Speech Therapy Consulting
Speech Therapy Consulting
Expert APD therapy for children who struggle to make sense of sounds. ASHA-certified speech-language pathologists serving Dixon, Vacaville, and Davis.
Call (707) 366-5246 to Get StartedAuditory Processing Disorder (APD), also known as Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD), is a condition where a child's ears work normally, but their brain has trouble making sense of what they hear. It's not a hearing problem—it's a processing problem.
Children with APD often struggle with following directions, learning in noisy environments like classrooms, and developing reading skills. The sounds reach their ears just fine, but the brain struggles to interpret and organize that auditory information effectively.
Early intervention with specialized auditory processing disorder therapy can make a significant difference in your child's academic success and daily communication.
Your child constantly asks you to repeat yourself, even when there's no background noise and they're paying attention.
Classrooms, cafeterias, and group activities are especially challenging. Background noise makes it nearly impossible to focus on the teacher or conversation.
Instructions like "Put away your backpack, wash your hands, and come to the table" get lost or confused partway through.
Struggles with phonics, decoding words, and spelling. APD affects the ability to distinguish between similar sounds in words.
Confuses words that sound alike (e.g., "cap" and "gap," "thick" and "sick") leading to misunderstandings in conversations and schoolwork.
Has trouble filtering out irrelevant sounds. A pencil dropping or hallway chatter can completely derail their focus.
At Speech Therapy Consulting Inc., we use evidence-based techniques to help children with central auditory processing disorder develop stronger listening skills and succeed in school and social situations.
Structured exercises to strengthen your child's ability to discriminate sounds, remember auditory information, and process speech in challenging listening environments.
Teaching practical skills like using visual cues, requesting repetition appropriately, and self-advocacy techniques to succeed despite processing challenges.
Guidance for teachers on preferential seating, reducing background noise, providing written instructions, and other modifications that help your child learn effectively.
We work closely with families and educators to ensure strategies are consistent across all environments where your child learns and communicates.
Research shows that auditory processing disorder often co-occurs with reading difficulties. This makes sense—reading requires the ability to hear and distinguish the individual sounds (phonemes) in words.
Children with APD may struggle with:
Our APD therapy addresses these foundational auditory skills, which often leads to improvements in reading performance. We coordinate with reading specialists and teachers to provide comprehensive support.
We accept most major insurance plans and are happy to verify your coverage. Our team will work with you to understand your benefits and any out-of-pocket costs.
We work with most major insurance providers. Call us at (707) 366-5246 to verify your specific plan and coverage for auditory processing disorder therapy.
Call (707) 366-5246 to schedule an initial evaluation. We'll assess your child's auditory processing skills and create a customized treatment plan. Same-week appointments often available.
APD is typically diagnosed by an audiologist through a comprehensive battery of specialized tests that assess how the brain processes sound. These tests evaluate skills like auditory discrimination, temporal processing, and listening in background noise. The evaluation is usually conducted on children age 7 and older. As speech-language pathologists, we work closely with audiologists and can provide functional assessments of auditory processing skills and refer for formal diagnostic testing when appropriate.
APD and ADHD can look similar because both affect attention and following directions, but they have different root causes. ADHD is primarily an attention regulation disorder affecting focus, impulse control, and organization across all tasks. APD specifically affects how the brain processes auditory information—children with APD may have excellent attention for visual tasks but struggle specifically with listening tasks. Some children have both conditions. A thorough evaluation by qualified professionals can help determine what's contributing to your child's challenges.
While APD is typically a lifelong condition, therapy can make a tremendous difference. With targeted intervention, children can develop stronger auditory processing skills, learn effective compensatory strategies, and receive accommodations that help them succeed academically and socially. Many children with APD who receive appropriate support go on to thrive in school and beyond. The brain has remarkable plasticity, especially during childhood, making early intervention particularly valuable.
Effective accommodations include: preferential seating near the teacher and away from noise sources (like air vents or hallway doors), reducing background noise when possible, providing written instructions alongside verbal ones, giving extra time to process auditory information, using visual supports and demonstrations, allowing the child to repeat instructions back to ensure understanding, and using assistive technology like FM systems that transmit the teacher's voice directly to the child's ear. We work with your child's school to implement these accommodations through IEPs or 504 plans.