There are many symptoms of APD that are also symptoms of other disorders. Because of this, it can be confusing to determine what the actual problem is without getting help from a trained professional. Though symptoms may overlap, the root cause of the problem is what needs to be determined in order to get an accurate diagnosis of the issue.

For instance, APD is often confused with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) because many of the symptoms are similar. Current research suggests that some individuals are diagnosed incorrectly with ADD when they really have APD because both cause attention issues. So, what’s the main difference? APD’s underlying issue is the inability to process correctly what is being spoken. ADD’s main issue is the inability to focus and maintain attention, which in turn affects processing and understanding. You can see how these two disorders can have quite a bit of overlap. Treatment for ADD would be different from treatment for APD.

There is also overlap between APD and dyslexia. In fact, research has suggested that auditory processing issues are a contributing factor in people with dyslexia. These two disorders have several symptoms in common. In both disorders reading, spelling, and writing can be affected. Phonemic awareness is affected, speech, auditory discrimination, and more.