Auditory Training  is a structured, deficit-specific practice designed primarily to drive neuroplastic change in the central auditory system. APD is defined as a difficulty in the brain’s analysis and use of sound despite adequate peripheral hearing. AT addresses fundamental "bottom-up" auditory mechanisms by providing intensive listening exercises tailored to the specific auditory deficits identified in a client's profile. These targeted skills include:
• Dichotic Listening: Improving binaural integration and separation, often through drills designed to strengthen the weaker ear.
• Temporal Processing: Training the recognition and sequencing of sounds, such as following auditory patterns or temporal gaps.
• Speech-in-Noise Training: Working to improve decoding skills while ignoring distracting background noise.

Therapy based on models like the Buffalo Model includes direct treatment services such as phonemic synthesis training, selective ear listening training, and short-term memory drills. Empirical evidence demonstrates that AT can lead to significant improvements in these specific auditory processing abilities.
 

Speech-Language Therapy, provided by a Speech-Language Pathologist, typically focuses on higher-order linguistic and cognitive processing—often referred to as "top-down" approaches—to improve language, communication, and academic goals. While speech pathologist may use exercises that involve auditory stimuli, the primary focus is leveraging the listener’s existing linguistic knowledge (semantic, syntactic, lexical) to compensate for incomplete sensory information or to directly address language impairments.

For children struggling with auditory processing disorder (APD), research suggests that improved auditory processing skills achieved through auditory training enhance listening and focusing abilities, allowing children to progress more rapidly in subsequent interventions provided by speech pathologists and other specialists. Additionally, because reading relies heavily on auditory skills, studies have found that deficit-specific auditory processing therapies significantly improved both targeted auditory processing skills and reading ability compared with control programs. One study found that children who received auditory processing skills therapy improved their reading age by 20 months within 10 months of training, whereas those who received reading-skills training only improved by 10 months in the same period.