


This paper covers three areas of Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD). First, a brief definition of the disorder is provided. Next, diagnosis is explained, with common characteristics, or “red flags”. Finally, the paper concludes with ways that a teacher in a mainstreamed classroom environment can assist a student with CAPD.

	Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD), or Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) “refers to the efficiency and effectiveness by which the central nervous system (CNS) utilizes auditory information. Narrowly defined, (C)AP refers to the perceptual processing of auditory information in the CNS and the neurobiologic activity that underlies that processing and gives rise to electrophysiologic auditory potentials” (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 2005), meaning it is a disorder wherein the central nervous system (i.e. the brain) cannot properly process things that are heard. People with CAPD can hear normally, and are therefore not considered “hearing impaired”; rather, the area of the brain that translates what we hear, separating words or differentiating conversation from background noise does not function as it typically should. 

	The earliest mention of the disorder that became CAPD is from the mid-1950s, called “auditory imperception” (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 2005) when researchers were evaluating children with communicative disorders. The Italian research team of Bocca, Calearo, and Cassinari began developing tests for these children in 1954; in 1961, Kimura “introduced dichotic testing and formulated a model to explain the physiology of the CANS underlying dichotic perception” (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 2005). A national conference was held in 1977 that stimulated research on children with CAPD. 

	CAPD manifests itself in multiple ways: the person suffering may not be able to localize or hear sound in space; may have difficulty discriminating between two or more “acoustic events” (sound occurrences); may not be able to recognize sound patterns; may not be able to differentiate changes in speech (like detecting sarcasm based on change of voice); one sound may be blocked by a subsequent sound; may not have the ability to synthesize sound clues (that is, interpret in a meaningful way that they can then act upon); and may not be able to determine the sequence in which auditory information is presented (Ferre).

	In order to diagnose CAPD, the patient must be screened with “systematic observation of listening behavior and/or performance on tests of auditory function”, which may be conducted by “audiologists, SLPs, psychologists, and others using a variety of measures that evaluate auditory-related skills” (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 2005). This may include questionnaires and surveys, observation of auditory behaviors, including how the patient responds to certain stimuli. There is, at this time, no one tool or test that is used consistently to a high rate of diagnostic success, and there is no known cause for the disorder. Many tests used present the patient with multiple, simultaneous auditory stimuli and then ask for them to differentiate certain items, like a series of words or numbers. More advanced tests include recording acoustic signals within the ear and measuring the responses to the signals. 