Auditory processing is the:
ability to process sounds, as in identifying, isolating, and analyzing sounds,
the ability to process speech sounds, as in identifying, isolating, and blending or synthesizing sounds and;
the ability to detect differences in speech sounds under conditions of little direction or distortions — difficulty with phonemic awareness tasks.
Educational Implications:
Hearing the differences between sounds. For example, instead of hearing the word “bat,” they may hear the word “pat.”
Filtering out unimportant sounds. Kids may have a hard time listening to the teacher instead of background noise in a classroom.
Remembering things they hear. Children with this kind of weakness often have a hard time remembering nursery rhymes or song lyrics that other kids remember easily.
Understanding and remembering the order of sounds. They might hear “84” and think “48,” for example. Or say “ephelant” instead of “elephant.”
Teaching Supports:
Direct and explicit instruction of phonemic awareness skills.
Ask the student to retell directions given auditorily to check for understanding.
Use instructional materials that have visual supports for all oral instructional components or guided notes/study guides to support any verbal instruction.
Seat student close to the point of instruction
Minimize background noise (including talking) during lecture and work time.
Provide multiple opportunities to ask for clarifying questions.
Make eye contact with the student and/or face them so they can read your lips as you speak.
Provide written directions or visual cues to aid in comprehension and work completion.
To reduce the student’s cognitive load, the student will benefit from clear expectations, a familiar routine, an emphasis on quality of work over quantity of work, extra time to process information and complete assignments, and note-taking accommodations. Note-taking accommodations are not limited to sketch notes, skeleton/guided notes, and recorded lectures.
Explicit instruction and practice phonemic awareness skills throughout the day and during transitions.
Emphasis on sight word reading
Teaching comprehension monitoring and strategies for reading (ie. Does the word I heard/read make sense in context?)
Use work preview/text preview to clarify unknown words
Annunciate sounds in words in an emphatic manner when teaching new words for reading or spelling