Auditory Processing Disorder

Parent Cafe
1

Hello, some of you may remember me. I joined this site when I was a freshman in college and I was pretty active back in the day. I graduated from Goucher College last year (May '16) with a double major in Theatre and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. I’ll be attending grad school this fall. I’ll be getting a MA in Gender and Women Studies. I graduated cum laude, 3.5 GPA, and Honors in Theatre. I was teaching English in South Korea for several months and now I’m back in Metro Atlanta. I studied abroad in Australia for a semester when I was at Goucher.

I actually started my college career at Knox in IL. I withdrew my sophomore year during Fall Term after being severely depressed and anxiety written. Knox is in the middle of cornfields and the environment made me depressed. Towson/Baltimore was a much better fit. I actually had a mental breakdown in October '13 the weekend before a French listening test. I had a nervous breakdown over this one exam. Though, I never struggled in college academically at Knox or Goucher except for French. At Knox, I started over in French and had an A in the class before I withdrew. At Goucher, we had 110, 120, and 130. I was placed into 110, but the professor thought I was in between 110 and 120. Since I transferred second semester sophomore year, I didn’t want to take three semesters of a foreign language. I took 120 pass/no pass, but always struggled when it came to the listening tests, vocabulary, speaking, etc. I had speech as a child and was able to use documentation from elm school to get out of French 130. Speech is hereditary for my family.

Since I transferred Spring Semester sophomore year at Goucher, I had a hard time finding friends. Most of my friends were in the theatre and women studies department. It was an adjustment switching from trimesters to a semester calendar, but I excelled academically. Socially, it was a different story. Personally I found the student body at Goucher very pretentious. Most students were from NY and New England. Peers would brag about money all the time. One friend from NYC told me she should learn how to drive my '96 Nissan because “it’s a piece of ■■■■”. I’m much closer to my Knox friends to this day. If Knox was moved from Galesburg, IL to Towson, MD, I would have loved it. I had a lot of friends at Knox and I knew everyone. Knox also had a larger international student body population which I loved. Don’t get me wrong I’m proud to be a Goucher alum, but I also struggled with depression at Goucher. I transferred so it would be a “better fit” and it was nothing but. I took summer classes in GA and a lot of 18 credit hours, so I would graduate on time since I basically withdrew from Knox Fall term.

Anyways, I am going to grad school this fall. I’m moving to MN. I remember back in the day on CC someone thought I may have APD. Socially, a lot of people tell me I’m a horrible listener. I literally cannot listen. This has affected me more so socially than academically, but I have to tune out people. People would assume I’m just self absorbed, but I could not help it. I’m more so worried this disorder may affect future employment than grad school. I never needed extra time in undergrad. academically.

However, I got a 1420 (2400) on the SAT and 18 on the ACT. I have always been a horrible test taker. I have anxiety too which has never been treated. I applied to mostly SAT Optional Colleges and CTCL’s. When I looked at the symptoms for APD, I know I just have it. My dad has ADD, but I have no problem focusing when it comes to school work or when I watch a film. I can read for hours. I excel when I write papers and I rather write a 20 page essay than take a test any day. My problems are more social than anything. Academically, I’ve always hated math and science. I took Statistics at a local college here in GA and got a B, but I had to teach myself a lot of the steps. I really want to speak French and visited France for 3 weeks back in 2011 before senior year. I always excelled in writing French in both college and high school. In college, I would get a B on the writing part of the exam but I would fail all the French listening questions and would get around a C with speaking as I struggled with speech as a kid.

https://ldaamerica.org/types-of-learning-disabilities/auditory-processing-disorder/

I look at these symptoms & I know I have this. I want help, but I’m not sure where to go from here. Hope everyone has a great Sunday.

2

My 14 year old has auditory processing deficit. It was picked up early-- in grade 1 or 2 I think.

She works a few times a week with a the school audiologist, and it’s been great. The audiologist helps her with strategies on how to work around her processing issues.

