Peer Review

Auditory Processing Studio App for iPad

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Reviewed:: Sep 18, 2025 by Teacher Education

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Ratings

Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:

This app is recommended for use in clinical or educational settings where a speech-language pathologist or teacher can supervise its use, monitor progress, and integrate it into a broader intervention plan. It is less suited as a stand-alone, independent app for practice without guidance.

Description & Scope

The Auditory Processing Studio app is designed for ages ~7 and up, targeting individuals with Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD) or related auditory processing deficits. Apple
It uses a bottom-up approach: focusing on auditory discrimination, auditory closure, phonological awareness, with optional figure-background (noise) challenge. Apple
It includes over 2,400 audio stimuli: 800 for auditory discrimination, 850 for auditory closure, 800 for phonological awareness.

This app costs $29.99

Type of Material:

Assessment Tool

Recommended Uses:

The Auditory Processing Studio app is best used as a supplementary tool in structured educational or therapeutic contexts. Because the app requires supervision for optimal benefit, it is not intended as a stand-alone or independent learning resource. Recommended uses include:

Individual therapy sessions: Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) or audiologists can integrate the app into one-on-one sessions to provide focused, repeated auditory processing practice with immediate feedback.
Homework or at-home reinforcement: Learners can complete selected activities outside of therapy sessions, under the guidance of a parent or caregiver, to reinforce skills practiced in therapy.
Small group intervention: Educators or therapists may use the app with small groups of students who share similar auditory processing needs, rotating learners through activities while providing guidance.
Special education classrooms: Teachers can use the app as part of individualized education plan (IEP) accommodations for students with diagnosed auditory processing difficulties.
Clinical or resource settings: Audiology clinics, speech-language centers, or resource rooms may use the app as an extension of direct intervention programs.

Not Recommended For:

Large lecture-style or whole-class use, since the app is individualized and interactive.
Completely independent/self-paced use by children, as adult supervision is generally needed to interpret results and provide corrective feedback.

Technical Requirements:

Requires iPad, iPadOS 7.0 or later. Apple Size ~378.6 MB.

All audiovisual devices
Apple Safari

Identify Major Learning Goals:

Major Learning Goals

The Auditory Processing Studio app is designed to strengthen auditory processing skills in children, adolescents, and adults who experience difficulties in this area, particularly those diagnosed with Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD) or related auditory processing deficits. The app’s major learning goals are to:

Improve auditory discrimination: Train learners to detect and differentiate between subtle differences in sounds, words, and phonemes.
Enhance auditory closure: Develop the ability to fill in missing auditory information when parts of a word or sentence are unclear.
Strengthen phonological awareness: Support recognition of sound patterns in words, which is foundational for reading and language development.
Increase auditory figure-ground skills: Practice focusing on relevant sounds while filtering out background noise, improving real-world listening in noisy environments.
Provide structured, repeated practice: Build auditory processing stamina and accuracy through multiple trials and increasing difficulty levels.

Intended Learner/Population

Primary users are children (ages 7 and up) diagnosed with or suspected of having auditory processing challenges.
Secondary users may include adolescents and adults working on auditory processing in speech-language therapy.
The app is primarily intended for use under the guidance of a Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP), audiologist, special educator, or trained parent/caregiver.

Purpose / Use

To supplement formal auditory training in clinical or educational settings.
To provide intensive practice outside therapy sessions (e.g., homework with parental guidance).
To motivate learners with interactive and game-like reinforcement (rewards, visual progress).
To generate progress data for therapists/educators to monitor growth and adjust instruction.

Target Student Population:

Grade School, Middle School, High School, College General Ed, College Lower Division, College Upper Division, Graduate School, Professional

Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:

Learners should have basic receptive language abilities sufficient to follow auditory instructions.
Ability to sustain attention for structured tasks (with adult support if needed).
Fine motor skills to interact with the iPad interface (touch selection).
The app is not designed for individuals with significant hearing loss, as it targets auditory processing rather than hearing acuity.

