Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD) – also known as Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) – is an umbrella term for a variety of disorders that result in a breakdown of the hearing process. In short, our brain cannot make sense of what our ears hear because the auditory signal is distorted in some way.

CAPD is said to affect about two to five percent of children, but the percentage is not precisely known. Children with CAPD display a number of behaviors similar to the symptoms associated with sensorineural hearing loss. For example, they may complain that they find it difficult to hear when the classroom is noisy. These behaviors may become apparent in the early school years, or at a later stage of the child's life, due to changes in the acoustic environment, or to increased academic demands.

As a result of their difficulty hearing in noise, children with CAPD may suffer from "auditory fatigue". Have you ever been in a noisy restaurant, cutlery and crockery clanging and lots of people talking? After a while, the effort of trying to hear in this environment can make you very tired. Could you imagine if this is what it was like for you every day? Sometimes it is just easier to stop trying to listen. This may happen to children with CAPD. They may "give up" and be labeled as lazy or withdrawn. They could also "act out" in an effort to divert attention from their inability to hear and process speech in the classroom.

Although children with CAPD generally have normal overall intelligence, if left untreated CAPD may lead to academic deficits in areas such as phonics, reading, and spelling. It may be the emergence of academic deficits that alert a teacher, parent or other professional to suspect CAPD.

. Routine audiological tests will not diagnose CAPD and pure tone audiometry results in this population are typically normal. If CAPD is suspected, the assessment will involve a variety of specialized audiological tests.

Why CAPD happen?

We don't know exactly what causes CAPD, but the neural pathways of the central auditory nervous system are involved in some way. The main factors that cause CAPD are:

• repeated otitis media
• Premature birth
• Intense fever in childhood
• head trauma
• Hyperbilirubinemia
• Genetic background
• …

Symptoms of CAPD

Symptoms of APD can range from mild to severe and can take many different forms. Some of these symptoms included below:

• Speaking loud
• Listening TV with the high volume
• Whispering
• Problems with listening in crowded places
• Continuous distraction with ambient noise
• Not understanding of words
• have difficulty following directions, whether simple or complicated
• reading, spelling, writing, or other speech-language difficulties
• disorganized and forgetful
• hard to follow conversations
• and …

Diagnosis

If you have seen these symptoms in your child, a consultation with an expert audiologist is recommended for accurate diagnosis and rehabilitation of CAPD. With over 15 years of experience in the field of CAPD and the use of experienced experts, the Newsha hearing institute is ready to provide on-site and non-attendance services for dear clients. The services of Newsha hearing institute are provided in 2 sections:

1. Screening and diagnosis of CAPD

Unlike many disorders that treatment of them is challenging, the most important challenge in the field of CAPD is its precise diagnosis. The correct diagnosis is important because of the similarity of symptoms with other symptoms such as learning disorder, hyperactivity, autism, auditory neuropathy, etc. These children sometimes receive inadequate diagnosis and treatment that ultimately causes the treatment ineffective.

According to this diagnostic principle, hearing tests and standard questionnaires are used to evaluate the probability of CAPD in a child. It can be determined whether the child has appropriate listening skills appropriate to his or her age?

If there is a possibility of CAPD based on the results, the next step is more accurate and more specific. Some of these tests are:

• Dichotic Tests
• The word identifying in noise test (WINT)
• Gap in Noise
• MLD

2. CAPD Rehabilitation

After a precise diagnosis of CAPD, it turns into a rehabilitation phase. Rehabilitation services of CAPD clinic are done in both classical and non-classic ways.

In classical rehab, techniques for improving binocular hearing skills, enhancing sound localization skills, improving the performance of word comprehension in crowded environments, and degrading techniques toward disturbing sounds are used.

Non-classical rehabilitation services include the use of a variety of audio therapies such as AIT, Tomatis, and brain sync (Hemi-sync).

Due to the prevalence of CAPD in various disorders, This clinic's services are appropriate for the following children:

- Autism spectrum

- Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

- Learning problems

- Language and speech delay problems

- Mental retardation or

- brain damage