Check with your MD for suggestions, but in the absence of those I would start with an audiologist.

Good luck.

3

Start with an audiologist who will do all of the testing. Good luck!

4

I will tell you that my daughter’s symptoms seem to be vastly different from yours. K has always had issues with reading. She hears fine. But between her ears and her brain, the sounds get mangled-- she has NEVER been able to “sound out” a word. She’s great at math-- until you hit word problems. Foreign language-- she takes Italian-- seems a bit easier since the rules are more consistent than English.

I’m certainly no expert, but what you describe does not match what my daughter has experienced.

Make an appointment with an audiologist. And, in the meantime, here’s a great resource on Auditory Processing issues: http://www.simonandschuster.com/books/When-the-Brain-Cant-Hear/Teri-James-Bellis/9780743428644 You can get it at Barnes and Noble or Amazon.

5

My 11 year old son (also in Maryland) has Central Auditory Processing disorder (CAPD). He was diagnosed last year. He is highly gifted, and has always excelled in school, which masked detection for some time. His elementary school teachers felt he could possibly have had ADD, but we felt that ADD was way over-diagnosed (especially in young, active boys), and he was excelling in school.

Last year we had him formally tested for giftedness at the Gifted Development Center in Colorado. The director, Dr. Linda Silverman, has 30+ years experience with this population, and the center has the largest data base of gifted kids on file. They know all the tricks. My son tested in the exceptionally gifted range, but there were some discrepancies on his testing that suggested some kind of “interference” that was making it hard for him to consistently perform to his ability, and which was masked by his high IQ. ADD was a possibility, but Dr. Silverman felt that my son didn’t exhibit many of the characteristics of ADD, and felt that an auditory or sensory processing disorder masquerading as an attention issue was more likely.

Dr. Silverman directed us to the Able Kids Foundation in Colorado Springs, which apparently is the world leader in diagnosing CAPD (apparently a lot of the research in this area was done at Colorado St. University in the 1970s):

http://www.ablekidsfoundation.org

They have people come from around the world, and had a long waiting list (3-6 months last year). I took my son back out in November and he was found to have a brainstem-level auditory processing disorder. It most likely explains many of my son’s issues in terms of testing, listening, and socialization. Besides the benefit of a diagnosis and understanding of the underlying disorder (and specific recommendations for school and testing in order to minimize distractions for excess auditory stimuli), they have a customized filter that can be fitted to filter out excess noise. The filter is reasonably inexpensive, and is worn in one ear. It is both physically fitted to the individual, and customized to screen based on the individual’s tested auditory processing issue, which can be either at the level of the brainstem or the auditory cortex (or both).

My understanding from Dr. Megan Locke, who directs the Able Kids Foundation, is that the auditory processing pathways develop over time, but are generally fixed by age 16. My son may possibly grow out of his disorder; if @early_college still has it at this time, it is likely for life. The filter helps my son tremendously, and I would strongly suggest contacting Able Kids and arranging for testing.

6

My oldest D has APD. Like you she is a very strong reader and writer. We did not figure out her problem until she was 16 or 17.

I had just assumed it was ADHD but as she matured I realized she had a good attention span for many things and only zoned out while listening. She also misunderstood conversations and verbal instructions that became more obvious as she got older and more was expected of her.

There are different types of APD and you are going to need to find an audiologist who really is familiar with all of them. In fact, my D was given a screening by an audiologist as a younger and there were some abnormal results but the audiologist let it go and said it’s probably just ADHD. It was the full evaluation through the audiology program at a children’s hospital that made it clear. Meanwhile, she’s had extensive testing that ruled out ADHD.

Since you have a similar strengths and weaknesses as my oldest D, I’d be very curious about having your test results for dichotic listening and signal in noise.

My D is great listening one on one in a quiet environment and she is a musician. She was always a good speller but she learned to read and spell better with a visual, whole word approach after not having great success with phonics. She also has had anxiety.

FWIW, I think it would be hard to have APD and not have anxiety.

