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| Auditory Training |
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Auditory training is a treatment that may be helpful for some individuals with autism who are oversensitive or hypersensitive to sound. This therapy involves the individual listening to a variety of different sound frequencies, coordinated to their level of impairment. Auditory training is performed by an audiologist trained in this particular method. Auditory processing training aims to address the sensory problems such as hearing distortions, hyper-acute hearing, and sensory processing anomalies, which are said to cause discomfort and confusion in persons suffering from learning disabilities, including autism spectrum disorders. These hypersensitivities are believed to interfere with a child’s attention, comprehension, and ability to learn. |
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Much research is still needed to understand APD problems, related disorders, and the best intervention for each child or adult. Several auditory training programs are available to help children with auditory processing difficulties. Some of these auditory training programs, although they are commercially available, have not been fully studied. Any auditory training goals should be set under the guidance of a team of professionals, and the effectiveness of the auditory training technique needs to be evaluated. There is even controversy as to whether auditory training activities are useful at all, particularly for children with autism who may have several confounding deficits.
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| Some methods of auditory training therapy include auditory trainers which are electronic devices that allow a person to focus attention on a speaker and reduce the interference of background noise. This auditory training technique is often used in classrooms, where the teacher wears a microphone to transmit sound and the child wears a headset to receive the sound. Children who wear hearing aids can use them in addition to the auditory trainer. Auditory training goals may also include environmental modifications such as classroom acoustics, placement, and seating and auditory training with exercises to improve language-building skills. Auditory training in a modified environment is preferred. |
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Auditory memory enhancement, a procedure that reduces detailed information to a more basic representation, and auditory training may help therapists address specific language processing difficulties in autistic children. Auditory training for autism is still unproven, however. Auditory training for autism is believed to “retrain” the auditory nerves and decrease hearing distortion. Improvements have been suggested with auditory training in other learning disorders such as ADHD and dyslexia. The effects of auditory training on various regions of the brain are being studied to better understand why improvements may occur. Auditory training therapy may rebalance hearing between both sides of the brain or readjust processing inside the brain.
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In Auditory Integration Therapy, the auditory training activities typically involve the child attending two 30-minute sessions per day for ten days. The child listens via headphones to a program of specially filtered and modulated music with wide frequency range. When using this type of auditory training autism clients are not always compliant. Auditory visual training combines the use of sound and visual aides to improve learning and retention values for children with disabilities. Often the visual prompts increase the understanding of the sound. Auditory visual training can be used to teach reading skills in conjunction with phonics teaching and auditory training with pictures.
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