Auditory Processing Abilities Test (APAT)

Purpose: Identify children who may be experiencing auditory processing disorder

Age: 5–12 years

Time: 30–45 minutes

The Auditory Processing Abilities Test (APAT) is a norm-referenced auditory processing battery for use with children ages 5-0 through 12-11.

It may be used:

• For the identification of children who are at risk or who may be experiencing Auditory Processing Disorder (APD)
• To determine a child's specific strengths and weaknesses among a number of auditory processing skills
• To document a child's improvement in auditory processing skill abilities as a result of therapeutic interventions

The APAT was developed using a model based on a hierarchy of auditory processing skills that are basic to listening and processing spoken language. These skills range from sensation to memory to cohesion.

The APAT is comprised of 10 subtests that quantify a child's performance in various areas of auditory processing:

1. Phonemic Awareness
2. Word Sequences
3. Semantic Relationships
4. Sentence Memory
5. Cued Recall
6. Content Memory
7. Complex Sentences
8. Sentence Absurdities
9. Following Directions
10. Passage Comprehension

The APAT provides composite index scores as well as individual subtest scores: Global Index reflecting overall auditory processing efficiency, Linguistic Processing Index, and Auditory Memory Index.

The battery is designed primarily to be used by speech-language pathologists but may also be used by other professionals such as learning disability specialists, psychologists, and resource specialists.