Central
Auditory Processing
refers to the ability to process auditory signals appropriately.
There are several different areas in which the processing can break down:
Binaural Integration refers to the ability of the listener to process
different information presented simultaneously to both ears.
Binaural Separation refers to the ability to understand and focus on
one auditory signal, the primary speaker, in the presence of background noise.
Temporal Sequencing is the ability to recognize appropriate acoustic
contours. This leads to recognizing and using the prosodic features of speech.
A student with a temporal processing problem may have difficulty extracting
the key words from a spoken message or may be unable to discriminate subtle
difference in the meaning of words based on stress.
Auditory Memory involves the ability to retain and recall material
presented through the auditory channel.
General Memory refers to global, gross forms of retaining information.
Sequential Memory is involved in remembering things presented in a specific order.
Sound
Blending-Auditory Synthesis or Auditory Closure involves the ability
to combine smoothly the sounds or syllables of words to make them a whole,
or the ability to analyze a word into its separate sounds. This skill, as
well as auditory sequencing, is closely related to the reading and spelling
process.
Auditory-Verbal Association involves the ability to draw relationships
from what is heard, and then to respond verbally in a meaningful way to these
spoken words.
Auditory-Verbal Automaticity is the ability to predict future linguistic
events from past experience.
Auditory Attention is the ability to focus attention on one sound over
another sound.
Auditory Attention Span is the ability to sustain focus of attention
on one sound over a period of time.
Auditory-Visual Integration is the ability to integrate two sources
of information presented at the same time.
Auditory Closure is the ability to “fill in” information
that is missed in a listening event based of prior knowledge of the situation
or English language structures.
Auditory Comprehension is the ability to understand a message through
listening.
Auditory Discrimination is the ability to distinguish similarities
and differences of sounds.
Auditory Figure-Ground relegates certain sounds into background while
selecting others as the focus of attention. An auditory figure-ground problem
consists of difficulty perceiving relevant auditory stimuli in the presence
of background stimuli or when there is a significant change in intensity of
the stimuli.
Auditory Identification is the ability to add a linguistic label to
a sound source.
Auditory Localization is the ability to identify the source of a sound.
Auditory Perception is the ability to receive and understand sounds
and words. Auditory perception has a key role in the development of efficient
reading skills, processing incoming verbal information, conceptual development,
basic communication, social relationships, and in the ability to respond in
an appropriate and safe manner to the environment.
Long Term Memory is the storage of a concept over a period of time,
usually 24 hours after hearing the information.
Motivation is the ability to want to actively listen.
Recognition is the ability to detect a sound source.
Sensitivity is the ability to resist various degrees of interfering
sounds (noise).
Auditory Sequential Memory is the ability to place the sounds in a
temporal sequence.
Short Term Memory is the ability to retain information over
a brief period of time, usually less than 24 hours.
Alzheimers disease a progressive and irreversible mental deterioration. It often begins with intermittent states of mental confusion, disorientation, and loss of recent memory. Subsequently, it progresses to severe impairment in all realms of thinking, memory, language, and communication
Aphasia is an impairment in the comprehension and production of language systems that results from fairly localized damage to the brain, especially in right-handed persons. It usually occurs because of focal areas of damage to the left cerebral hemisphere. Affected abilities are reading, writing, speaking, understanding, gesturing, and other symbol systems used in communication
Expressive Aphasia is a common description for people with aphasia who struggle to talk, yet understand most of what is said to them; it is also called Broca’s aphasia
Receptive Aphasia is a sensory aphasia or an inability to comprehend what is spoken. Some expressive abilities are retained, yet without understanding.
Apraxia is the inability to voluntarily execute a learned sequence of motor actions. Some functions may remain intact on an involuntary basis
Articulation Disorder is a disorder of speech sound production; or adevelopmental disorder in which speech sounds are produced incorrectly or inadequately compared to normative standards; sometimes it may be called a phonological disorder
Ataxia is a deficit in motor coordination; also total or partial inability to coordinate voluntary body movements, especially skilled muscular movements; often tied to injury to the cerebellum or posterior spinal cord columns; it can involve the trunk, head, or limbs
Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) is aided or unaided communication modes used as a supplement to or as an alternative to oral language, including gestures, sign language, picture symbols, the alphabet, and computers with synthetic speech
Autism is a developmental disorder affecting communication and social skills; characteristics may include delayed language, insistence on preservation of sameness and stereotypes, and viewing other people as objects and not people.
Cerebral Palsy is the result of a prenatal brain injury, which is outwardly manifested by speech problems and physicial dyscoordination.
Cleft a fissure; a division: especially a fissure that begins in an embryo, as the branchial cleft; clefts defined as craniofacial abnormalies can lead to serious problems in feeding and speech, which can be treated through surgery followed by therapeutic intervention
Down Syndrome is a syndrome of mental retardation and a number of abnormalities that vary greatly among those affected; caused by a triplication or translocation of chromosome 21; speech and language development can be delayed secondary to cognitive impairment, with possible compensatory articulation secondary to cleft palate and VPI
Dysarthria is a neurogenic speech disorder that results in weakness, slowness, or incoordination of the muscle of respiration, phonation, articulation, and resonation
Dyslexia is difficulty in learning to read despite adequate intelligence and sociocultural opportunity; it may include other language processing problems
Laryngectomy is removal of the larynx, either partial or total.
Otolaryngologist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the ear, nose and throat
Phonological Disorder is the development of a phonological system that is inaccurate or incomplete or that follows an atypical pattern. The resulting speech pattern is mostly unintelligible to listeners other than immediate family or care givers.
Pathology is the study of diseases.
Stuttering is an articulatory or phonatory problem that typically presents in childhood and is characterized by forced, involuntary hesitations, duplications, and protractions of sounds and syllables. As the problem continues through childhood, anxiety, fear, apprehension, and guilt often become associated with the problems.