What do you do once you child has received a diagnosis of CAPD? Your son or daughter has been struggling in school and then, finally after what is often several months you get an actual diagnosis. Now that you have the diagnosis, whether the diagnosis is CAPD, ADD, ADHD, dyslexia or any other learning disability what do you do? How can you help your child improve their learning problems as quickly and easily as possible?
You have all kinds of conflicting emotions running through you. On one hand, you are relieved to have identified the learning problems your child has. On the other hand, you want to know all there is to know about the problem and fast so you can help your child overcome it as quickly as possible.
I believe the real key to living with any learning disability, be it a dyslexia, a visual processing problem, CAPD, or any other auditory processing problem, is to have a complete understanding of its nature, how it impacts learning and finally, what you can do about it.
With that in mind, CAPD is a physical disorder under the protection of the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act). The majority of kids with CAPD do have normal hearing but their ability to process auditory information is compromised. The difficulties they exhibit can range from mild to severe and can take a variety of forms.
Here are a variety of symptoms of CAPD:
Your child:
Is usually disturbed by loud or sudden noises
Does not do well in noisy environments
Does better in quieter settings, both behaviorally and performance
Has trouble with following directions, especially auditory directions
Often has reading, spelling, writing, or other speech-language difficulties
Has difficulty comprehending abstract information
Is usually forgetful and disorganized
Has a hard time following conversations
This is just a short list of possible CAPD symptoms. A lot of these symptoms can also be found in other learning disabilities as well as attention deficit disorder (ADD or ADHD). It is even possible to have both CAPD and a learning disability or ADD or a specific language impairment. Your child must be evaluated individually by an audiologist to determine if they have CAPD.
There are five main problems that come into play with CAPD:
Auditory Figure-Ground Problems can lead to issues with instructions that are only auditory because students may not be able to separate the instruction from background conversations.
Auditory Memory Problems can lead to difficulties in retaining or recalling auditory experiences or directions. Some students find it hard to recognize auditory stimuli they have heard before; others remember hearing the stimuli, but cannot reproduce it accurately. When given a list of things to do, some children remember only the first direction, some only the last. Auditory memory problems can also lead to low factual knowledge.
Auditory Discrimination Problems can lead to difficulties in acquiring, understanding, and using spoken language. Discrimination problems can also lead to poor spelling.
Auditory Visual Coordination Problems can lead to the inability to watch and listen, or listen and copy at the same time. It is very difficult to complete these tasks simultaneously. This leads to problems in taking notes and proceeding along with oral reading. Other areas that may be affected are listening and envisioning what needs to be done at the same time.
Auditory Language Association & Classification Problems can lead to difficulties with holding two or more concepts in relationship to each other, identifying and verbalizing concepts and making inferences from conversations or understanding verbal math problems.
So, what do you do to help your child?
You want to find materials that will address those specific auditory problems of your child and at the same time, give more bang when he/she spends times working on those particulars areas of perception causing the difficulty. In other words, you want to use a reading program and writing program that not only teaches specific skills such as spelling, reading/listening comprehension, note-taking, or writing but also addresses the areas of auditory processing that the child with CAPD has.
Bonnie Terry, M. Ed., BCET
Bonnie Terry, M. Ed., Board Certified Educational Therapist #10167
Bonnie Terry, M. Ed., BCET is a Learning Disabilities Specialist. http://bonnieterrylearning.com. Ms. Terry helps parents identify, understand, & address the underlying causes of their child’s learning problems. Bonnie has designed a variety of books, games, and guides to make learning reading, writing, spelling, English, and math easy even if you are Dyslexic, have a learning disability, or are ADHD.
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