Auditory Processing Disorder?

[Sparrows-Song]

I've thought for a long time that our oldest (now 12) might have an auditory processing disorder. Although I've done some research online, that's as far as it's gone, as some of his symptoms baffle me and I wonder if it's "real" or if I'm looking for a reason to be easier on him. We homeschool, so we work with him and haven't gone outside for any help (yet.) As much as it hurts to say, dh and I have wondered if he might have a learning disability. I don't want to label him and give him an excuse for being lazy or not trying, but also don't want to discipline him for something he can't help, or something he needs our help with.

 

Some of his symptoms are:

* It takes him a while to process what I'm telling him.

* He seems not to be listening when I talk, even if he's looking at me.

* If there's background noise, forget it. He won't hear me, or won't understand me.

* If I tell him to do something, he can repeat the command back to me, but may not know how to do it (or seem to be able to "understand" how to do it) until he thinks about it for a minute.

* We have attibuted much of the above to "not listening" or "not paying attention" which gets him in trouble.

* I can say something like "hot shot" and he will hear "pop not."

* In his speaking and reading out loud, he will often draw out words or syllables in odd places. He would say, "The ear-r-th revo-o-olves-s aro-ound the su-u-u-n-n." Perhaps every fifth sentence will have a word or two drawn out like this.

* I don't know if this even matters, but he is a terrible speller. When I give oral tests, he will blurt out letters that make no sense, and when I give him "the look" he'll say, "What was I thinking?" and then he might spell it correctly.

* has trouble doing multi-step commands. He does one step and then forgets the rest. Many times he forgets that there even were more steps.

* Will often repeat words and phrases 6,7,8 times until we tell him to stop.

* What baffles me is that he can repeat entire story/movie lines word for word, yet struggles with all of the above.

 

Many of this we have just dealt with and tried to work around, just saying that this is "just him, just how he works." I'm wondering if it is worth it to have him tested somewhere, if anyone can truly help this or if it would just have him labeled, which I don't want.

 

Can someone offer some words of advice, point us in the right direction? He is 12.

Oh, we had his hearing tested in the past, and hearing was perfect, although he had a LOT of ear infections as a child, (and eventually tubes put in,) which may have something to do with all this.

 

PS~ he does well enough in academics, but has trouble with spelling, messy handwriting (possibly my fault for not being diligent there,) and making lots of careless mistakes.

 

Many thanks!

[Baseballmom]

My son has been diagnosed with CAPD. He is 12 and sounds much like your son, except that he struggles in all subjects. There is a list of things that will help a child with CAPD, but I have misplaced it. Things like limiting distractions, asking a person to repeat what they have said, allowing the child 10 seconds before requiring an answer, asking the child to repeat what you have said, etc. Although, it sounds like you already do many of these things. My understanding is that this disorder cannot be cured, but a person can learn how to function "normally" despite their difficulties. Having said that, I wouldn't necessarily have him tested (it is expensive), but try to locate a list of activities/ideas to help CAPD. Implement those ideas to see if they help your son. If those things don't work then you might want to have him tested, either for CAPD or something else. Of course if you have the money to have hime tested, then why not! There are a few computer programs that are suppose to help CAPD, I think "Fast Foward", but I can't remember the other one. Also, I think the "Listening Program" is supposed to help, but we never made it through the whole program.

[Claire]

Wow! Those are pretty classic symptoms of CAPD (now just called APD). Since his academic work does not seem to be majorly affected, it's possible he's doing a lot of compensating with a higher IQ. The net result of a high IQ and a disability is often average work with quirks.

 

Testing in an audiologist's office only tests for hearing acuity (the mechanical functioning of the ears). APD is actually a problem with how the brain processes sounds. It's possible to have perfect auditory acuity and have severe APD.