My D really needs to limit time spent in noisy environments, but she has learned to cope better with age, finding way to manage in noisy places where she really needs or wants to be. She also has learned to advocate for herself and speak up when she’s not sure if she understood correctly.

I wish you luck at finding a good audiologist.

7

Start with an audiologist who is EXPERIENCED AND HAS THE NECESSARY EQUIPMENT TO ASSESS for auditory processing disorder. Not all audiologist have this expertise.

In addition, the characteristics you describe actually can be part of a number of disorders…not just APD.

You might want to have a thorough neuropsychological evaluation completed.

The audiologist assessing for APD will want to know that OTHER things have been ruled out.

8

Thank you everyone for the responses. My mom is a reading recovery teacher & has taught for over 20 years. She has taught first and second grade mainly, but ESOL as well. She usually can spot learning difficulties and I never had any when I was growing up. My older brother was on an IEP and a very slow learner (never went to college). My younger brother is gifted and never had to try hard to earn good grades: it came natural. I always hard to work my ass off to do well in school.

Growing up, I just went to speech as a child as did my brothers (speech was also hereditary). But it was more so for my voice. I had polyps on throat & was told I couldn’t sing. I had my adenoids taken out at nine years old. I have a deviated septum since I was a young kid. I had to wait until I was 15 to have surgery. The septoplasty did not work and the cartilage remembered where it used to be. I need surgery again now. I’ve also been having trouble hearing since January. It feels like water is in my ear & I do get sinus infections from time to time. The ENT wants to have surgery this summer & wants to try this new procedure to open up my ears. I’m waiting to hear back from this summer fellowship though, so I’m not sure if I’ll have it. The ENT rated my deviated septum a 9/10 with 10 being the worst. We never had the money to have the surgery again, but one surgeon told my dad and I that if I had surgery on my nose then my nose may collapse.

When I lived in S. Florida, I was pretty average grade wise in elm school. When I moved to Metro Atlanta in fifth grade, I was put on an academic contract for math after I failed a quarter. It’s the only class I’ve ever failed in my life. In middle school, I got all A’s and B’s, but I was put in a remedial math elective in sixth grade due to my performance in fifth grade. I did fail the math CRCT in 7th grade and the science CRCT (a standardized GA test) in 8th. In 8th grade though, I had a 4.0 GPA and was already researching universities. I had the highest average in social studies (Georgia History) out of the entire team. I had actually one of the highest math averages and was put into accelerated math freshman year of high school.

I started 9th grade always taking all honors and AP Human Geography (got a 3 on the exam). I got a 4 on APUSH junior year as I’ve always been good at history. Geography especially comes natural to me and I almost won the seventh grade geo bee. I did drop down to college prep math sophomore year in high school because the honors course was too hard. I always got the highest math average in CP math & kids would always try to cheat off me. I just needed to learn math at a slower pace honestly & I prefer stats to algebra and I was a pretty fast learner when I took the stats class in GA. I got an A in high school honors chemistry & I was actually really good at stoichiometry. I would always do well on the tests, but badly on the finals. I tried to take AP Physics junior year, but it was too hard and I could barely do honors physics. I got a B- and C in honors physics…when I always got A’s & B’s in everything else. I graduated high school with a 3.5 weighted GPA and honors graduate.

In college, I took Contemporary Biological Issues (basically controversial science issues) & loved it and got an A- in the course at Knox, but when we took the one biology test…I got the lowest grade in the class. I was never great at biology. In high school, I had a 104% in AP Env Science yet got a 1 on the AP Exam. I also excelled at the one intro psychology course I took in college, but didn’t enjoy it. I prefer sociology and prob would have majored in ANSO had I stayed at Knox,

