Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) is a condition that affects individuals’ ability to understand and interpret spoken communication due to the brain’s interpretation of sound. This disorder can lead to social and academic challenges, such as difficulty making friends and being considered “weird” by peers. Children with APD often struggle with understanding instructions, conversation, and banter, leading to difficulties in making friends as a child.
Auditory processing disorders can be influenced by sensory deficits across multiple modalities, including vision, hearing, touch, and olfaction. Adults with APD often have trouble at work, which may influence their listening skills. There are four auditory processing skills that people may struggle with: auditortory discrimination, noticing, comparing, and distinguishing between separate sounds.
Children with hearing loss often exhibit reduced psychosocial status compared to those with normal hearing, and it is reasonable to assume that psychosocial function is affected by APD. Children with APD often learn to stop asking clarifying questions when they don’t hear or understand something. They also struggle to keep up with conversations, as others will have responded by the time they hear and process what someone says on the playground.
Children with APD exhibit increased psychosocial difficulty in several areas compared to children without APD. They may miss the point of what others are saying, miss words in conversation, or have trouble following the conversation. Poor social skills are also common, as children with APD struggle to keep up with conversations in loud, active environments.
📹 Case Study:An Adult with Severe Auditory Processing Disorder (APD)
Jackie has told her story in the first two episodes of this channel. Now, see her pre and post test results on this case study video.
How does auditory processing disorder affect a person’s life?
Complications associated with APD include difficulties in learning, including reading and writing, and communication. These difficulties can give rise to anxiety and depression in individuals with APD.
What are the social issues with auditory processing disorder?
Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) is a condition where the brain does not process sound signals in the same way as a typically developing human being. It is present in children from a young age and can be developed in adults after traumatic experiences, such as war veterans. APD is often considered ‘weird’ by peers due to their non-responsiveness towards others. It is rarely discussed in mainstream media and is not a neurological condition but a different ‘wiring’ of the brain.
Does auditory processing disorder affect intelligence?
A study found that children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) did not differ qualitatively from those with dyslexia in their performance on psychometric tests of IQ, auditory processing, language, or literacy. However, children with APD showed a discrepancy between parent reports of poor communicative competence and relatively good performance on standardised language tests. The study suggests that pragmatic problems associated with ASD, which standardised tests are largely insensitive to, may partially explain this discrepancy.
A third of children with an APD diagnosis fell within the clinical range on a screening questionnaire for Asperger syndrome, though ASD had not been formally recognized for most of these cases. This finding deserves further investigation with a larger sample of children with suspected APD. Effective management might focus on remediating these children’s pragmatic difficulties. Many children with APD do have demonstrable learning problems, but it is unclear to what extent their reported listening problems are due to actual difficulties with auditory processing, language difficulties, or ASD.
How does APD affect learning?
Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) has a significant academic impact, as it hinders students’ ability to identify isolated sounds in language, leading to difficulties in reading and spelling. This can also result in difficulty in blending letters to decode or sound out words, affecting reading fluency and comprehension. The longer it takes to decode and read text, the less likely a student is to recall or understand what was read afterwards.
Additionally, the disorder can prevent students from recognizing repeated word usage, causing them to sound it out repeatedly. Furthermore, APD can lead to mental fatigue, as it affects learning in various ways.
How does auditory processing disorder affect relationships?
APD in adults can significantly impact their quality of life, causing communication difficulties, reduced socialization, relationships, and career prospects. If it’s a result of an injury, it may affect the ability to return to work. APD can make understanding difficult in noisy and group settings, reducing social confidence and causing fatigue. Hearing difficulties may be exacerbated when moving into new listening environments, such as an open plan office or university learning.
If one or more of these hearing or listening problems are present and standard hearing test results are normal, APD may be the cause. Other symptoms include difficulty following spoken directions, attending to and remembering information, slow processing, understanding in the presence of other sounds, and being overwhelmed by complex auditory environments.
Can sensory processing disorder affect social skills?
A child with sensory processing disorder (SPD) exhibits heightened reactivity to sound, touch, or movement, under-reactivity to certain sensations, and a lack of interest in others. They struggle with regulating their behavior and emotional responses, often exhibiting tantrums, impulsive behaviors, and poor attention and concentration. They also have poor motor skills, poor sleep patterns, restricted eating habits, and become distressed during self-care tasks.
