Auditory Processing Disorder

The Cayman Islands’ Only Auditory Processing Disorder Testing Center

Do you know what a conundrum is? A conundrum is a difficult or vexing question without an easy answer. It often involves solving a puzzle, which is exactly what is involved in diagnosing auditory processing disorder (APD).

The problem is that individuals with APD show normal hearing from a hearing assessment, but they really aren’t able to make sense out of what they’re hearing, making it difficult to recognize without further investigation.

Unfortunately, APD has a significant impact on the cognitive and social development of children, impeding language development and academic progress and is often misdiagnosed. Cayman Hearing Center includes auditory processing disorder testing as another means of providing full-service hearing care to the Cayman Islands.

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What Is APD? 

Often called central auditory processing disorder (CAPD), auditory processing disorder relates to how the brain processes speech.

Though a person might demonstrate normal hearing during a hearing test, ADP involves a coordination issue between the auditory pathway and the central auditory system of the brain.

  

While a person with APD hears what someone says, they struggle to decipher the meaning of what was said. 

Making matters worse, conversations in an environment with background noise, multiple conversations at the same time, or when not facing the speaker make it difficult for individuals with APD struggle to detect the subtle differences between words like cat, bat and that, or seventy and seventeen, as well as thousands of other words with similar sounds. 

There are four categories of processing skills that are limited or lacking in people who struggle with auditory processing disorder:
    • Auditory discrimination: noticing, comparing, and distinguishing between separate sounds.
    • Auditory figure-ground discrimination: focusing on the important sounds in a noisy setting.
    • Auditory memory: recalling what they heard (short or long term)
    • Auditory sequencing: understanding and recalling the order of sounds and words

APD leads most people to assume that they or their loved one is experiencing a hearing loss, but when hearing tests turn up normal, identifying the cause presents them with a conundrum.

APD Is Most Prominent in School-Aged Children

Auditory processing disorder is a developmental disorder that is most prominent in school-aged children. It often runs hand-in-hand with dyslexia and is frequently misdiagnosed as ADHD or vice versa. Additionally, ADP is a common secondary diagnosis for individuals with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD, or autism).

The small percentage of adults who experience APD also struggle with a hearing loss and/or cognitive decline issues. For some of them, APD is a consequence of blast exposure that results in several neurological disorders and brain injuries in an estimated 15% of military veterans.

Signs/Symptoms of Auditory Processing Disorder

While it is certainly normal for kids to ignore their parents on occasion or to have a short attention span, when these are ongoing issues, they may not be behavioral problems but indicators of APD.

Slow to respond when spoken to

Strange response to questions or conversations

Frequently asking the speaker to repeat what they said

Completing some, but not all, steps in a series of instructions

Difficulty with spelling

Withdrawal in the classroom or during social activities

Extreme fatigue in the classroom or during social activities

Improved understanding when looking at the speaker in a one-on-one conversation

The inability to detect the subtle differences between words is a primary indicator of APD, but a person experiencing APD might also hear the words in a sentence out of order or scrambled. For example, the question “How are the chair and couch alike?” could be interpreted as “How the cow and hair are like?” which causes some obvious confusion

Diagnosing and Treating Auditory Processing Disorder

The first step in diagnosing auditory processing disorder involves ruling out hearing loss as a cause.

When a hearing test shows normal to near normal hearing, but a Hearing Handicap Inventory indicates that a person is struggling to make sense of various words and phrases, audiologists begin to suspect APD.

These tests can help diagnose ADP in children as young as three, but they are most often used with children seven years old or older. Innovative electrophysiology tests are also available to evaluate how the body responds to speech and provide additional information about what is going on in the central auditory system.

Input from parents, teachers, and other adults often provides the necessary information to assist with diagnosis in young children. Audiologists also use additional diagnostic tests like:
  • Auditory Figure-Ground Testing (speech understanding with background noise)
  • Auditory Closure Testing (the capacity to “fill in the gaps” of speech)
  • Dichotic Listening Testing (ability to understand meaningful speech that happens simultaneously)
  • Temporal Processing Testing (capacity to distinguish between similar speech sounds like “mat” and “pat”)
  • Binaural Interaction Testing (ability to identify the direction of sounds and localize them in a room)

How Is APD Treated?

The first step in diagnosing auditory processing disorder involves ruling out hearing loss as a cause.

Strategies to help with issues involving sound distinction, recall capacity, sorting out sounds in noisy environments, improving focus during conversation and other processing challenges are among the therapeutic options for treating APD.

Depending on the needs of the child, various types of assistive devices may also be recommended to help with understanding while limiting the impacts of background noise.

They provide your child with the building blocks to help them overcome the condition, improving school and workplace communication. If language development has been impacted by APD, your audiologist might also recommend speech and language therapy, like:

Boosting Phonological Awareness Skills

The Use of Inference
in Speech

Vocabulary
Enhancement

Comprehension
Improvement
Strategies

Social
Communication
Skills

Schedule an ADP Testing Appointment  

Your child’s growth and development in school and its affect on later life can be significantly impacted by ADP. Consequently, if you notice the signs and symptoms of auditory processing disorder in your child, time is of the essence. 

Contact Cayman Hearing Center to schedule a ADP testing appointment using the adjacent form and a member of our team will assist you. 

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FAQs

Related to Auditory Processing Disorder

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Can you test adults for auditory processing disorder (APD)?
Yes. Awareness of APD has become more widespread. However, many of the testing platform visuals are geared toward younger patients to maintain engagement, while performance and norms are based on age, allowing us to evaluate adults who may be experiencing APD.
Can you test infants or toddlers for APD?
Signs and symptoms of APD usually become more apparent in school-aged children. Consequently, APD evaluations are typically conducted at approximately five years of age or older.
Is APD testing invasive?
Not at all. Testing methods for APD are designed to feel more like you are playing a game on a tablet rather than taking part in any type of testing. While it appears to be all “fun and games,” it is measuring and collecting important data as you continue through the exercises.

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