#AUDITORY PROCESSING DISORDER AND ADHD IN ADULTS PROFESSIONAL#

#AUDITORY PROCESSING DISORDER AND ADHD IN ADULTS PROFESSIONAL#

These are better at locating the site of the problem and reducing the effects of language sophistication on the test results.ĭo your best to choose a professional who is familiar with CAPDs, is comfortable working with adults, and who can write a useful and understandable report.

The most accurate way to sort out CAPDs from other problems that mimic them, however, is through clinical audiologic tests of central nervous system function. These include tests of auditory memory (for sentences, nonsense syllables, or numbers backward), sequencing, tonal pattern recognition or sound blending, and store of general information (which is most often acquired through listening). Some of the tests used by educational therapists, neuropsychologists, and educational psychologists give at least an indication that a CAPD might be present. It takes specialized testing to identify a CAPD. Advice like “Pay attention,” “Listen,” or “Don’t forget -,” hasn’t helped either. The resulting behaviors can mask the real problem and complicate not only school and work, but even close relationships, where communication is so important. Often the exact cause is not known.Ĭhildren and adults whose auditory problems have not been recognized and dealt with are forced to invent their own solutions. In some cases the disorder is acquired from a head injury or severe illness. These “short circuits in the wiring” sometimes run in families or result from a difficult birth, just like any learning disability (LD). When we receive distorted or incomplete auditory messages we lose one of our most vital links with the world and other people.

Instead, it affects the hearing system beyond the ear, whose job it is to separate a meaningful message from non-essential background sound and deliver that information with good clarity to the intellectual centers of the brain (the central nervous system). People with CAPDs (which are usually part of a learning disability) have been embarrassed by situations and reactions like these all their lives.Ī CAPD is a physical hearing impairment, but one which does not show up as a hearing loss on routine screenings or an audiogram. Most of us aren’t that sophisticated about CAPDs, however, and are much more likely to wonder if the listener is just not very intelligent or doesn’t really care about us and what we are saying. You might begin to suspect this when the other person’s expression doesn’t register understanding, or if he “answers the wrong question,” or he asks you for additional information which most people would have been able to infer from what you just said. The easiest, quickest way to communicate is simply to say something and then deal with the other person’s reply, right? Right, unless your listener has a CAPD (Central Auditory Processing Disorder), then your remark might come through with certain words drowned out by other noises, or with some words sounding like different words or as meaningless strings of verbiage.

Auditory processing disorder and adhd in adults