder (APD) is a deficit of active listening and is believed

to originate in the brain, not the ear (American Academy of Audiology, 2010).

• APD overlaps with speech-language disorders, attention-deficit disorders, and

autism spectrum disorder.

• There are many debates and discussions between health professionals, including
audiologists and speech-language pathologists, on the diagnosis and treatment
efficacy for auditory processing disorder (APD) in school-aged children (Fey et
al., 2011). Fig. 2. Percent of children receiving a Fig. 3. Percent of diagnostic assessments
• Commonly used interventions include diagnostic assessment in each specialty. that were normal, possible, definite in each
computerized trainings such as Fast specialty.
ForWord and Earobics, and traditional
listening treatments such as dichotic
listening, language and sound
discrimination trainings (Fey et al., 2011;
Sharma et al., 2012; Lotfi et al., 2016).

• Parents and healthcare providers may

have differing opinions regarding the Fig. 4. Types of
effectiveness of treatment interventions for specific diagnoses
patients with APD. identified; many
children had more
than one diagnosis.

Aims

The overall goal of this project is to investigate the range of diagnoses and
interventions that have been given in children diagnosed with listening difficulties,
known as APD.

Specific Questions: Fig. 5. Average

• What are the types of diagnoses given and interventions used? number of
• What are perceptions of effectiveness of APD Intervention by providers and intervention
families? sessions in each
specialty, and for
auditory processing
Methods specifically..

Participants:
72 children determined to have significant listening difficulties that are defined by a
validated parent questionnaire (ECLiPS, Barry, Moore, Tomlin, 2015).
Conclusions

• Further research is warranted to determine if parent reported auditory concerns are a cause of
their children’s multiple learning difficulties.
• There are many therapies that target functional skills in attention, fine motor skills, language, and
sensory processing but few therapies are designed to intervene with auditory skills.
• There is a need for more research to offer evidence-based listening skill exercises and to study
their effectiveness and transference to skills that are important for learning and language.

Next Steps

Pending IRB approval:

Fig 1. Results of the ECLiPS Parent Questionnaire for children with APD compared to age-matched typically
developing children.
Data Collection:
• A retrospective analysis of each subject’s electronic medical record was completed with specific
focus on appointments provided in the following categories: audiology, occupational therapy,
psychology, and speech-language pathology.
• The number of sessions, sessions related to listening, and visit diagnoses were record for each
child included in the study.
Data Analysis:
Descriptive statistics were completed for diagnoses and interventions in each category.
Acknowledgements
• This project is funded by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau Grant T73MC00032, and NIH
NIH Grant 5R01DC014078 and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Research Foundation.
• The patients, families, and professionals who make this work possible through their participation.
• A survey will be sent to providers within audiology, occupational therapy, psychology, and speech-
language pathology to assess their perceptions regarding the effectiveness of interventions for
listening difficulties offered.
• A second survey will be sent to caregivers of children with reported listening difficulties to assess
their perceptions of the effectiveness of interventions offered to their children for listening
difficulties.
References
• Fey ME, Richard GJ, Kamhi AG, Medwetsky L, Paul D, Ross-Wain D, et al. Auditory Processing
Disorder and Auditory/Language Interventions: An Evidence-Based Systematic Review.
Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools. 2011; 42:246-264
• Lotfi Y, Moosavi A, Abdollahi FZ, Bakhshi E, Sadjedi H. Effects of an Auditory Lateralization
Training in Children Suspected to Centraln Auditory Processing Disorder. J Audiol Otol. 2016;
20(2):102-108.
• Sharma M, Purdy SC, Kelly AS. The Contribution of Speech-Evoked Cortical Auditory Evoked
Potentials to the Diagnosis and Measurement of Intervention Outcomes in Children with Auditory
Processing Disorder. Seminars in Hearing. 2014; 35(1):51-64
• Barry JG, Tomlin D, Moore DR, Dillon H. Use of Questionnaire-Based Measures in the
Assessment of Listening Difficulties in School-Aged Children. Ear Hear. 2015; 36(6):300-313.