The child loves movement but seeks intense pressure and avoids movement-based equipment. They appear floppy and have low muscle tone, often slumping in postures. They perform tasks with excessive force, move too fast, and write too light or hard. They have delayed communication and social skills, struggle with two-way interactions, prefer to play alone or struggle with transitioning between tasks.
Common difficulties experienced by a child with SPD include following instructions, expressing ideas and feelings, engaging in meaningful interactions, poor planning and sequencing, executive functioning, working memory, attention and concentration, organizational skills, gross and fine motor skills, behavioral difficulties, and poor play skills.
What are the coping skills of someone with auditory processing disorder?
Individuals with APD frequently develop their own coping strategies, such as lip-reading and establishing routines, from an early age, irrespective of whether they have received a formal diagnosis of APD. This process enables them to cope with the demands of daily life.
Does auditory processing disorder affect social skills?
Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) in children can lead to inattention, hyperactivity, and challenges with behavior, social skills, and academic achievement. Sensory overload, particularly in noisy environments, can cause hyperactivity. Fidgeting can help focus and process information. When APD and anxiety co-occur, it’s crucial to determine if APD causes anxiety or worsens the child’s ability to focus and process information.
Can auditory processing disorder affect IQ?
A study found that children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) did not differ qualitatively from those with dyslexia in their performance on psychometric tests of IQ, auditory processing, language, or literacy. However, children with APD showed a discrepancy between parent reports of poor communicative competence and relatively good performance on standardised language tests. The study suggests that pragmatic problems associated with ASD, which standardised tests are largely insensitive to, may partially explain this discrepancy.
A third of children with an APD diagnosis fell within the clinical range on a screening questionnaire for Asperger syndrome, though ASD had not been formally recognized for most of these cases. This finding deserves further investigation with a larger sample of children with suspected APD. Effective management might focus on remediating these children’s pragmatic difficulties. Many children with APD do have demonstrable learning problems, but it is unclear to what extent their reported listening problems are due to actual difficulties with auditory processing, language difficulties, or ASD.
Are you autistic if you have auditory processing disorder?
Autism and auditory processing disorders often overlap, with up to 80% of children with autism processing sounds in atypical ways. Research aims to understand brain-activity patterns associated with sound hypersensitivity and language difficulties in adolescents and young adults with autism. This understanding could lead to personalized interventions to support communication and improve quality of life, such as a participant watching Frozen with an EEG cap on.
How does sensory impairment affect you socially?
A lack of understanding by others can be attributed to social isolation. Those unfamiliar with hearing loss may perceive someone as aloof or rude due to their failure to respond to a friendly statement.
📹 Auditory Processing Disorder – Identifying Symptoms
Clinical Director, Devon Barnes, continues the discussion on Auditory Processing Disorder by explaining some of the major …
Wait, there’s TREATMENT for this?! Whaaaaaaaaaat… I’m not diagnosed, I’ve just plowed through life not understanding people on the phone and having an incredibly hard time in places with lots of human voices, like a restaurant. Also, a lot of guessing what people are saying based on context. I could get this worked on?! My mind is blown.
Notice the difference in Jackie’s body language between two articles. In the first she points one ear toward the speaking person (I do so), closes her eyes (I do so or just stare into empty space) and she’s so tense. In the second article she’s much more relaxed, she doesn’t have to move her whole body forward to focus on listening. Ah. I want it too
Thank you for this! I went to an ENT to have my hearing tested because I have found myself needing captions on tv, speakers near my head, and now in my new relationship I’m constantly saying “huh?” “What?” And he literally has to talk slowly into my ear sometimes. We’ve had fun with it, me telling him the wonky things I think he’s actually saying 😂, but it has also knocked my self confidence down… I feel like I’m either getting old or am a ditz. Welp, my ears were wax free, my hearing was well within normal, but I missed interpreting a word during the test. My doctor then told me about CAPD and has referred me to a specialist. Omg… reading about CAPD in adults has made me feel so much better! I’m about to turn 40 and I really thought maybe I’m just losing my hearing or memory. This is explaining so so much and I feel so much better now. Anyhoo… thank you for sharing your knowledge!
