Finding Early Intervention Services for Auditory Processing Disorder
Early intervention is key in childhood development.
While it is possible to assess very young children, not all auditory processing clinics are equipped to work with this population at this time- you could consider it a specialty within a specialty.
Investigating auditory processing abilities in young children is the way of the future and we believe this is something that should be changing over the next few years.
Step 1:
Look up the closest APD provider near you on the APD map here.
Step 2:
Ask the clinic what age of children they work with.
Step 3: If your child is younger than the answer you received in Step 2, you may need to contact another clinic for assistance.
A Cautionary Tale
by Angela Alexander
A few years ago, I heard about a family who had concerns that their 6 year old may have had an auditory processing disorder. Because their local audiology clinic wasn't comfortable testing children that young, they were told that the child was too young to be tested. When the child returned for APD testing when they were 8 years of age, a hearing loss was discovered and she needed hearing aids. She struggled, unnecessarily, because she was turned away from a clinic that should have been helping her with her hearing problems. As an audiologist, this does not sit well with my soul.
Take away message: if, as a parent, you find something you need help with, trust your instincts. The first step in an auditory processing evaluation is always a hearing test. If you have hearing concerns with your child, they absolutely need to see a pediatric Audiologist as soon as possible.