Adult & Pediatric Audiologist Practicing Near Bel Air, MD
During conversations, do you sometimes find yourself struggling to understand what is being said? Do you stay away from lively restaurants—even though you enjoy them—because you know you won’t be able to fully converse with the people at your table? After asking, “What?” more than once, you might simply give up, smile, and nod, just to avoid annoying people.
That’s understandable. But it’s a shame that you’re missing out when you don’t have to. The adult and pediatric audiologists at Hearing Smile Professionals near Bel Air, Maryland, can help. We can perform a thorough hearing test and, if necessary, an auditory processing disorder (APD) evaluation to get to the bottom of your communications challenges. And once we do, we can develop a tailored treatment plan to address them.
What to Expect During an Auditory Processing Disorder Evaluation
You’ve probably had your hearing tested before, either in school or during a routine wellness exam, so you generally know what to expect. An APD evaluation is much more thorough. Like a hearing test performed by an audiologist, an APD evaluation takes place in a soundproof booth. To fully assess your auditory processes, your audiologist at Hearing Smile Professionals will administer a battery of audiology tests, which may include:
- Temporal processing
- Dichotic listening
- Monaural low-redundancy speech perception
During the evaluation, your audiologist will ask you to listen and respond to a variety of sounds, numbers, words, phrases, and sentences. At times, the test stimuli will be presented to one or both of your ears, with or without background noise.
Your auditory processing evaluation will likely take several hours to complete. This timeframe will allow for a thorough review of your health history, multiple breaks as needed throughout the session, and a discussion of the preliminary results at the end. If you are ultimately diagnosed with an auditory processing disorder, we can provide the APD therapy you need to improve your communication and quality of life. We can also determine if cochlear implants are necessary.
If you would like to schedule an appointment with an adult or pediatric audiologist near Bel Air, MD, contact Hearing Smile Professionals today.