 

Unfortunately, testing for APD is quite expensive and medical insurance usually does not cover it. Testing is worthwhile in a variety of ways. If your son does have APD, he won't be blamed for being lazy or not trying hard enough when he really is. Having a diagnosis might also help his self-image, especially if he blames himself for not trying hard enough. If he doesn't have APD (which I can hardly imagine from your description), he could still have a different type of disability. Dysgraphia, for example, is a language-based disorder that shows up as messy handwriting and poor spelling skills. The blurting out of the wrong letters when doing oral spelling can be a retrieval problem, which is an expressive language disorder. Labeling is often a very good thing for a child with a disability, because the mystery of why he can't perform as expected finally has an explanation that doesn't involve defects in morals, character, or intelligence. Children with undiagnosed disabilities typically label themselves as stupid because stupidity provides an explanation for their problems.

 

If your son has APD or some other language-related disability, treatment depends on the exact nature of the problem. Certain subtypes of APD are responsive to FastForWord, a computer-based therapy that trains the brain to process the sounds of speech with speed and accuracy. Even without testing, your son would probably be a good candidate for this program just from his symptoms. After FFW, cognitive skills training could be quite helpful (PACE or LearningRx).

 

What you might want to do first is get a complete speech and language evaluation by a speech pathologist. These evals usually include some screening tools for APD. To optimize your chances of having the evaluation covered by medical insurance, first find a good speech pathologist and call their clinic. Describe your son and ask if an evaluation would be a good idea. Speech clinics deal with insurance companies every day, so they should be able to tell you *exactly* how a referral from your general physician should be worded or coded. This eval may or may not be able to identify problems since the APD screens are not totally reliable. The only way to be sure about APD is to have an assessment done by an audiologist with specialized training in auditory processing disorders.

 

Hope this helps some.....

[Sparrows-Song]

The only way to be sure about APD is to have an assessment done by an audiologist with specialized training in auditory processing disorders.

 

 

 

Thank you so much for your help! I am talking this over with dh.

How would I go about finding an audiologist w/ special training in APD? Just call around and ask for suggestions? Or is there a website that lists some?

 

Again, thanks. This is unchartered territory for me and a bit confusing.

[LizzyBee]

Thank you so much for your help! I am talking this over with dh.

How would I go about finding an audiologist w/ special training in APD? Just call around and ask for suggestions? Or is there a website that lists some?

 

Again, thanks. This is unchartered territory for me and a bit confusing.

 

We just had our dd11 tested. We started by going to a local ENT practice that includes doctors, audiologists, and speech pathologists. By having the doctor check her first and emphasizing her history of ear infections, we are hoping to have all the testing covered by our insurance. The initial exam by a doctor and audiologist showed no problems whatsoever. That part was covered by insurance. Then the doctor referred us somewhat reluctantly to their dual-certified audiologist/speech pathologist who does their APD testing. I talked with her on the phone and we decided to move forward with testing. The cost was $476, and we don't know yet whether it will be covered. We went back today (just dh and I) to get the results, and dd was diagnosed with mild APD. Some of her behaviors sound similar to your son, although it sounds like your ds's symptoms are more severe than dd's.

 

We were already familiar with the ENT practice, because our youngest dd went to speech therapy there for 3 years. But I also googled "audiologist and processing disorders and (our city)" and was able to pull up a list of people in our area who can test for APD.

 

HTH.

[Kathy in MD]

....I don't want to label him and give him an excuse for being lazy or not trying,.....*QUOTE]

 

My ds would love it if his labels allowed him to be lazy. :D:D

 

All it means is more work (therapies) and some of it's hard. :eek:

 

You've gotten some good advice. I'll only add that the therapies my ds has recieved allow him to function within normal range. Best of all, my ds can interact easily with others, something vital for a social creature like him.

[Iris]

processing evaluation last fall. The SLP/Audiologist's name is Dr. Jay Lucker, and he has offices in Bethesda, Alexandria, Fairfax, etc. Here's his website: http://www.dr-j.net/index.html

 

The evaluation was expensive ($750), but he did spend at least a couple of hours with ds and sent us a very thorough report. Insurance didn't cover much of it, however.

