Central Auditory Processing Disorder

May 5, 2023

Learn what Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD) is, the causes, and the telltale signs that a child or person has it. Why a CAPD test is necessary. Read on…

CAPD is thought to affect almost 5% of school aged children. People affected by CAPD have normal hearing, meaning that their outer, middle and inner ear are all working well, but they are unable to process what is being heard. For children, CAPD will be more obvious when the child is in a noisy environment or when they are given a number of instructions at once. This can affect how the child performs in class.

What are the signs that a child or person has CAPD?

Difficulty following, understanding or remembering verbal instruction
Difficulty listening in a noisy situation
Easily distracted or inattentiveness
Difficulty remembering events or taking down notes
Difficulty understanding people talking quickly
Difficulty reading, spelling or comprehending
Difficulty multi-tasking (taking down notes while listening to the teacher)
Difficulty understanding sarcasm or jokes

What are the causes of CAPD?

The causes of CAPD are still unknown. But what we do know is that CAPD involves changes in the way the brain processes sound, but we don’t know why this happens. It is also not clear if the child is born with CAPD or if it develops after birth. It is also known that children affected with ear infections in multiple occasions are the most susceptible to developing CAPD.

What is CAPD Assessment?

CAPD will not show up in a standard hearing test. A specific test for CAPD is done to assess the auditory processing skills in addition to hearing ability. Before doing the assessment, an extensive case history is taken and a hearing test to rule out hearing loss is done. In an auditory processing assessment, an audiologist will perform a series of tests to determine if the person is able to listen to speech in background noise, repeat a series of words or numbers, listen to words coming to both ears at the same time, ignore words from one side and focus on the other side. Each test assesses one or more auditory function and is age appropriate. Given that the tests are quite complex, the assessments are usually done in 2-3 hours. And due to the complexity of the tests, only children who are 7 years old and above can be tested. Diagnosing CAPD can be difficult because some signs of CAPD can also be due to problems with attention, speech, language and learning in general. Many disorders present behavioral characteristics similar to CAPD that can cause the listener to perform poorly on behavioral central auditory function tests and/or exhibit similar functional listening difficulties (Ferre, 2014). With a multi-disciplinary approach, working with audiologists, speech pathologists, psychologists, doctors and even teachers can ensure that the patient receives the right diagnosis and care.