Before I was diagnosed with ADHD (in my late 20s) I thought I was going deaf! Im a doctor and I would stand in a noisy ICU and have to ask my consultant to repeat themselves again and again. The weirdest benefit of taking medication was that I could suddenly have conversations with people! I could hear them and follow their conversation without constant effort. I still have some issues which I think are likely APD related (I haven’t been tested) but these articles are so interesting and given me hope that this is something I can work on more in the future!
This is me! APD is the best explanation of how I struggle every day. When I was a child I had over a 100 year infections by the time the eye was 8 months old. My 1st hearing test showed that I could only hear a low Mail vowel sounds. Later is school I was diagnosed with a learning memory Disorder. And dyslexia. I have been struggling to hear people my entire life. I have had 3 autologists dismiss my complaints. My texts say my hearing is in the normal range. But I struggle to understand what you are saying especially in the room with other noises. I have to figure it out after somebody has said something to me to interpret what I think I heard. I tell people that I am hearing impaired, Because if they know that then they will AT LEAST speak more clearly and Face me before they begin speaking. I very heavily rely on lip reading to understand the context of what someone is saying. It is just one more clue. Mow i know what APD is, how do I get tested?
I was diagnosed with APD at a young age. I’ve struggled with being able to focus on class, build friendships, social gatherings, work environments, and family disputes. There was barely any information on APD back then, so I use to get sent away by the optician after passing their test. I knew that I didn’t have problems with actually hearing sounds, but it was the ability to translate those sounds. Kind of like having a conversation with somebody while submerged in water. I can hear you, but what are you saying?? I’m very happy to hear that it is treatable o.O I was under the impression that I would have to combat this condition my whole life. I hope I can seek the right help to aid me in how to treat APD.
I didn’t know there was different treatments, this article gave me some relief. I was diagnosed at age four and lived with it not knowing I had it all throughout school. I was put into special classes where I couldn’t learn normally and didn’t know why. My school honestly thought I had memory problems, and I just wasn’t paying attention and listening on purpose. My social anxiety and depression developed from it as I was shy with a few friends since I’d talk with such a quiet voice that I was unaware of. My classmates just assumed I had other problems since I was in those special classes. My mom eventually told me what I had (APD) and I was a little mad but I finally understood why I was like this. My older cousin has the same thing and he’s a lawyer, so I really look up to him and have hope for my future living with this impairment.
Honey, thank you. This validates me. I’m certain my mom has undiagnosed APD and I never looked into it for fear of being her. My parents took me to a learning specialist when I was a kid. I don’t remember what for. I had thousands of ear infections as a kid and as an adult, sometimes struggle to hear friends and following group conversations feels exhausting. Where can I see you haha?
I went to a speech therapist because I thought I had DLD due to difficulty expressing myself but with the tests showing really poor “recalling sentences” I was suspected of having APD. I struggle to figure out how APD could cause / affect my verbal fluency/ communication skills though. Is it linked to how the brain puts together your thoughts before you speak or something?
Yeah I have found that throughout my life I have been labelled as the dumb one or have brought upon enemies for no reason. My main goal in life is to understand others contexts and treat them kindly no matter the person. But I found that people just didn’t give me the time saying “don’t worry about it”when I am trying my absolute hardest to understand them failing every time and being shot down as useless dumb and not worth anyones time. I don’t like to tell others I have a hearing disorder because I have a feeling they would use it as a label against me. But I know deep down they don’t understand and I keep a smile on my face and don’t give those people any of my time or attention. The real friends understand you and give you the time to listen regardless if you told them you have a disorder because you know from the start they don’t treat anyone else with with disrespect based on their weaknesses.
Really wish this company was available near me. My doctor recently sent me to a local Audiologist and they told me it was too late to deal with this as I had just turned 50 years old (something to do with the brain functions change in your 50s, I’m ‘still confused). I had gone in full of life, feeling on top of the world thinking I may actually finally deal with having APD but left the Audiologist more broken and crushed.