 

We are now working with a neurodevelopmentalist, who during ds's intake, asked who did the auditory evaluation for us. When I responded that Dr. Lucker had, he said he was very good. And, it turns out that something he suspected and stated in the report is true.

 

Additionally, he listed a whole host of programs to use with ds. Several were familiar to me from reading on this board, and elsewhere (Earobics, FFW, LMB V/V, PACE), but there were some I hadn't heard of: Attention & Memory software(http://www.learningfundamentals.com, the Brain Train software ) .

 

From recent testing and a brain map, it turns out that most of my ds's problems stem from attention and memory deficits and executive functioning, when I thought that he definitely (mainly) had auditory processing issues.

 

Other than the effect on the checkbook, I'm glad we did the evaluation.

 

HTH,

Iris

[Claire]

How would I go about finding an audiologist w/ special training in APD? Just call around and ask for suggestions? Or is there a website that lists some?

 

You can probably find some websites with lists by Googling "auditory processing disorder" audiologists. The one I have in my files is NCAPD but I am sure there are others on the net. It can be very difficult to locate this type of audiologist, because it requires extensive additional trainings and medical insurance has historically often refused to cover this type of testing. If you have a university medical center in your area, you might want to check with them. Medical research universities sometimes have this kind of specialty.

[Claire]

Just to clarify, I was trying to say that your least costly step would be to get the complete speech and language evaluation done first. This would involve a speech pathologist. Try asking friends and neighbors if they know of any good speech pathologists in your area. After networking a bit, I found that two neighbors had used a speech pathologist that they could recommend. Barring that, your physician may be able to refer you (although I have found that sometimes they refer based on their impressions at a conference rather than on outstanding performance in practice!). A speech and language eval should include "screens" for APD. Be sure to ask for these up front so they are included in the eval. Screenings are tools that try to identify or rule out APD, but they have a tendency to produce false negatives -- meaning the screen finds no evidence of APD even though the child does have it (sometimes a severe case).

 

The only way to definitively identify APD is with an audiologist who has specialized training in the area of APD.

 

I should also mention that your son's symptoms are very similar to those of a friend's son. This boy was diagnosed by the audiologist with the "integration deficit" subtype of APD. Basically what this means is that auditory information is not routed efficiently to both sides of the brain (through the corpus callosum, I think). It is a processing problem. FastForWord is supposed to be helpful for "decoding deficit" and "integration deficit" subtypes of APD, but there are never any guarantees. My friend's son has been able to compensate a lot with his high IQ (135) and lots of sports activities (helps with balance and neurological organization).

[Sparrows-Song]

I spent almost the entire afternoon yesterday researching info on the net (thanks for the links!) and actually found 2 audiologists nearby who specialize in testing for APD. I was planning on calling them yesterday when my son's doggie got run over by a car and passed away. (This was his "best friend.")

 

Hopefully today I can call them and get some prices.

 

I want to thank you all again for the wonderful help. I am sure my son would thank you, too!

[Blue Hen]

I haven't read all the responses but finally decided to chim in on this thread. My 15yo DS was diagnosed with APD at age 6yo. In short he had an AP system of a 6mo but in a 6yr old body. He went through FastForWord 1 and II --- the effect was amazing and remediated many issues he was having. He knew his label back then, and we never, ever allowed him to use this to be lazy or as an excuse for poor work.

 

The reason I am commenting is that for the most part no one knows that he has APD, or how different a child he was prior to FFW.......today on our walk, out of the blue he shared that last night, at a friend's he realized that he can 'hear' folks when he can see their lips, and that he was lip reading while he listened. He started thinking about his APD, and how he has found ways to compensate for it, the residual effects that he still deals with. Compensation for him includes doing school work in an ultra-quiet room which includes NO ticking clocks. Face-to-face communication is critical too, and he does very poor on phone conversations.