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CENTRAL AUDITORY PROCESSING DISORDER

WHAT IS CENTRAL AUDITORY PROCESSING DISORDER

Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD) is the deficit in neural processing of auditory stimuli that is not due to higher language or cognitive related factors. CAPD causes difficulties in everyday listening situations that often manifest as trouble hearing in noise, following oral directions, and/or paying attention that cannot be remediated by restoring audibility. Causes of CAPD include: Unknown cause, stroke, head trauma, brain tumour, multiple sclerosis, Recurrent ear infections, Socioeconomic background, HIV and neural degeneration especially in adults.

Some behaviours that are associated with CAPD include: Normal hearing, responding inconsistently to auditory stimulus.

Unable to follow auditory instructions, become frightened and upset when exposed to loud noise, difficulty following long or complicated verbal commands or instruction frequently request that information is repeated. Some red flags to help identify if your child may be presenting with CAPD include: Poor reading, writing and spelling skills, not paying attention or is daydreaming during class, child who learn better by visually, mishearing the words, does not participate in class discussion, misunderstand homework, assignments, fails to follow direction, can not tolerate a noisy room, become fidgety in loud/noisy places (at the gym, playground, cafeteria).

By Lauren Sarchi

Impacts of CAPD

CENTRAL AUDITORY PROCESSING DISORDER (CAPD)

CENTRAL AUDITORY PROCESSING DISORDER (CAPD)

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Facts about CAPD

  • Prevalence is 2 to 20%
  • 2:1 male-female ratio
  • Input disorder
  • Should be evaluated following maturation at age 7
  • Receptive language and word retrieval problem
  • Difficulty with metacognitive language
  • Diagnosed by a battery of audiological tests
  • Management includes signal enhancement, modification of environment
  • May need social skills training
CENTRAL AUDITORY PROCESSING DISORDER

Impacts of CAPD

  • Difficulty understanding a teacher in a noisy classroom
  • Difficulty understanding speech in everyday listening situations at home and school
  • Parents often complain that the child cannot understand them when the television is on
  • The teacher will complain of the child’s inability to follow directions, distractibility, and general unruliness.
  • Elderly patients with APD will experience substantially greater difficulty hearing than would be expected from their degree and configuration of hearing loss
  • Difficulty will be exacerbated in the presence of background noise
  • In cells begin to die. This can lead to brain injury, disability and possibly death.

It is important to identify if children are not reaching their speech and language milestones in order to understand if a speech and language assessment is necessary. Early intervention will provide your child with stimulating exercises and activities that target specific and age appropriate language goals. Intervening early can ultimately differentiate between a language delay and a language disorder.

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Children often do not get the attention that they need being in a classroom and they therefore receive limited individual support. We assist in helping children who are struggling with articulation errors (E.g. wabbit/rabbit) as well as phonological errors (lellow/yellow) improve their overall speech. Language disorders can also occur in children, some occur with a known cause and some with no known cause. Some language disorders such as, a motor speech disorder can be treated using a specialized technique known as PROMPT, this assists the child to learn motor planning. Our therapists are PROMPT trained and are able to provide this service.

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Individuals can have many difficulties post stroke such as communicating verbally, reasoning, higher order thinking, problem solving, reading, writing etc. Speech therapy targets specific areas of difficulties and aims to alleviate these difficulties in the most patient centered and encouraging way possible. Rehabilitation and providing individuals with the skills of independence to be able to participate socially and vocationally in communities is a goal and priority of mine.

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Swallowing disorders are common in individuals who have suffered neurological damage for example, individuals who have suffered a stroke, traumatic brain injury, dementia or parkinson’s disease. Swallowing disorders can cause feeding and eating to be extremely difficult and uncomfortable.  Individuals with swallowing disorders are at severe risk for malnutrition and dehydration. Dysphagia can cause a negative experience around feeding time. This can further impact the way in which individuals feel about food and/or can cause food aversions. Speech therapy assists with alleviating these difficulties by providing swallowing rehabilitation, strengthening exercises and compensatory strategies.

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As the suck-swallow reflex only develops at 34 weeks in utero, babies born before then may have poor co-ordination, poor endurance and present with a weak suck. This results in the neonate being at a higher risk for complications during feeding times. Speech therapy will provide the caregiver with the skills necessary to perform oral-motor exercises for the neonate, aiming to strengthen the suck and improve the endurance. We also provide further support to mothers by ensuring that they have a pool of information regarding feeding as well as providing breastfeeding support and advice.

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Hearing is a vital part of communication. In children the ability to hear is critical for their development. Hearing precedes the development of speech and if a child cannot hear they will not be able to grasp language. I offer hearing assessments for individuals of all ages. The hearing assessment includes a visual inspection of the ear, testing of middle ear function as well as testing of cochlea function. This is important to identify If there may be a hearing difficulty present. Knowledge about your hearing status is vital. We are able to fit hearing, clean and repair hearing aids in the comfort of your own home.

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