CAPD and the Gifted Child

Since gifted children usually develop self-taught strategies or use prior knowledge to circumvent their deficit, they do not always demonstrate the typical characteristics of CAPD. It is only when they have to confront a new situation, for which they have not yet developed alternative strategies, that their deficits are exposed.

In the classroom, gifted CAPD children most often use visual clues to establish what is required of them. Frequently these children already understand most of the classroom lessons, having taught themselves at home using computers, television, or reference books. (This is called “pre-teaching.”) As a result, the fact that they can’t follow what the teacher is teaching is missed. Children may “guess” what the teacher wants from what they did hear or from what they can see, copy, or intuit. (Alternatively, gifted CAPD children may just sit quietly “turned off” from the activities surrounding them or become disruptive.)

This lack of clear, distinct behavioral characteristics for identifying gifted children with CAPD (as distinct from normal children with CAPD) makes audiological diagnosis an imperative for these children. Once correctly identified, the appropriate intervention/remediation can be implemented. (For information on CAPD subcategories and ways to address each in the classroom, see pages 12-13.)

Four Categories of Tests for CAPD
Category of Test	Purpose	Functions Tested	Additional Comments
Temporal Ordering Tasks, including: · Continuous Performance Test · Time Order Processing Test	· For evaluating a child’s ability to perceive a pattern of auditory events occurring over time · Also distinguishes between auditory processing that does and does not require inter-hemispheric transfer of acoustic information	· Frequency and/or duration discrimination · Temporal ordering and linguistic labeling	Children with problems in this area: · Tend to experience problems with tasks that involve organization and sequencing · Are usually slow to develop language · Have difficulty with pronunciation, reading, and spelling.
Monaural Low-Redundancy Speech Tests	For evaluating a child’s ability to achieve closure when the auditory signal is not clear.	The ability to close – to guess a word based on information received at the time and the child’s experience (exposure and long-term memory of similar words)	Children who have problems in this area have difficulty understanding accents or speakers who do not articulate clearly.
Dichotic Speech Tests	For evaluating: · The natural development of auditory functions over a child’s life · Inter-hemispheric transfer of auditory information	The integration and separation of aural information received by either or both ears	Children with problems in this area have difficulty “hearing” the teacher in a noisy classroom. They often scramble the two messages being received by each ear.*
Electrophysiological Tests	A battery of neuro-audiological and radiological tests for assessing the integrity of the central nervous system	The tests are too complex to discuss here. Audiologists arrange and explain these tests in detail, if they are required.	Within this battery is testing that can provide invaluable information in the process of separating learning disability from AD/HD and is often instrumental in diagnosing short-term memory problems or frontal lobe inefficiency.

*The right ear links to the left hemisphere where the bulk of language processing is performed. The neural pathway to the left ear link is neurologically different. It goes first to the right hemisphere and then to the left brain. (Tomatis, 1991)

In learning-disabled children the right ear pathway is not as developed as in normal children. Tomatis and others have all recognized that for optimal language development in the young child, the right ear should be dominant. The dichotic speech test and the time ordering tests are important diagnostic tools for evaluating this feature.

In addition to these are another eleven categories of speech/language tests that may be administered:

The development of accessible auditory diagnostic tests has, for the first time, made diagnosis of CAPD in gifted children possible. Once diagnosed, strategies can be used to improve the effectiveness of learning for these children in a traditional auditory teaching classroom.

Bellis, T. (1996). Assessment and Management of Central Auditory Processing Disorders in the Educational Setting: From Science to Practice. San Diego: Singular Publishing Group.

Ferre, J.M. (1997). Processing Power: A Guide to CAPD Assessment and Management. San Antonio, Texas: The Psychological Corporation.

Kartz, J. (1992). "Classification of Auditory Processing Disorders." In Katz, J., Stecker, N.A. Henderson, D.
(Eds). Central Auditory Processing: A Transdisciplinary View. St Louis: Mosby Year Book, pp. 81-92.

Tomatis, Alfred. (1991). The Conscious Ear. Barrytown, NY: Station Hill Press.

Wolf, M. (1991). "Naming Speed and Reading." The Contribution of the Cognitive Sciences Reading Research Quarterly. 26, 123-141.

Kay Pittelkow is the parent of a gifted and a twice-exceptional child. In addition, she is the co-author of the book Discovering the Gifts and Talents in Your Child (2000). This article is a product of the extensive research that she did on gifted children, particularly underachieving gifted children. Her goal in publishing it is to make relevant research on medical and education issues more accessible to parents and non-academic educators. Kay currently works for a pharmaceutical company and does sculpture, makes shoes, and writes in her “spare” time.

CAPD and the Gifted Child

Excerpted and adapted with permission from “CAPD and the Gifted Child: The Relevance of Central Auditory Processing Deficit to Gifted Education”
by Kay Pittelkow
www.nswagtc.org.au/info/articles/PittelkowCAPD.html

November, 2006

CAPD and the Gifted Child

Excerpted and adapted with permission from “CAPD and the Gifted Child: The Relevance of Central Auditory Processing Deficit to Gifted Education” by Kay Pittelkow www.nswagtc.org.au/info/articles/PittelkowCAPD.html

November, 2006

Excerpted and adapted with permission from “CAPD and the Gifted Child: The Relevance of Central Auditory Processing Deficit to Gifted Education”
by Kay Pittelkow
www.nswagtc.org.au/info/articles/PittelkowCAPD.html