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Auditory processing disorder


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I was reading an article at KidsHealth.org about APD, and it had a list of questions to help you determine if your child struggled with this. Some of them made sense, but these two didn't:

 

Does your child have reading, spelling, writing, or other speech-language difficulties?

 

Is abstract information difficult for your child to comprehend?

 

I can understand why *spoken* language would be affected by an auditory processing disorder, but I don't understand why the above areas would be affected. Can someone explain this to me? Thanks. :)

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Basically because language is learnt through the auditory channel, if there is APD the whole area of language processing can be affected. For example, if you can't distinguish sounds, then learning phonics is a struggle and so reading is affected. If you can't make sense of language going in, then the language output is likely to be disordered. If that is all going on, then comprehension becomes an issue.

 

I'm not an expert, except for my own dd's struggles.......

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Spelling is difficult for a child who struggles with phonemic awareness (one of the subtypes of CAPD). My DS has difficulty hearing the difference between /th/ and /f/ so he often makes spelling errors where he substitutes one for the other.

 

My oldest DD, by contrast, struggles with auditory sequencing (another one of the subtypes of CAPD). She is an excellent speller but frequently will mispronounce words because she transposes syllables. She does spelling bees and it's a bit bizarre to hear her give the correct spelling and then mispronounce the word at the end. :confused: I guess she is able to visualize the word in her head so that's how she spells it correctly, but trying to get all the syllables out in the correct order when saying the full word is difficult for her.

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APD is not actually an auditory problem, it is a neurological problem of the brain incorrectly filtering and prioritizing input stimuli.it can therefore affect other, seemingly unrelated processes in subtle ways.

 

:iagree:and I'm actually seeing more and more of this as dd gets older.

 

Dd has problems that I never anticipated since the level of abstraction has increased in her academic work as the years have gone by. She can understand the individual pieces but can have a hard time putting them all together, or expressing her comprehension of how they fit together. She was always very verbal and never had problems with spelling or writing when she was younger, but now that she's older and what she's reading about and thinking about have become more complicated, she has a difficult time expressing what she wants to and feels very frustrated by it. She cannot elaborate. Her language is good but succint. Her points are good, but she doesn't provide the detail you would expect from someone of her age and intelligence.

 

I sometimes feel very sad for her. My grieving is late in coming because although I saw some problems early on, I never expected how it would play out over time.

 

ETA: I remember reading somewhere that CAPD is a processing disorder with the auditory aspect as the primary manifestation, but not necessarily the only one.

Edited by NJKelli
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ETA: I remember reading somewhere that CAPD is a processing disorder with the auditory aspect as the primary manifestation, but not necessarily the only one.

 

There are many subtypes of CAPD. http://www.judithpaton.com/checklist.html.

 

CAPD also has the highest number of comorbities, which supports what NJKelli said above. DS does not tick off every symptom on the checklist. Yet when evaluated at the audiologist, they found every part of his brain to be affected :(. He's been able to compensate for a lot. But keeping CAPD in mind reminds me to give him a lot of leeway when he has a rough day, because compensation is very tiring.

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There are many subtypes of CAPD. http://www.judithpaton.com/checklist.html.

 

CAPD also has the highest number of comorbities, which supports what NJKelli said above. DS does not tick off every symptom on the checklist. Yet when evaluated at the audiologist, they found every part of his brain to be affected :(. He's been able to compensate for a lot. But keeping CAPD in mind reminds me to give him a lot of leeway when he has a rough day, because compensation is very tiring.

 

The most important benefit, IMO, of getting an evaluation for CAPD is what the diagnosis can do to help family relationships that have been strained because of its possibly unrealized effect on most aspects of communication and interaction.

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Kelli, that is so true!

 

The insidious thing about CAPD is that the poor auditory processing is random, so that you can never be sure if your child is "purposely" ignoring you or not. And because DS compensates so well, I get fooled into thinking that he has a "bad attitude". The best thing that ever happened to us was the evaluation (we did quite a few) and the stepping back to observe rather than judge. I'm learning about my beautiful son everyday.

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  • 1 month later...
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Hi Ladies,

 

It is comforting, sort of, to read our story coming from a complete stranger. What have you done for your dd auditory processing? I have consulted a few language pathologist in our area. They are expensive and have varying suggestions. I have used the Charlotte Mason approach our whole 6 years and was hoping dd would have developed her independence by now, but not with a language processing disorder. What have you tried and is it successful?

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Hi Ladies,

 

It is comforting, sort of, to read our story coming from a complete stranger. What have you done for your dd auditory processing? I have consulted a few language pathologist in our area. They are expensive and have varying suggestions. I have used the Charlotte Mason approach our whole 6 years and was hoping dd would have developed her independence by now, but not with a language processing disorder. What have you tried and is it successful?

We have done Interactive Metronome, Perceptual Enrichment Program, Wilson Reading, Making Math Real, and now we're doing Vision Therapy. We may do Fast ForWord in the near future. Our educational therapist has administered most of these therapies, as well as remediation and her own bag of tricks she's developed over the years. We see her 2x/wk during the school year (taking the summer off for family time). IDK where we'd be without her expertise, support, and encouragement! I highly recommend finding someone to help you support your child and yourself :)

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Which therapy did you find most helpful for CAPD? I thought the only evidence-based treatment that works for some is an FM system? Our ADHD specialist said that even if we spent more resources to get an assessment for CAPD, our attention-challenged child would probably not benefit from an FM system.

We have done Interactive Metronome, Perceptual Enrichment Program, Wilson Reading, Making Math Real, and now we're doing Vision Therapy.

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Unfortunately, I can't pinpoint one thing that has made the most difference. If I had to pick which to fund first, it would probably be VT. I wish I had known more about it to make that decision 2 yrs ago. (We're just now doing it.) Anything you can to to create new neural pathways will help. Once a pathway is created the brain can use it for anything, not just what the therapy focused on kwim. The next thing would be IM. After that I would find someone who has great knowledge in remediation and CAPD, and how to adapt to your child's needs.

 

FTR not everyone finds success with these therapies. These have worked for my dd.

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Which therapy did you find most helpful for CAPD? I thought the only evidence-based treatment that works for some is an FM system? Our ADHD specialist said that even if we spent more resources to get an assessment for CAPD, our attention-challenged child would probably not benefit from an FM system.

 

Honestly, for us I think the most helpful thing was simply knowing that he has CAPD. My ds' APD is only mild, but the diagnosis explained a lot of things, like comments that seemed barely related to what we were talking about. The poor kid was missing parts of our family conversations yet trying to participate! He wasn't catching how conversations flow b/c he was missing parts of what people said or misunderstanding what they said. Now that we know what's the problem, that seems to be improving. I'm more aware of how we can position ourselves in the room and minimize competing noise. We have a large family and a noisy house, but there are simply things that we've adjusted that seem to have helped. I make sure that we face each other when I give instruction. I don't assume that he understood me-I make sure he does. He also knows better now when he's missing things, and as he's aware of that, the situation seems to be improving.
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