What is a Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD)?

Auditory Processing (also called Central Auditory Processing) refers to the means by which we make sense of what we hear. “Auditory Processing Disorders” refers to the abnormal interaction of hearing, neural transmission and the brain’s ability to make sense of sound. People with auditory processing disorders may indeed have normal hearing, but they have difficulty understanding auditory information. This may be apparent by difficulty understanding speech in the presence of noise, problems following multi-step directions, and difficulty with phonics or reading comprehension, among other things. Parents, educators, physicians, speech-language pathologists and others realize the role that auditory processing plays in a child’s ability to learn, leading to an increase in referrals to audiologists with expertise in this area. Proper diagnosis can be made only after the completion of a battery of audiometric tests, administered by an audiologist. Individualized remediation programs are available to help strengthen auditory processing skills in diagnosed children and adults.