The development of a contextually relevant screening protocol for auditory processing disorder in South African school children: a mixed methods study protocol. (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Effective screening is required to facilitate the early identification of central auditory processing disorder (CAPD) - a deficit within the central auditory nervous system, which can have a significant effect on a child’s listening, learning and communication. While several screening tools have been proposed, there is a lack of contextually appropriate tools that take the needs of a multilingual society, like South Africa (SA), into consideration. OBJECTIVE This study aims to develop a contextually appropriate CAPD screening protocol for children (aged 7 to 12 years) in SA. The specific study aims are: (1) to develop a contextually appropriate screening protocol for CAPD in primary school children in SA, and (2) to evaluate the feasibility of implementing the developed protocol in primary school children in SA. METHODS The study will follow a developmental, mixed methods research design, implemented in two phases. Phase 1 will be applied to address aim 1. The aim will be achieved by (i) conducting a systematic review (i.e. objective 1.1); (ii) applying the nominal group technique (NGT) on experts to identify criteria for an appropriate protocol (i.e. objective 1.2); and (iii) using a combination of expert consultations, questionnaires and rating scales (administered to experts) to devise an appropriate screening protocol (i.e. objective 1.3). Once the protocol is developed, it will be implemented by the recommended end-users. Thereafter, a feasibility study will be conducted in Phase 2 to evaluate the implementation of the protocol. This phase will include field testing the protocol and a focus group discussion with end-users. For Phase 1, the narrative synthesis approach will be used to analyse systematic review data. For the NGT the researcher will tally the participants’ ratings to identify the list of criteria for an appropriate protocol. Content analysis and descriptive statistics will be performed to analyse the expert ratings of the protocols. For Phase 2, descriptive statistics will be performed to summarise features of the study sample and measures used. Thematic analysis will be conducted to analyse the focus group data. RESULTS Ethical clearance was obtained from the university’s Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC reference number 636/2020) and the Western Cape Education Department granted the researchers permission to recruit educators and learners from primary schools in the area. The systematic review for objective 1.1. was completed and findings outlined the test properties, benefits, and limitations of existing CAPD screening tools. Face-to-face data collection was postponed due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Participant recruitment for objective 1.2 is currently underway and the anticipated completion date for data collection is July 2022. CONCLUSIONS The present study will aim to advance CAPD screening practice by proposing a process to develop a contextually appropriate protocol. The researcher will apply this process in the South African context to develop a CAPD screening protocol for primary school children in SA. CLINICALTRIAL Not applicable.