Hearing sound involves the simple detection of auditory input at the level of the ear. The brain simply detects the presence of sound.

Auditory processing involves multiple tasks that occur at many different levels in the pathway from the ear to the areas of the brain that understand what sound means.

Auditory processing therefore, is a complex pattern detection process that uses information about pitch; duration; direction; differentiation; memory; association and language, in order to understand the great complexity of information contained in an acoustic message.

Hearing loss can impair auditory processing by not giving the brain enough information, but some people with auditory processing problems may have normal hearing, yet still have difficulty processing information at higher points along the pathway.

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