There is an increasing need for state-of-the-art Central Auditory Processing assessment for Portuguese native speakers, applicable as early as possible. As a contribution to answering this need, this paper presents a new battery for Central Auditory Processing assessment for European Portuguese applicable to children aged 5 and above, named BAPA-PE, providing information regarding test selection and development. The battery consists of six behavioral tests: Staggered Spondaic Words (SSW) for European Portuguese, Filtered Speech, Speech in Noise, Detection Interval in Noise, Duration, and Frequency Pattern. The normative data for children aged 5 to 12 are also reported. A sample was obtained of 217 subjects without ear pathology and with typical development. Each age group was composed of at least 30 children. All children were evaluated using pure tone audiometry, speech audiometry, impedance, and otoacoustic emissions. Normative scores are reported for each of the six auditory processing tests. The assessment is applicable to young children (aged 5 and 6). The statistical analyses showed significant effects in scores of Age for all tests and of Ear for several tests. The main result from the work presented, the Auditory Processing Assessment Battery—European Portuguese (BAPA-PE), is available for clinical use with normative data. This battery is a new tool for behaviorism assessment of European Portuguese speakers with suspected central auditory pathology and for monitoring the results of auditory training.

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.

RESUMO Objetivo O estudo teve como objetivos o desenvolvimento e validação de conteúdo de um Programa de Intervenção em Processamento Auditivo, destinado a crianças em idade escolar, com perturbação do processamento auditivo, falantes do português europeu. Método A primeira etapa consistiu no desenvolvimento do programa e respetivo manual de instruções, que inclui objetivos, atividades, procedimentos, materiais, reforços, instruções e estímulos verbais utilizados, para as competências auditivas de discriminação auditiva, atenção auditiva, memória auditiva, fechamento, figura-fundo; separação binaural, integração binaural e fusão binaural; a segunda etapa consistiu na validação de conteúdo, por dois painéis de peritos que analisaram o programa, através de um questionário. A validade de conteúdo foi calculada usando o índice de validade de conteúdo. Resultados A avaliação do programa revela uma excelente validade de conteúdo. Alguns itens foram modificados depois da análise dos comentários e sugestões dos peritos (ex: instruções, desníveis de intensidade, personagem principal). Conclusão O estudo permitiu o desenvolvimento e validação de um programa de intervenção em processamento auditivo, com estímulos verbais, selecionados de acordo com critérios linguísticos rigorosos. Futuramente, está prevista a realização de estudos de aceitabilidade e eficácia do programa junto da população alvo.