Central Auditory Processing Disorder?

[MrSmith]

My DS (age 7) has always had difficulty following oral instructions (written instructions are not a problem). At first we thought he was just not listening. However as the years went on, we noticed that he usually is listening intently to instructions (often he is staring right at me when I give the instructions). Sometimes, but not always, he just doesn't perform the precise actions requested.

 

For example, a few days ago my wife asked him to turn off the living room light, whereupon DS proceeded to turn off every light on the first floor. Needless to say, wife was not impressed.

 

As we dug around the internet, we came across something called Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD). Has anyone heard of it? I am wondering if DS might have it, and how one might go about testing for it?

 

We are pretty sure he is not deaf (hearing tests at pediatrician seem normal, and he can often hear us whispering across the room).

[crazyfordlr]

My odd has this and it's been an "interesting" journey. There's some good info/posts over on the Special Needs board. The first thing you should do is get an eval from an audiologist knowledgeable in CAPD...it's one of those dx that isn't always understood or even believed. Good luck!!!

[Dory]

I know where I live you need a referral from your doctor and many places won't test the child until he is 8-9 yo. The best book I've found so far on it is 'When the Brain Can't Hear' by Teri James Bellis. I wish now that I had never had my son tested. I didn't find the 'help' very helpful and it really didn't give me any information I didn't already have.

[Crimson Wife]

Be aware that it can be very difficult to tease apart CAPD from ADD from working memory issues. My oldest struggles with auditory sequencing tasks and also with information presented orally when there is background noise. I took her to the audiologist for the first part of the CAPD evaluation last year. The Aud.D. did find some red flags in the initial screening. However, she said that DD needed to be evaluated by a neuropsychologist before the rest of the CAPD eval could be done.

 

Unfortunately, there is a lot of red tape to get our insurance to approve a neuropsych eval and I've been fighting with the company over youngest DD's autism treatment so I've tabled the issue for now. Also, the NP eval is only good for 3 years and if we do it now, it would expire before oldest DD has to take high school/college admissions tests. I have this feeling that the insurance is only going to pay for 1 eval, so it makes sense to do that closer to high school.

[Plateau Mama]

My DS (age 7) has always had difficulty following oral instructions (written instructions are not a problem). At first we thought he was just not listening. However as the years went on, we noticed that he usually is listening intently to instructions (often he is staring right at me when I give the instructions). Sometimes, but not always, he just doesn't perform the precise actions requested.

 

For example, a few days ago my wife asked him to turn off the living room light, whereupon DS proceeded to turn off every light on the first floor. Needless to say, wife was not impressed.

 

As we dug around the internet, we came across something called Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD). Has anyone heard of it? I am wondering if DS might have it, and how one might go about testing for it?

 

We are pretty sure he is not deaf (hearing tests at pediatrician seem normal, and he can often hear us whispering across the room).

 

My child as CAPD and a hearing loss. First thing I would say is do not trust a hearing test from the pediatrician and don't assume he can hear well just because he can hear you wisper. There is a whole range of sounds and a hearing issue can be on any part. For example, my sons issues are in the range of human speech. He has a difficulty hearing consenant sounds. He can hear loud sounds he can hear certain types of quiest sounds but he has difficulty distingushing components of the English language.

 

Because of his hearing problem and his CAPD he cannot filter out sounds. So if you are in a room and two people are talking and the dog is barking he cannot focus on the person talking to him.

 

As a PP said you will need to go to an Audiologist to have him tested. Ours was done over 2-3 days with another day to get the results (they have to be interpreted). Also he is on the young side, they might test him but they probably will have you wait until he's 8 or 9. Another thing to consider is insurance might not cover it. We have very good coverage. They covered the testing but I had to pay for the interpretation of the results. I can't remember how much it was, but it wasn't cheap.

 

Can he follow multi step directions? For example I cannot tell my son, clear off the table, put the dishes away and then go shower. I have to have him report back to me after each thing is done. One thing that really helps is to have him repeat back what I've told him to do (again, only giving him one instruction at a time.) Another place they may struggle is writing. If I tell him to write something he has great difficulty getting it to paper. My audiologist says if he goes back to school that he will have to be pretaught everything. He cannot listen to new material and take notes, physically impossible for him. If he's heard the material before then he will be much more successful at taking note etc.

 

There are different components to CAPD. He may struggle in one area and be fine in others.

 

The best book I've read is http://www.amazon.com/The-Mislabeled-Child-Understanding-Learning/dp/1401302254/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1352498144&sr=8-2&keywords=misdiagnosed+child. It talks about all the different labels children are given and why they are often misdiagnosed. With this book I was able to confirm that my child has SPD & CAPD. I was able to go to the Audiologist and tell her exactly what issues he was having and why I wanted the test.

Edited November 9, 2012 by nicolepa

[merry gardens]

As other said, they often won't test for CAPD until a child is older. If he hasn't had a regular hearing evaluation, that's a good place to start for any child. I have a child relatively recently diagnosed with mild APD. APD/CAPD can show in a variety of different ways and not everyone has the same issues. The book already recommended "When the Brain Can't Hear" explains various ways it can show up and offers some ideas on modifications ways to help.

 

Sometimes their hearing can be too good--meaning that they hear noises which interfere with their comprehension while most of us can ignore those same noises or don't hear them well because they're outside the normal range of hearing. Mine with mild APD hears above normal for some ranges and he gets easily distracted by noise.

 

Even without a diagnosis there some simple things you can try that may help him follow instructions better. Ask him to repeat the instructions out loud to you so you are sure he heard them correctly. When you give him instruction, look directly at him and be near him (ie--don't yell from across the room or talk to his back) Be aware of other noises, (like the tv, dishwasher, etc.)and minimize those other noises when possible.

 

The specifics of how to manage CAPD depends on the specific type, but those are some suggestions you can try until you get more information from an audiologist.

[MerryAtHope]

Some strategies that can help:

 

Speak just a little more slowly. Often with CAPD all the words seem to run together (imagine a sentence with no spaces between the words).

 

Turn toward your child so he can watch your mouth. This is especially important if your child confuses similar-sounding words. In people with CAPD, their ears and brain don’t work together 100% of the time, so watching your mouth helps get everything in sync. The sounds get “crisper†when they have the visual cue to go with the auditory.

 

Give him time to process what you said--for him to sort all of the sounds into meaningful words and phrases.

 

Don't say too many words. Give one instruction at a time in as few words as possible.

 

Have him repeat the instruction or restate it in his own words.

 

Know that children with CAPD can become disruptive or argumentative if they are feeling insecure or if they don’t understand something.

 

HTH some, Merry :-)

[lewelma]

Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD). Has anyone heard of it?

 

My older ds was identified with Auditory Processing issues. Not exactly a disorder because the scores were not low enough, but the scores were very low and in complete contrast to the rest of the test. This issue was identified when he did an IQ test for a gifted program.

 

Auditory Processing affected both his speech and his spelling. Because his Working Memory is so good, his difficulty is not expressed in the same way as children with more serious problems. So he does not have problems following directions for example. However, he had to do 2 years of speech therapy because he could not distinguish between about 10 sounds in English, and he had to work through the most intensive spelling program (SWR) to have any sort of chance at spelling somewhat accurately. It has been a long and frustrating road, but we are out on the other side.

 

In hindsight, I think learning the violin was the best thing for him. He was forced to focus on hearing the correct notes for 30 minutes per day for 7 years now. The best therapy ever, I think. He now is taking Mandarin and is able to hear all the tones, and his violin teacher told me just today that his ability to tune the violin is excellent! Yea!

 

Ruth in NZ