@MACmiracle in college, I had to do all my homework in my dorm room. Luckily I usually had single rooms, but I could never accomplish anything in the library where all my friends socialized. I cannot multitask. If anything, I’m very focused when I write papers and I need COMPLETE silence. If I hear even someone opening their door then I have to stop what I’m doing. I’m a slow reader, but like to complete assignments ahead of time. I’m very type A. When I had roommates, I had a lot of problems with noise. People ask why I always talk so loud (I have this NY persona to me), so maybe it’s my hearing along with the APD. I know at a small liberal arts college I excelled because most of my classes had the max 12 kids. When I studied abroad, I got all B’s (B was the lowest grade in my undergrad career) and it brought my GPA down a lot because the lecture courses at the University of Wollongong were very hard for me to follow and there wasn’t nearly as much guidance as liberal arts schools in the States & the whole grading system was very different as professors didn’t care how they graded you as long as you passed…I actually had to appeal one class because of unfair grading and it got approved as the professor gave me a C, but I ended up getting a B.

BTW I just turned 23 in April if it matters…I know socially people a lot of the time think I’m being rude or pretentious by “ignoring” them or acting like I’m not listening, but in reality I try to listen but I zone out when people would talk at college parties. I’m an extrovert, but a lot of the time had to stick to my dorm room because of how hard it would be for me to listen when meeting new people. At Goucher it was especially hard transferring mid-year while I was a sophomore.

9

I hope you can tell all this to a professional neuropsychologist and/or audiologist. I would consult the former first, but insurance issues may force you to the latter. If there is any possible medical reason behind your challenges, you may be able to get a full neuropsych. evaluation covered, but speak to a supervisor!

Google misophonia. At the very least, you have that :slight_smile: It can cause a lot of anxiety. I think that the misophonia causes anxiety, not the other way around, and changing your perspective on that may help.

10

Check your insurance plan. Sometimes an audiologist is viewed as “elective”. But do check.

And really…most important…the audiologist needs to be one who knows about, has interpreted test results, owns the equipment and tests…to assess for APD. This is a specialized field of audiology and all audiologists do NOT have this expertise.

The APD specialist audiologists I worked with required rule outs of things like ADHD, or any other disability that might be more prominent in terms of cause (autism spectrum disorder, for example).

The tests for this are very memory enhanced…so someone with attention or other issues that include attention issues…is going to have issues completing these tests.

11

Yes many posters suggested years ago that there was possibly/likely an underlying processing or learning issue. Often auditory processing issues do not exist in isolation but are a sub-symptom of something else more complex/comprehensive. I would suggest you get a complete neuropsychological evaluation to look at the symptoms in context not just look at them in isolation.

12

Just noticed ICross posted with thumper. Absolutely do not focus in on a very narrow symptom- it needs to be looked at in context of other issues. This is extremely important as you could easily miss other things that need to be addressed.as thumper said you have to rule in or rule out other issues. Looking at it in isolation would be a big mistake. Too many people read about stuff on the web and think they have the answer. This is also a big mistake. Let the experts address it and address it comprehensively.

13

I think when I was younger and less mature & I heard the term “learning disability” & I was in denial. I also have sleep apnea due to my deviated septum (my dad and grandma have it too). I’m having a sleep study and hearing test done soon. I wonder if my actual hearing has anything to do with APD? I just don’t understand how I could go to public school, college, and never have a teacher or my mom (who is a teacher) ever think I may have this. I know it’s possible it can be something else. I’ve been to a neurologist and I have been diagnosed with migraines and my mom gets them too but with blind-spots. I have a lot of trouble sleeping.

I’m unemployed right now in the midst of applying to this summer fellowship before grad school. I have my mom’s insurance, so hopefully it is covered because every penny right now is going towards grad school and the move to MN. It’s been a pretty tough journey since coming home from S. Korea in September.

@compmom I definitely have misophonia. Thank you so much

and @thumper1 what are the other number of disorders it can be? I know you’re not a neurologist, but just curious so I can research.

Just reading this online it sounds like a lot of the symptoms fit to the tea, but I agree with @jym626 I need a complete neuropsychological evaluation, my only concern is $$$ as I’m broke and paying off a lot of student debt. My friend from Goucher works at a neuro lab in Boston, I wonder if she could get me a free/discounted study in Boston haha.

