Auditory Processing Disorder

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by Eileen Bailey
Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Our brains take in sound waves, change them to electrical energy and then interpret the sound to something meaningful. When someone has an auditory processing disorder, (also referred to as central auditory processing disorder - CAPD) somewhere, this sequence of events does not work correctly, either in the actual processing of the sound or the interpretation of the sound. Hearing is not a cause of auditory processing disorder. Most people with APD have normal hearing.

There are a few different problem areas for people with APD. As with other learning disabilities, each person may not experience difficulty in all of these areas and may experience difficulty in varying degrees.

Difficulty Distinguishing Sounds

People with APD may have difficulty in distinguishing similar sounds. For example, a person may not hear the difference between "chair" and "hair" or have a hard time distinguishing the difference, especially in conversation. This skill is needed in learning to read and may cause delays or difficulties in reading development. People with difficulty in this area may seem to hear but appear not to listen when other people speak

Difficulty in Noisy Environments

People with APD may have a hard time distinguishing sounds they should be listening to from background noise. For example, if someone is speaking in an environment with additional noise in the background, the listener may not be able to distinguish the sounds they should be listening to from the sounds they should ignore.

Difficulty with Recalling Sequencing

People with APD may experience problems remembering the order of words or numbers that have been spoken. For example, someone may reverse or confuse digits, repeating back "23" instead of "32." This may also cause problems in remembering the order or sequence of oral directions or instructions and changing the sequence of a list.

Diagnosing Auditory Processing Disorder

Parents generally will talk with their pediatrician or family doctor about concerns if they are noticing symptoms of APD. Often, the pediatrician will run tests to rule out other possible causes of the problem and may refer the child to an ENT (Ears, Nose and Throat specialist) to rule out hearing loss. In some cases, the doctor may refer the child to an otolaryngologist (doctor specializing in diseases and disorder of the head and neck).

Normally a diagnosis of auditory processing disorder is made by an audiologist. The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders [1] indicates the following tests are often used: 

• Determining the softest sounds and words a person can hear
• Determining how well a person recognizes sounds in words and sentences
• Determining how well a person can distinguish sounds, by giving different sentences, at the same time, in both ears 

These tests help an audiologist identify the specific processing problem the person may be having.