Auditory processing – have you heard the news?

 

If you’ve heard talk about auditory processing being at the root of dyslexia you may have heard right. Research published in the journal Neuron finds that a glitch in the processing of auditory signals (this is not deafness) causes the main symptoms of dyslexia, and the trouble starts in the left auditory cortex.  What does it mean?  It means if you’re dyslexic you most likely have trouble:

·      Following spoken directions.

·      Remembering what you were told.

·      Paying attention.

In your first years at school, sounding out words was probably very hard for you so you fell further and further behind when it came to learning new words. 

Children with learning and reading disabilities are now more often being referred to the audiologist for a hearing and auditory processing test. And some audiologists make a distinction between phonologic dyslexics (whose problems are mostly to do with speech sounds) and comprehension dyslexics (whose problems are mostly with irregular words that don’t fit customary categories).