The Role of Auditory Processing in Dyslexia & Reading Struggles

One of the most common misconceptions about dyslexia and other reading struggles is that the problem must be visual. These kids must just be “seeing” the letters wrong. They’re seeing them backwards. They’re mixing up the order. But in reality, weak auditory processing is actually the most common underlying cause of reading struggles, including dyslexia.

What Is Auditory Processing?

Auditory processing is your brain’s ability to hear information correctly and manipulate it efficiently. For the process of reading, auditory processing also encompasses your ability to assign sounds to written codes (or letters) in a word and correctly blend, segment, and recognize patterns in words to “hear” them in your brain correctly.

How Does Weak Auditory Processing Cause Reading Struggles?

People with dyslexia or who just struggle with reading often mix up sounds not because they can’t distinguish them visually, but because they can’t hear the differences—and this leads them to reading words seemingly backwards (like “god” and “dog”) or switching out letters (like “big” and “pig”)

The way your brain reads is that it:

• Takes in the visual cues,
• Assigns a sound
• Manipulates/blends the sounds
• Forms the word
• And ties that word into the meaning center of your brain. 

Dyslexic learners have trouble with this sequence in general. But it all starts with auditory processing: what you hear and what your brain does with it.

This process of correctly assigning sounds and blending them is what really makes reading so hard for people with dyslexia. Dysfunction in the language processing areas of their brains makes these steps harder—but not impossible!

Auditory Processing Disorder & Dyslexia

Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) and dyslexia often coexist because they tend to cause one another. Individuals with APD struggle to distinguish the differences between sounds, which makes it nearly impossible to correctly spell words or recognize them when they are written. Similarly, dyslexic learners struggle with the manipulation of sounds and words that make it harder for them to hear these differences.

Whichever alternative your child may be dealing with, the outcome is essentially the same: struggling with reading, spelling, speech, and even other life skills like following multi-step directions and memory.

Strengthening Auditory Processing for Better Reading Skills

At LearningRx, we approach dyslexia and reading struggles by focusing on the foundational skills your brain needs to read: namely, auditory processing and phonological awareness.

These two areas are critical for all learners, but especially for people with dyslexia. Our training focuses on distinguishing the differences between phonemes, tying those sounds to codes (letters), and effectively manipulating the sounds. 

But beyond these sound-based drills, our brain training approach sets us apart from all other reading interventions because we also strengthen skills like attention, memory, logic, and processing speed to help make all areas of learning easier.

Click here to contact us with any questions or to learn more about best ways to support your struggling reader!