CAUSES

Auditory processing difficulties can effect the development of speech, language and communication. This influences speech and the understanding of language. Children may have inherited this problem. However it also could have been caused by hearing loss due to a "glue ear" or ear infections. Especially during the period of speech and language development (0-3 years) this can have consequences for language acquisition (sounds don't come in properly or come in transformed) and result in language processing disorders.

Many children with speech and language problems have difficulties with language processing. Their ability to take in, to organize, to store, to retrieve and to add to existing information in the brain is weak. Very often they cannot exactly say what they have in mind, they cannot exactly write down what they want. This problem may manifest itself most noticeably in learning at school in various ways and as such can have serious consequences for the child. Several researchers believe that this deficit in language processing may be intricately connected with the way children perceive (language) sounds.