Santiago APD Battery Test (SAPD)

The Santiago Auditory Processing Disorders test battery (SAPD) is a set of four tests that assess (central) auditory processing (AP) in native Spanish-speaking adults. SAPD was developed by Adrian Fuente, Ph.D. of the Audiology Lab School of Speech and Hearing Sciences Medical Faculty, University of Chile. Since auditory processing includes various auditory abilities, different tests should be carried out to assess AP.  Some of these tests utilize verbal stimuli while others do not. For those auditory abilities that require verbal material to be assessed, e.g., dichotic listening, auditory performance in competing acoustic signals and auditory performance with degraded acoustic materials, tests with verbal stimuli in the language of the patient must be used. The SAPD battery was created because of this need. The aim of these tests is to assess some of the aspects of AP in Spanish-speaking adult patients suspected to have APD and/or with hearing complaints other than those associated with reduced hearing thresholds. 

The Santiago APD comprises the following tests:   

1. Speech-in-noise at +10 dB and 0 dB signal-to-noise ratios        
2. Binaural fusion        
3. Filtered speech        
4. Dichotic digits

Each of these tests aims to assess different aspects of central auditory processing: 

       
• Speech-in-noise requires recognition of monosyllable in the presence of white noise, according to ASHA (1996) it fits the low redundancy monaural speech category.        
• Filtered Speech requires recognition of monosyllables that have been low pass filtered, a low redundancy category.        
• Binaural fusion requires recognition of monosyllables whose low frequency spectrum is presented to one ear and high frequency spectrum simultaneously to the other ear, this test is in the binaural interaction category.        
• Dichotic digits requires the patient to repeat two pairs of digits which are presented simultaneously to both ears, it is in the dichotic speech category.

While these tests are formed into a single compact disc as a battery, one can purchase single tests.  Normative data was derived from a population of native Spanish speaking persons living in Chile.  As in any language, there are differences in dialect and one needs to verify these data on the local population.

• Spanish Dichotic Digits C218 
• Spanish Binaural Fusion C220 
• Spanish Speech in Noise C219
• Spanish Filtered Speech C221