Experiences of Patients With Auditory Processing Disorder in Getting Support in Health, Education, and Work Settings: Findings From an Online Survey

Abstract

Objective: To explore the views and experiences of individuals with Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) and/or their families in getting support from services and to receive their suggestions for improvement.Design: Cross-sectional random sample survey with descriptive analysis.Settings: Online survey.Participants: One hundred and fifty six individuals with APD and/or their family members from the APD Support UK patient support organization and four associated APD Facebook groups.Main Outcome Measure: A 16-item questionnaire on negative and positive experiences in getting a referral for diagnosis, funding for the FM system, and overall support for APD.Results: The key findings that emerged included reports of difficulty in getting a referral for diagnosis (54%), obtaining funding for an FM system (45%), getting support for APD (61%), and poor recognition and awareness of APD (63%) in Education, Health or Work settings. The positive experiences reported were ease in getting a referral for diagnosis (46%), in obtaining an FM system (20%), and with diagnosis leading to help at school or to a better understanding of the condition and the required adjustments. The recommended improvement areas were raising awareness of APD and related management in Education (30%), the Health sector (25%), and the public (18%).Conclusions: Individuals and families of individuals with APD overwhelmingly report a lack of awareness of APD across health, education, and work sectors, and difficulties in getting access to diagnosis and support. This information may provide an initial understanding of the patients' needs for clinical services for APD, identify research priorities, and influence longer-term public health decisions toward improved care.

School Distress in UK school children: A story dominated by neurodivergence and unmet needs

“…Recent figures obtained following Freedom of Information requests by the APD Society UK found that only 54% of English and Welsh local authorities actually have an APD policy (128). This is consistent with empirical evidence showing that individuals themselves, and the families of individuals with APD, overwhelmingly report difficulties in getting access to diagnosis and support, and a lack of awareness of APD across health and education (129).…”

Using machine learning to assist auditory processing evaluation

“…APD is a rare disorder and clinics typically receive few APD referrals per year. It has also been reported that obtaining a referral for APD diagnosis is difficult (Moore et al, 2018;Agrawal et al, 2021). For these reasons, there was a limited amount of data available for this study and it took approximately six years to collect the data within the dataset.…”