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TIPS FOR TEACHERS

The teacher is often the first person to identify signs of auditory processing difficulties. The following checklist may be helpful to assist with identification and referral to a speech and language therapist.

 

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

 

This is by no means a diagnostic checklist , but rather a way to assist teachers with when to refer for possible auditory processing difficulties.