Spatial Processing Disorder is a specific type of Auditory Processing Disorder that results from an inability to utilise the directional cues embedded in sound in order to separate the speech we want to hear from background noise. As such, children with Spatial Processing Disorder have particular difficulty understanding speech in noisy environments, such as the classroom.
Research has shown that Spatial Processing Disorder is particularly common in children who have a history of recurrent otitis media and can occur even though their hearing thresholds, as measured by routine audiological tests, are within the normal range.
Spatial Processing Disorder is diagnosed by an audiologist using the “Listening in Spatialised Noise – Sentences” test (LiSN-S).