“The difference between auditory dyslexia and auditory processing difficulties lies in the interpretation of language, which is complex. Let’s take an example. There are active sentences and passive sentences. 'The boy hit the ball' is an active sentence. 'The ball was hit by the boy' is a passive sentence that means exactly the same thing. It takes us all longer and we all find it harder to understand passive sentences. Now imagine a person with auditory dyslexia who hears all sentences as passive sentences.”
– Drew Sutton, MD, board-certified otolaryngologist
Dyslexia is a neurological disorder that can make understanding and reading written language difficult. Not long ago, dyslexia was still poorly recognized, and many believed that those affected simply had general learning disabilities.
It was not until 1968 that dyslexia was properly defined. Today, it is described as a disorder involving written language. People with dyslexia may experience difficulties reading and writing while having a perfectly normal level of intelligence.
For people with dyslexia, reading and writing are complicated due to an abnormality in neurological processing. Letters in a word can easily get mixed up, identifying speech sounds can be difficult, and reading requires more time.
Dyslexia can manifest in different ways and to varying degrees of severity. One person may struggle to read at a normal pace, while another may read without difficulty but be unable to spell words correctly.
Much like classic dyslexia, auditory dyslexia concerns information processing and not a sensory problem. Auditory dyslexia is a condition in which a person experiences difficulty processing spoken language.
Here is a detailed overview of everything you need to know about auditory dyslexia. Learning about it and raising awareness among those around you helps reduce the stigma surrounding learning and communication disorders and contributes to normalizing them.
Auditory dyslexia and hearing loss: what is the difference?
Auditory dyslexia is characterized by a difficulty in processing verbal communication. It is often confused with hearing loss because the warning signs can be very similar. Frequently misunderstanding what people say, being unable to distinguish what someone is saying, or having trouble following a conversation in the presence of competing noise are symptoms common to both hearing loss and auditory dyslexia.
The difference appears when looking at the exact cause of these symptoms. Hearing is a complex process that involves several structures of the body. The ear, eardrum, cochlea, auditory nerve, and brain all play an essential role in hearing and perceiving the sounds around us.
Here is a closer look at the different forms of hearing impairment and what distinguishes them from one another.
Conductive hearing loss
Conductive hearing loss is a hearing impairment caused by a problem in the outer or middle ear. To perceive a sound, sound waves must enter the ear canal and vibrate a structure called the eardrum. The eardrum then moves the small ossicles of the middle ear, which transmit these vibrations to the structure called the cochlea.
Conductive hearing loss can be caused by an obstruction in the ear canal, a perforated eardrum, or a buildup of fluid in the middle ear. If you have ever had an ear infection or muffled hearing during a cold, it was most likely conductive hearing loss.
Sensorineural hearing loss
Sensorineural hearing loss is a hearing impairment related to the inner ear or the transmission of signals to the brain.
After sound conduction through the middle ear, the ossicle called the stapes transmits this movement to the structure called the cochlea. The cochlea receives the vibrations from the stapes and converts them into electrical impulses sent to the brain for interpretation.
In cases of sensorineural hearing loss, the cochlea may have trouble perceiving certain frequencies. The cochlea is a snail-shaped organ, filled with fluid and lined with hair cell receptors. When the stapes vibrates the cochlea via a structure called the oval window, the fluid oscillates and causes the hair cell corresponding to that frequency to send an electrical impulse to the brain.
With age or due to excessive exposure to loud noises, the sensory hair cells of the cochlea can be damaged and become unable to transmit sounds to the brain.
Auditory processing
The final step of hearing consists of decoding nerve impulses into recognizable sounds. The brain is remarkably complex: it manages to transform the seemingly binary impulses sent by the ear into identifiable sounds.
Auditory processing disorders result in the brain having difficulty correctly identifying certain sounds and distinguishing them from one another. General auditory processing disorders correspond to a hearing impairment that is completely independent of hearing acuity: it is rather a difficulty in perceiving the differences between sound stimuli.
Auditory dyslexia, on the other hand, specifically refers to a difficulty in processing spoken language at the phonological level. It is a higher-level auditory processing disorder that affects how verbal language is interpreted and understood.
Central auditory processing disorders primarily concern the identification and distinction of sound signals, while auditory dyslexia pertains to higher-level cognitive processing of language.
People with auditory dyslexia may have excellent hearing acuity while struggling to understand oral information in real time. Words can become blurred, and understanding spoken language takes more time.
How to help with auditory dyslexia
Living with auditory dyslexia is not easy: there is a higher risk of missing important information, and one often has to ask others to repeat themselves. Today, many auditory processing disorders are identified early, in childhood, because they become particularly visible in the classroom, where oral lessons are the primary source of learning.
When detected early, several therapies can be put in place to help children develop skills that will facilitate verbal communication for them.
Regardless of your age, there are ways to manage and mitigate the effects of auditory dyslexia. Here are some strategies to adopt to better understand your interlocutors.
Isolating voice from noise
One of the most difficult situations when you have auditory dyslexia is having a conversation in the midst of many competing sounds. A person without a processing disorder spontaneously and selectively filters important sounds from those that can be ignored.
With auditory dyslexia, this task becomes much more arduous and requires one to strain their hearing.
Fortunately, technology now allows for the artificial filtering of background noise to hear speech more distinctly.
The CLARIA EV3 is a hearing aid featuring Clear Sound+ technology, capable of amplifying speech while reducing ambient noise. This technological filter allows people with an auditory processing disorder to better understand what others are saying, even when competing sounds are present.
Noise-canceling headphones
Verbal communication is not limited to face-to-face exchanges: it also occurs through digital media.
Podcasts, series, online courses, and Zoom meetings all rely on digital sound. Poor-quality speakers or earphones make it even harder for people with auditory dyslexia to identify and understand what is being said.
Equipping yourself with good noise-canceling headphones allows you to muffle background sounds and grasp the content of conversations much more clearly.
Software
If you have ever watched a foreign film, you are familiar with subtitles. They allow people who do not speak the same language to enjoy the same film, because without them, they would not understand what is happening.
For people with hearing difficulties, it is often much simpler to read what is being said than to try to listen with impaired auditory processing. Thanks to technology, there is now software capable of recognizing speech and converting it into text.
In the case of auditory processing disorders, having real-time subtitles can prove extremely useful for capturing all information the first time. Most smartphones can detect speech and transcribe it.
People with auditory dyslexia can benefit greatly from dictation software if their dyslexia affects oral more than written language. And even when written language is also involved, having a transcript to read later allows one to absorb the same information without constantly needing to ask for things to be repeated.
Conclusion
In summary, auditory dyslexia manifests as a difficulty in perceiving spoken language. Those affected may have excellent hearing acuity, which distinguishes this disorder from classic hearing loss. Their difficulty is specifically focused on oral language.
Although auditory dyslexia complicates the understanding of others, numerous technological innovations and therapies allow people with auditory processing disorders or auditory dyslexia to lead a more normal life.
If you would like to learn more about hearing loss or hearing aids that could improve your hearing, CLARIA is here for you.
Sources:
Definition of Dyslexia | NCBI
How the Ear Works | Hopkins Medicine
Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) | NHS
Auditory Processing Disorders and Dyslexia | Reading Rockets.org
