Central Auditory Processing Disorder Basics

November, 2006

Q: What is Central Auditory Processing Disorder?

A: It’s an impaired ability to differentiate, recognize, or understand sounds. People who have this disorder typically have normal hearing. The problem is in their ability to perform different listening tasks. The brain of a person with CAPD has difficulty picking up the electrical signals transmitted from the ears. The impairment is greater in challenging listening situations, such as when there is noise in the background or a speaker who talks fast or with a foreign accent.

Q: What causes CAPD?

A: At the present time, causes of CAPD have not been defined. According to Susan Schwartz of the Institute for Learning and Academic Achievement at the NYU Child Study Center, scientists suspect that the problems may arise from neurochemical abnormalities too subtle to identify.

Q: What are red flags that might indicate CAPD?

A: Some of the warning signs can be:

• A delay in the child’s development of speech and language

• A history of frequent middle ear infections in the preschool years

• Hypersensitivity to loud sounds

• Poor early academic achievement

• A family history of CAPD is also a factor to consider.

Q: When do signs of CAPD tend to show up?

A: CAPD often shows up in the early elementary grades when the curriculum demands require a child to be an active listener and to take in more complex auditory information.

Q: What is the effect of CAPD on a child?

A: Children with CAPD tend to have trouble using auditory information to communicate, learn, and remember. Specifically, they are likely to find it hard to understand speech and pay attention. They often have difficulty following spoken instructions and learning and remembering information presented verbally.

Q: How are characteristics of CAPD observed in the classroom?

A: Among common characteristics of students with CAPD are the following (although not all children with CAPD will display all of the characteristics):

• Weak short-term memory

• Poor reading, writing, and spelling

• Trouble discriminating speech and phonics sounds

• Difficulty taking notes

• Difficulty learning foreign languages

• Behavioral, psychological, and/or social problems resulting from poor language and academic skills.

Some of these characteristics may be mistaken for attention deficit disorder, learning disabilities, behavioral problems, or emotional disorders. It takes careful evaluation to correctly identify the problem as CAPD.

Q: How is CAPD diagnosed?

A: It takes a multidisciplinary team to make a diagnosis. Members of the team may include the following:

Parents have an important role to play as well. They provide information on their child’s auditory behavior at home, essential input in diagnosing CAPD.

Q: At what age should a child be tested?

A: Testing is usually not done on very young children because the auditory center of the brain is still developing until the age of 7 to 9 years. Also, it may be hard for younger children to give the testing the attention it requires.

References

The following resources were consulted for this article:

• About Our Kids, “Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD)”: www.aboutourkids.org/aboutour/articles/capd.html#whatis

• KidsHealth, “Central Auditory Processing Disorder”: www.kidshealth.org/parent/medical/ears/central_auditory.html

• Psychology Today, “Communication Disorders”: www.psychologytoday.com/conditions/commdisorder.html

• Council for Exceptional Children, ERIC EC Digest #E634, “Auditory Processing Disorders: An Overview”:
  http://ericec.org/digests/e634.html     

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