14

What insurance plan are you on? The issue may not be coverage, it may be the ability tomget an appointment before you leave. Where in MN will you be? Also, please don’t self diagnose. Let the experts do that.

15

Firstly, have you had a hearing exam by an audiologist?

At the audiology department we used, you have to go through a full audiology and hearing exam and have a normal or close to normal result before getting approved for an auditory processing evaluation.

It sound like you may very well have hearing issues due to a medical problem and may not qualify for an APD eval until your ENT issues are resolved.

Secondly, @thumper1 has made excellent points.

Where my D was finally diagnosed, they will not evaluate kids for APD if there is autism spectrum disorder or untreated ADHD.

With ASD, APD is nearly universal so they won’t separately diagnose APD.

With untreated ADHD, it would be hard for the results to be reliable due to imperfect attention.

I have mixed feelings about neuropsych evals with regard to APD. They can rule out ADHD and ASD, assuming the np is good, and for females, familiar with the presentation of these disorders in females. However, np’s can’t diagnose or even pick up every subtype of APD and can’t replace an audiologist.

I agree with @jym626 about the importance of thorough evaluations and looking at the big picture.

It is true that APD doesn’t often occur in isolation. It can come with developmental disorders and can be the result of ear problems. There is a known connection between a history of middle ear infections, and it really sounds like that should be investigated first in the OP’s case. After that I’d rule out ADHD and ASD.

16

Yes, an audiologist who specializes in CAPD testing. As stated by others, only a fraction of audiologists do this and have the necessary materials. I would say that perhaps as few as 1 in 50 audiologists can do this testing, perhaps 2-4 total in a major metropolitan area. It is quite specialized. Tests involve figuring out how the brain interprets sounds to each ear separately and together. A standard hearing evaluation is also part of the test battery, as obviously one would want to rule out a hearing loss.

A psychologist would NOT be able to do this testing. It is in the scope of practice of an audiologist and requires a sound booth and special audio recordings. Great call on the book, @bjkmom!

The utility of testing adults for CAPD is under debate, the question being, what do you do about it if you do discover it?

(Misophonia is an aversion to sounds like people chewing. It is not simply being distracted by sounds.)

17

I have Blue Cross Blue Shield @jym626 . I’m going to Minnesota State University, Mankato. It’s about an hour and a half south of Minneapolis.

My septoplasty will be in July if I don’t get this fellowship, but I’ll have to delay the surgery if I get this fellowship. The procedure will be a bit more complicated since the first surgery didn’t work. I haven’t had the hearing test done yet because he wants the sleep study completed first. If my sleep apnea is too severe, he told me I can’t even have the septoplasty.

When I’ve researched APD, it seems much more common in kids. Is it rare to not notice this until 23 or do some people live their whole lives with APD and never know about this disorder? I’m not trying to self-diagnosis just a bit curious as well.

I know as someone who has acted as a kid, I used to memorize lines with ease and it came very naturally. The older I got the more anxiety I got when I went on stage & last year when I acted in Goucher’s senior project and had a pretty big role, it was impossible for me to memorize all my lines. I also had a very hard time listening to my peers while they were saying their lines. Another example is when the phone rings in the beginning of the play, I’m supposed to pick it up as I was a morning clerk at a hotel. I could never get the cue right with the sound and we practiced for months… Because of my anxiety, I began to focus more on theatre history, dramaturgy, performance art, etc.

18

BC/BS pop, pos or HMO? And it will depend on the diagnostic sos code used and the purpose of the evaluation (for diagnostic and treatment purposes, not for educational purposes) and as others hav reinforced, the comorbid ssues need to be ruled out first. Good luck.

19

HMO @jym626

thanks for the advice!

20

That should say BC/BS ppo. Autocorrected in error and it depends also on the diagnostic code ('don’t know how “sos” got in there )