Content Quality

Rating:

Strengths:

The app has high relevance, good alignment and a large stimulus set

Strengths

Comprehensive stimulus set: 2,400+ exercises with many levels; good variety.
Evidence-based design: bottom-up skills, background noise exposure, alignment with research.
Customizability: ability to adjust noise, reward settings, multiple users, record and email progress.
Motivational features: rewards, visuals, child-friendly interface for younger users.
Clinical/educational usefulness: especially for SLPs or others doing intervention.

Accuracy & Alignment with Research / Best Practices

The design aligns with recommendations that interventions should be frequent, challenging, explicit, and targeting specific auditory deficits. hespclinic.umd.edu+3Apple+3mnsha.org+3
Background noise / figure-ground practice is a strong feature, reflecting realistic listening environments. Apple

Completeness & Depth

The app provides multiple levels of difficulty (16–17 levels) for each skill area. Apple
There are settings to adjust things like background noise, reward system, feedback, etc. Apple+1
However, being bottom-up only, it does not explicitly incorporate top-down auditory processing interventions (e.g. context, strategies, meta-cognitive scaffolding) within this app; though the developer suggests a companion app for that. Apple

Citation & Sources

The app description references works by Bellis (2003), Chermak (1998), as well as guidelines by ASHA. Apple
It seems to rely on published theory and practice.

Concerns:

The app is missing integrated top-down strategies, and feedback/training materials in literature within the app itself is limited.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:

Strengths:

Learning Objectives & Prerequisites

The app implicitly identifies goals: auditory discrimination, closure, phonological awareness. It is clear what skills are being addressed. Apple
Prerequisite: Users likely need sufficient attention span, the ability to follow auditory prompts, basic speech/language comprehension, perhaps some minimal reading ability for instructions. These are not deeply spelled out in the app description.

Progression & Reinforcement

There is a structured progression via levels of difficulty. Apple
Frequent repetition (50 trials per level) gives reinforcement opportunities.

Integration into Instruction / Curriculum

The app seems suitable for use by Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) or educators working with auditory processing; could be assigned in therapy sessions, or for homework under supervision.

Measurable Outcomes / Assessment

The app tracks correct/incorrect responses; allows emailing of results after sessions. Apple
But it may lack more built-in standardized benchmarks or normative data to compare a child’s performance to others.

Efficiency

The volume of stimuli is high, which is good for practice, but may be time-consuming (e.g. 50 trials per level). Educator / therapist will need to plan for that.

Concerns:

Tlthough the app has strong potential, particularly in therapeutic or structured settings; it's less suited for independent use by child without supervision.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:

Strengths:

Clarity of Instructions & Interface Design

The app includes settings for instructions, feedback sounds, rewards, etc.
The interface is described as “engaging and colorful.”

Usability / Engagement

Rewards are included (for children, with instrument accumulation, music studio).
However, one review says the child cannot use it completely independently: someone must monitor/correct answers.

Accessibility & Adaptability

Some adaptability: background noise, feedback options, reward toggles.

Concerns:

This app costs $29.99! The app has good features but some usability concerns: supervision needed, dated updates, low user ratings.

Not clear how accessible it is for students with other disabilities (hearing impairment beyond “processing,” visual limitations, attention challenges).
No information about cross-platform (e.g. Android) availability.
Last noted update was 2015. Apple
There are very few reviews (3) and low average rating (2 out of 5). Apple
This suggests concerns about maintenance, modern device compatibility, user satisfaction.

Other Issues and Comments:

The overall rating reflects strong content relevance and therapeutic potential, but reduced by issues in usability, updating, user satisfaction, and missing top-down strategy integration.

Independent usability: children may need adult supervision; the app does not fully support autonomous use.
Outdated / scant updates: last noted update in 2015; potential compatibility or alignment issues with newer devices or OS versions.
User dissatisfaction / low ratings: indicates users have experienced issues (e.g. select-all bugs, price vs perceived value) Apple.
Lack of top-down auditory processing tools: strategies, comprehension, context, etc., not heavily integrated.
Limited benchmarking / normative comparisons: while tracking responses is possible, it's unclear how one can compare performance to expected norms.
Cost: Price ($29.99) may be a barrier for some users, especially given some usability constraints

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