TIPS FOR TEACHERS

The following difficulties may present in the classroom if a child has auditory processing difficulties. If a child presents with difficulties in more than 3 to 4 of these items, referral to a speech & language therapist may be indicated for further assessment.

1)    Following Instructions

• Copies other children
• Starts before you’ve finished giving the instruction
• Asks for repetition (often)
• Takes time to get going after instructions have been given
• Completes part of the instruction
• Inaccurate completion of instructions
• May appear to have “selective hearing”

2) Speech

• Imprecise or “slushy” speech
• Articulation errors
• Difficulty saying multisyllabic words

3) Reading

• Guesses at the word from the first letter
• Guesses at words from surrounding text/pictures
• Difficulty decoding novel words
• Phoneme (sound) – Grapheme (letter) confusion
• Difficulty decoding multisyllabic words e.g. rubbish-bin
• Blending of syllables or phonemes
• Fluency is poor
• Decodes word by word and then struggles to get meaning
• Poor attention to punctuation
• Difficulty recalling what has been read

4) Spelling

• Vowel confusion – particularly i/e
• Long and short vowel confusion
• Difficulty with vowel digraphs (ee ea oa etc.)
• Difficulty learning word families
• Analysis – syllables or phonemes
• Poor generalization of spelling rules to unfamiliar words
• Forgets previously learned spelling
• Sequencing errors
• Difficulty with blends
• Phoneme – Grapheme confusion
• Weak syllable omission e.g. tephone/telephone
• Difficulty using punctuation