A comprehensive multidisciplinary approach led by an audiologist is important to identify APD.
An Audiologist will first carry out tests to rule out peripheral hearing loss and middle ear pathologies. A background of the family, educational qualifications, social emotional concerns, behavioural and medical history are helpful in the assessment battery.
A number of tonal and speech tests are then carried out to assess auditory memory, discrimination and other auditory processes which include the binaural integration, binaural separation, temporal patterning, temporal processing and binaural interaction skills.
Some of the symptoms of APD are similar to that of other learning disorders such as language delay, attention deficit disorders, cognitive delay and dyslexia. As a result, the audiologist may recommend a referral to other professionals to determine whether another disorder is the root cause of the child's difficulties and/or whether the child has APD. These professionals may include speech-language pathologists, educational psychologists, paediatricians and occupational therapists.