Many children do have difficulty processing tones. If the quality of auditory input is disrupted or interfered with auditory tonal processing development will be delayed or permanently impaired, unless there is specific and effective therapeutic intervention. The child who experiences either or both of these situations isn t giving the brain consistent auditory input. Hamper understanding of spoken language. If your child s language is delayed or if there is some question about their hearing I highly recommend having their hearing checked.
Tests are either subjective or objective.
Subjective tests include the audiogram in which the child is asked to respond in some manner to tones. Objective tests include the auditory evoked response which measures the brain s response to specific tones. These tests can generally be relied upon to identify significant global hearing loss, BUT they do not attempt to test more than a few sound frequencies. Many tonal processing deficits escape detection. For example, the inability of a native Japanese speaker to hear an R will not show up on such testing.