Profile and aetiology of children diagnosed with auditory processing disorder (APD)
Piers Dawes1, Dorothy V M Bishop, Tony Sirimanna
1Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3UD, United Kingdom. Piers.dawes@psy.ox.ac.uk
Insights
Children diagnosed with auditory processing disorder (APD) show similar symptoms and etiological factors as those without APD. Current diagnostic tests may be unreliable, as no distinguishing features were found.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric audiology
- Neurodevelopmental disorders
Background:
- Auditory processing disorder (APD) is increasingly diagnosed in children, presenting as listening difficulties despite normal hearing.
- There is ongoing debate regarding the definition, diagnosis, and causes of APD.
Purpose of the Study:
- To describe the presenting features of children diagnosed with APD.
- To investigate potential etiological factors in children with APD compared to a control group.
Main Methods:
- Retrospective review of medical records for children attending a specialist APD clinic.
- Comparison of presenting features and potential etiological factors between children diagnosed with APD and those without APD.
Main Results:
- No significant differences in presenting symptoms or co-occurring learning problems were found between the APD and non-APD groups.
- Identified etiological factors, including otitis media history, obstetric history, and family history, did not predict APD diagnosis.
- 32 children were diagnosed with APD, and 57 children were in the non-APD comparison group.
Conclusions:
- Children diagnosed with APD using current common tests lack distinct presenting features or identifiable etiological factors.
- Learning difficulties may be independent of auditory processing issues, and etiological factors may not play a strong causal role in APD.
- The unreliability of current APD diagnostic tests is a potential explanation for the lack of distinguishing factors.
Objective:
Auditory processing disorder (APD) is characterised by listening difficulties despite a normal audiogram. APD is becoming ever more widely diagnosed in children, though there is a controversy over definition, diagnosis and aetiology. This study sought to describe presenting features and investigate aetiological factors for children diagnosed with APD compared to those for whom APD was excluded.
Methods:
Medical notes for children referred to a specialist hospital-based APD clinic were reviewed in relation to presenting features and potential aetiological factors.
Results:
32 children diagnosed with APD and 57 non-APD children were compared. They reported similar symptoms and similarly had high rates of co-morbid learning problems. No aetiological factor (including history of otitis media, adverse obstetric history or familial history of listening problems) predicted APD group membership.
Conclusions:
Children identified with APD on the basis of commonly used APD tests cannot be distinguished on the basis of presenting features or the aetiological factors examined here. One explanation is that learning problems exist independently of auditory processing difficulties and the aetiological factors do not have a strong causal role in APD. However, no gold standard for APD testing exists and an alternative explanation is that the commonly used APD tests used as selection criteria in this study may be unreliable.
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