Auditory Processing: The impact and Activities (for home and classroom)

Children can be hyper or hypo responsive to auditory input, lets explore some of the behaviours you may observe connected to these and adaptations you can make to support your child.

Hyper- Responsive 
Over-responsiveness in the auditory system may present in a child as over-responsiveness or overreaction to auditory sensation. This may look like sensitive ears or sensitivities to auditory input. Other examples of hypersensitivity may include:
• Startles easily to unexpected sounds
• Dislikes noisy places
• Overly sensitive to speakers on radios
• Fearful of smoke detectors, overhead speakers
• Shushes others or asks others to stop talking
• Holds hands over ears
• Easily distracted by sounds and background noise
• Hums/make own noises to block out background noise

Adaptations to support hyper-responsiveness of the auditory sense:
• Calming auditory input: fill a plastic bottle with rice to use as a sensory sound tool
• Use foam earplugs
• Use earbuds or headphones to dull sounds, especially in noisy environments
• Soft/calm music
• Add soft material like felt or cut tennis balls to the bottoms of desk chairs and desks
• Allow student to travel hallways minutes before other students to reduce noise
• Integrate heavy muscle feedback into daily routine to calm their nervous system down, to reduce sensitivity. E.g. pushing, pulling and carrying activities.

Hypo- Responsive
Hypo-responsiveness is an under-responsiveness to auditory input. Children that are under-responsive may not notice sounds. Other examples of under responsiveness to the auditory sense may look like:
• Yell/speak loudly
• Make own sound like humming
• Prefer loud noises.
• Seems to be unaware of sounds
• Holds radio speakers up against ears
• Doesn’t respond to alarms
• Makes silly sounds at inappropriate times or frequently
• Mimics sounds of others
• Talks to self
• Difficulty locating sounds, especially when in a noisy environment

Adaptations to support hypo-responsiveness of the auditory sense:
• Utilize visual schedules or visual prompts
• Utilize a physical prompt or “secret code” to indicate a transition
• Slow down speech when giving directions
• Seat child away from hallways, windows, or busy areas
• Teach child to tap out instructions or repeat instructions

Auditory Processing Activities
Children who have a toolbox of sensory activities available to them for daily use may benefit from prescribed sensory activities. A sensory-based strategy guide can help.
You may have heard about using a sensory diet to address sensory challenges. But do you know where to start or even what a sensory diet it? (keep an eye out for our blog!)
Activities that address several different areas are helpful for kids APD:
• Auditory discrimination
• Auditory sequencing
• Auditory memory
• Auditory figure-ground discrimination

There are activities which can be ways to offer auditory support through experience in pulling out specific sounds from background noise. The auditory activities listed below are also fun ways to challenge comprehension and support working memory with sounds. Below these auditory ideas, you’ll find specific auditory processing strategies.

These tactics can be specific ways to support auditory processing differences in order to impact social emotional skills, learning, and functional engagement.
Consider some of these auditory processing strategies:
• Reduce background noise
• Consider vibration and sound bounce, or the echo of sounds.
• Repeat instructions
• Ask the individual to repeat back instructions
• Provide written instructions
• Use a visual schedule
• Sound speed- speak at a slower rate, or record instructions and slow down the play back speed
• Consider location, especially in learning environments
• Add pauses when speaking
• Practice rhyming
• Practice saying lists of words that begin with the same sound or end with the same sound
• Practice the localization of sounds
• Draw to music
• Dance to music
• Pre-teach new vocabulary/concepts
• Play direction following games like Red Light, Green Light; Simon Says; Hokey Pokey; and Hot/Cold
• Practice, with the individual, the ability to identify environmental sounds and where they are coming from
• Allow extra time for the child to respond to questions.

Auditory Discrimination Games
Listed above, you’ll notice there are some direction-following games listed. These games are fun ways to work on auditory skills while focusing on different skills: auditory discrimination, auditory figure-ground, comprehension, and auditory memory are some skills addressed. Let’s go into more detail on these games, and here’s why:

These auditory discrimination activities are listening activities that can include movement, building other functional skills and motor development. Consider adding these ideas to play at home or in the classroom as a brain break for regulation needs. Other ideas include using the listening games in play, social emotional skill development, and as a transition task.
1. Red Light, Green Light- Listener needs to pay attention to listen for auditory directions “red light” to stop, “yellow light” to walk slowly, and “green light” to run fast. Use this movement game to address auditory attention, auditory memory, auditory discrimination, and auditory figure-ground.
2. Simon Says- Listeners need to listen and discriminate auditory information to listen for parts of the directions to hear the words “Simon Says” before they complete an action. This is a good game for auditory attention, auditory memory, auditory discrimination, and auditory figure-ground.
3. Freeze Dance- Listeners need to listen to music and dance while the music is on and then stop when the music stops. This is a great game for developing auditory attention and addressing auditory distraction.
4. Hokey Pokey- Play the classic movement game of hokey pokey. Players can take turns adding movements and making up actions. This is a good game for auditory attention, auditory memory, auditory discrimination, and auditory figure-ground.
5. Musical Charades- Play the classic charades game with cards that instruct kids to make different noises, speak in different tones or volume. Sound charade ideas can include: whisper, shout, hum, sing, growl, or sing various songs. This is a game that challenges auditory discrimination, auditory memory, and auditory attention.
6. I Went to a Picnic- A group takes turns saying items they will take on a picnic. The first player says, “I’m going on a picnic and I’m bringing…” as they say an item that begins with the letter A. The next player says “I’m going on a picnic and I’m bringing” as they repeat the item the first player said and then they ad an item that begins with the letter B. The game continues through the alphabet. Listeners need to use auditory memory to recall items that others in the group listed, and then verbalize those items.
All of these games integrate motor and sensory input and can be used to address tone, pitch, background sounds, and other auditory processing skills.

I hope you have found this blog useful and have fun at home enjoying these activities to support your child;s auditory processing. 

Kate x