DIFFERENTIATING A LANGUAGE PROCESSING DISORDER (LPD) FROM AN APD

AUDITORY PROCESSING DEFICIT	LANGUAGE PROCESSING DEFICIT
Majority are male (75%)	Problem with retrieval of common words
Normal hearing abilities	Use of neutral, generic or less-specific labels
Difficulty following oral directions, inconsistent responses to auditory stimuli	Misuse of words with a similar phonetic structure
Short auditory attention span; fatigues easily during auditory tasks	Generating creative, original language terms; use of descriptions or circumlocutions
Poor short-term and long-term memory	Response latency; use of fillers to buy time
Gives impression of not listening even though looking at the speaker; daydreams	Frequent “I don’t know” or “I forgot” responses
Difficulty listening in the presence of background noise	Verbal repetition or rehearsal
Difficulty localizing sound	Inconsistency in learning; requires extensive review of previously-learnt material
Academic deficits (phonics, reading or spelling) and mild speech-language impairments	Recognizes language errors but cannot correct them.
Disruptive behaviours – distracted, impulsive, frustrated	Incomplete sentences or thoughts
Frequest requests for verbal repetition or often saying “huh?”	Pragmatic problems; disruptive behaviour
History of otitis media	Age-commensurate IQ and vocabulary with academic deficits; learning disability label.

Reference : Richards, Gail J., 2001, The Source for Processing Disorders, Linguisystems, Inc., East Moline, IL

Differential diagnosis between APD and LPD can be subtle. Sound idEARS offers a unique environment in which clinical audiologists and speech-language pathologists are available as a team to provide expertise from different perspectives. Typically, an APD will be treated by our audiologists. The identification of LPD will require intervention from either Sound idEARS speech-language pathologists or through working closely with other speech-language pathologists already involved in an individual’s care.