The first stage was development of specially-designed Arabic test material for assessment of central abilities in adults. The era of APD diagnosis in Egypt began by the pioneering work conducted at the Audiology Unit, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University. Thus, the first stage was to develop diagnostic protocols and the second stage was development of intervention plans. It was mandatory to arrange appropriate set-up for testing with proper training on test administration and test scoring.
It was a challenging task, as it required adequate knowledge of the neurobiology of the central auditory nervous system, developing test material in Arabic language and establishing database for norms. In Egypt, this practice began 30years ago. Nowadays, APD is practiced in many centers all over the world testing and remediation material being developed in several languages. Audiological approaches to the diagnosis, management and rehabilitation of affected persons were summarized by. A long way since 1973, practice of diagnosis and management of subjects with APD has shown remarkable progress. Rees went on to contend that: (a) a failure in auditory processing is cited as a major cause of language and learning disorders in children and adults. In 1973, Norma Rees 4 published a well-known and often quoted article at the time called: “Auditory Processing Factors in Language Disorders”. Likewise, intervention typically requires a multidisciplinary team given the potential impact of APD on listening, communication, academic success, job performance, and social function, as well as the frequent co-morbidity of this disorder with related language, learning, and cognitive disorders. Multi-disciplinary assessment complements audiological diagnosis by revealing functional deficits associated with the APD, identifying co-morbid conditions, and informing intervention plans. Acoustic control of both the test stimuli and the testing environment, and at times special equipment, are all necessary to diagnose APD. The diagnosis should be made by audiologists who have been properly educated and trained in the area of APD, including the administration and interpretation of central tests. 2, 3ĪSHA guidelines (2005) stated that diagnosis of APD should be made on the basis of a carefully selected battery of sensitive and specific behavioral tests and electro-physiologic procedures supplemented by observation and detailed case history. Thus, difficulties in localizing sounds in space, discriminating sounds, recognizing auditory patterns, responding to the temporal aspects of sound (temporal integration, temporal discrimination, temporal ordering, and temporal masking), and extracting auditory information from non-ideal acoustic environments are all examples of APD.
1 The operational definition of APD is poor performance in one or more of auditory skills. Keywords : auditory processing disorders, psychophysical behavioral tests, electrophysiological tests AbbreviationsĪSHA (2005) defined auditory processing disorders (APD) as “difficulties in the perceptual processing of auditory information in the central nervous system and the neuro-bio¬logic activity that underlies that processing and gives rise to the electro-physiologic auditory potentials”. Assessment & management of APD disorders in Egypt have passed through many stages a long journey where the highly-challenging disorder was nicely brought into focus in clinical practice and research. When applied on children having APDs, it proved to be effective and showed promising results. An Arabic computer-based remediation program was, therefore, developed. The next step was development of intervention programs based on neuroplasticity of the central nervous system. It started by development of Arabic protocols for diagnosis of APD in adults, followed by development of Arabic test material for children. This review article is focusing on APD practice in Egypt during the last 30years. APD practice is highly challenging, as it requires development of specially designed diagnostic test material and adequate auditory training intervention programs with good theoretical background and collaborating multi-disciplinary team. APD has a negative impact on communication skills, language development, and learning. ASHA (2005) defined auditory processing disorder (APD) as difficulties in the perceptual processing of auditory information in the central nervous system and the neurobiological activity that underlies that processing and gives rise to the electrophysiological auditory potentials.
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