How do I know if my child is struggling with auditory processing skills?

​​​A child with auditory processing difficulties can often present as a child who has concentration difficulties, or as child who misbehaves and clowns around in the classroom. Symptoms of weak auditory processing skills can range from mild to severe and can present differently in different children. Consider these factors:

• Is your child easily distracted or unusually bothered by loud or sudden noises?

• Does your child's behavior and performance improve in quieter settings?

• Does your child have difficulty following directions and instructions?

• Does your child dislike or avoid reading, spelling and writing activities?

• Does your child often guess words when reading? 

• Does your child have difficulty with sounding out words when reading? 

• Does your child sound out words correctly but then guesses a different word while reading?

• Is abstract information difficult for your child to comprehend?

• Are verbal (word) math problems difficult for your child?

• Is your child disorganized and forgetful?

• Are conversations hard for your child to follow?

• Under-achievement in school tests and activities despite great effort.

• Does your child express frustration around homework and tries to avoid school often by complaining that it is 'too easy', 'too boring', or that they have a 'sore tummy'?

• Does your child have a low self-esteem, or can you notice a decline in his self-esteem as the work becomes more difficult at school?

• Does your child have difficulties with socialisation?

• Does your child show signs of withdrawal when presented with certain activities - particularly those requiring reading, writing or memory of instructions?

• Does your child experience anxiety - even in a very subtle way like clasping hands continuously, or making excuses to avoid activities?

• Does your child display behaviour problems?

• Does your child have trouble paying attention to and remembering information presented orally, but copes better with visual information?

• Does your child have problems carrying out multi-step directions given orally - needing to hear only one direction at a time?

• Does your child need repetition often?

• Does your child need more time to process information?

• Does your child have low academic performance?

• Does your child have poor listening memory?

• Does your child listen to a story and forget the information and detail from the story? 

• Does your child have a slow or delayed response to verbal requests and instructions?​​

• Does your child leave out letters when writing words?

• Does your child leave out words when writing sentences?