#Auditory processing disorder and adhd how to

For example, say the words: “dessert” and “desert” (the place with lots of sand!). Can left hemisphere APD interfere with social and academic success? Absolutely! Right hemisphere auditory processing disorders involve the ability to process the intonation and the rhythm of language.

Also, these children may struggle to process auditory information in the presence of background noise. For example, the child may hear “I have a pit bull” for “I have a pimple.” You can see how this might cause the child to respond inappropriately! These children are often left behind in the listening dust as they try to keep up with the conversation. In left hemisphere APD, the brain has difficulty rapidly distinguishing speech sounds in sequence.

But I will also provide some great resources if you would like to learn more about APD.įirst, what is an auditory processing disorder? The official (and quite technical) definition comes from the American Speech-Language Hearing Association ( For brevity’s sake, let’s just say a good working definition for APD is: “What the brain does with what it hears.” To simplify, think of the brain’s listening system in terms of “left brain”, “right brain” and “cross-brain” skills.

#Auditory processing disorder and adhd how to

Our partnership was one of the highlights of my career - to this day I could spend hours chatting over coffee about this most fascinating topic! For our purposes today, however, I’d like to offer a quick APD overview: what it is, how to spot symptoms, how to obtain a diagnosis, and how to address it. But down at the clinical trench level, I collaborated closely for many years with a very knowledgeable audiologist, and together, using a variety of testing tools and observations, we were able to peer into children’s listening systems beyond the behavioral level and get to the brain level, pinpointing specific areas of difficulty, and thus suggest the appropriate strategies to help that children process auditory information more successfully. Auditory processing is a huge and complex topic experts are still quibbling about precise definitions and symptoms. The lack of awareness and misinformation about many childhood challenges is still alarmingly high, but auditory processing disorder is exceptionally misunderstood. One such disorder, auditory processing disorder (APD), may be present, but overlooked. They assume the behavior is willful, when, in fact, that child may be struggling with a delay or disorder beyond their control. But it’s far from unique, as adults still often chastise students for “not listening”.

This incident happened to my son, many years ago. The teacher slams her book on the desk, jabs an index finger toward David, a student in the back of her sixth-grade classroom, shouts: “Young man, I said it once – I am NOT going to say it again! You need to listen the first time!” David lowers his head, making a mental note not to speak in Mrs. Green, could you repeat that please? I didn’t quite get that.” This study further supports the need for increased collaboration of those professionals who work with these children given the extent of overlap of language and behavioral difficulties in this sample.“Mrs. No significant differences emerged across cognitive, auditory, or language measures. In contrast, it was found that the sample as a whole demonstrated impaired language abilities. Furthermore, there was a low incidence of any other behavioral disorder in this sample. 001), not all children with CAPD demonstrated behaviors consistent with diagnostic criteria for ADHD. Results indicate that although the incidence rate of ADHD (50%) in this sample significantly exceeds that found in the normative population (p <.

In addition, rating scales were completed by teachers and structured interviews were completed with parents. The current study explored the incidence of ADHD in a group of 30 children who met diagnostic criteria for CAPD.Ĭonsecutive referrals specifically for this project were assessed on a variety of measures. These findings have raised the question of whether ADHD and central auditory processing disorder (CAPD) represent a singular disorder. Research has indicated that children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) demonstrate significant difficulty on tasks used to assess central auditory processing skills.