Auditory Processing Intervention Program for school-aged children – development and content validation

PURPOSE: The study aimed at the development and content validation of an Auditory Processing Intervention Program for school-aged European Portuguese speaking children with Auditory Processing Disorder. METHODS: The first step was the program’s development and its instructions manual, which includes objectives, activities, procedures, materials, reinforcement, instructions, and verbal stimuli used, for the following auditory skills: auditory discrimination, auditory attention; auditory memory; auditory closure; figure-ground; auditory separation; auditory integration; binaural fusion; content validation was performed next, with two expert panels analyzing the program, through the use of a questionnaire. Content validity was calculated using the content validity index. RESULTS: Program evaluation shows an excellent content validity. Some items were modified after analyzing the experts’ comments and suggestions (e.g. instructions, intensity differences, main character). CONCLUSION: This work allowed the development and content validation of an auditory processing intervention program, with verbal stimuli, selected according to strict linguistic criteria. In the future, the acceptability and efficacy of this program with the target population should be analyzed.