(DTAP) Developmental Test of Auditory Perception

The DTAP is a battery of 5 item sets that measure different, but interrelated, aspects of auditory perception. The comprehensive battery is designed to assess auditory perception without invoking higher order verbal reasoning or extensive memory capacity. Items are presented via online audio files to standardize presentation of the language item sets and to include various non-language sounds as well. The DTAP uses a simple response format easily understood and accommodated even by children in the primary grades. Using various language-related as well as non-language-related sounds, pairs of stimuli are presented and examinees indicate whether the pairs are the same or different.

The DTAP can be administered by psychologists, speech-language pathologists, general and special educators, neuropsychologists, and diagnosticians who are interested in examining the auditory perception status of school-age children.

Indexes

The five item sets—Phonemes in Isolation, Word Discrimination, Rhyming Sounds (all language-related), Tonal Patterns, and Environmental Sounds (all nonlanguage-related)—are divided into two auditory scales: the Language Auditory Perception Index (LAPI) and the Nonlanguage Auditory Perception Index (NAPI). The LAPI and the NAPI are combined to form the Composite Auditory Perception Index (CAPI), which is the best measure of auditory perception.

The DTAP also has a Background Noise Index (BNI) and a No Background Noise Index (NBNI). The BNI requires the examinee to extract and perceive accurately a target set of sounds from background noise. Chosen as the background or noise field is a carefully decibel-controlled set of ambient classroom sounds, chosen to enhance the ecological validity of the DTAP BNI as well as its clinical utility. These tasks are embedded in each item set routinely administered to each examinee and require substantial contributions from the capabilities of the right and of the left temporal lobes for accurate performance.

Special Features of the DTAP

• The DTAP has empirically established reliability and validity.
• Assesses not only the important domain of accurate perception of language sounds, but includes assessment of the accuracy of perception of important, common environmental sounds.
• Rapid, easy administration and scoring.
• The normative sample consists of 1,920 children residing in 13 states; demographic characteristics approximate the current census data.
• Evidence is provided to show that the test is unbiased with respect to gender and race.
• Strong ecological validity for students with academic problems, assessing auditory perceptual skills not only in a quiet environment but also using standardized, volume controlled ambient classroom noise.