I am at an all time low. My father noticed I had trouble following multiple conversations in groups or in family car road trips I had trouble following along with what everyone else was talking about so he took me to get tested for CAPD when I was in elementary school and I tested positive. The brain training treatment program was going to be fully covered under his insurance, so he said, and I was supposed to go 5 days a week. But my dad claims that he didn’t end up taking me because my mom didn’t want to take me on her weeks as they were divorced and somehow he just “gave up” because she didn’t want to believe I was diagnosed or something? It just seems like a lame excuse because she also didn’t like me playing ice hockey but that sure as hell didn’t stop my dad from pushing me into that sport on his weeks. I feel like he is hiding or lying about something about the brain training exercises I was supposed to get treatment for. So I ended up struggling really badly at school, at work, at college, and in social situations. And even in sports because I couldn’t hear what my coach or teammates were shouting at me half the time, going first during practice or scrimmages was nerve racking since I could never be sure if I heard the coach’s instructions clearly. I’ve become an introvert out of embarrassment. Having untreated CAPD made it hard for me to read to this day. Or take notes in class. My reading retention and comprehension rate is awful. Everyone thinks I’m sucking at life and failing on purpose because my hearing levels are so normal and my intelligence level is relatively decent.
OMGoodness…I know that my nephew has a processing disorder since childhood…This test with Jackie may explain why he might not want to participate in some of the typical social activities that we as typicals all take advantage of on a regular basis…we thought he was being anti-social. This makes me hopeful.
Can you get treatment at any age? I’m 51, was diagnosed with mixed receptive/expressive disorder in my late-20s, but never followed up on it (diagnosed with ADHD at the same time; life got in the way), and would greatly love to have better word retrieval as well as not having to ask people to repeat something as often.
I found out I had APD as an adult. My friends son had it and I knew I absolutely had it as well. I’ve spent my entire life feeling stupid. It affects every part of my life. The worst thing is the feeling of not understanding…not getting it….feeling out of the loop…and feeling stupid. To this day I have recieved no help for it. My only consolation is I know I have it.
hey i feel like i might have this disorder but for me it has only occurred in recent years im 20 now it began about 3 to 4 years ago i recently started a new education after not going to school for about 2 years and whenever the teacher is teaching about a topic unless i concentrate a full 100% on what they are saying i just cant procces what they are saying im hearing the indivuall words but they dont form to meaningful sentences in my head i though the problem was the language since i was born in the netherlands and moved to germany 4/5 years ago i blammed it on my German not being good enough i notice though that when people are loud or im looking even thinking about something else i hear everything but i cant procces it even perusal this article i was thinking about this comment and everything that was said was not processed in my head this has been happening a lot too for me in my mother tongue too and in english wich i would say that im fluent at my mother always says that i need to pay attention since that it doesnt seem like i am whenever people speak to me but im just really trying to procces what is being said. im almost sure that it cant be my hearing being bad since whenever im gaming im always the one that notices the slightest little noises for example when someone is walking up on me or reloading a gun in the game where there are a lot of noises happening at the same time is the anyway that you could help me or test me since i for a job have decided to become a esports commentator where you need to be perusal and paying full attention to what is happening in the game while at the same time listen to and process what your fellow commentator is saying in order the further go on about what they say, this has been a very huge problem in my life and it has effected me a lot.
I’m 51 and wonder if I have mild APD. I’m an audiophile with pretty good hearing for my age, but if it’s a reverberant room, the person is facing away from me, or there’s other noise around me, it’s sometimes hard for me to understand what others are saying. I’ve done online tone-deafness/pitch tests and can detect 1/32nd changes easily, 1/64th most of the time. I even use subtitles sometime when perusal TV.
Well, I didn’t understand any of the questions said to Jackie when not reading the text below. I understood all the questions when reading the texts. I suffered to an AVM at 19 and I am completely dependent on visual information as verbal is always mixed up and I do not know where the questions are going.
Dang okay, I spent the entirety of elementary and middle school just quietly eating at lunch because I couldn’t understand a dang thing anyone was saying in the crowded lunchroom. Thought I was just weird I guess. It got better to deal with in high school when there weren’t hundreds of us condensed in the same room but I would still have moments. Honestly it’s still a trick to tell the difference between left and right if gps is reading it off. Cool to know that there is treatment, I didn’t know that was a thing.
Dyslexia was one idea I thought my kid had based of so patterns and number sequence deficiencies like ten fingers up and if I took away one hand away it was still hard to simply say 5. But since then has passed regents math. Now has issues with small talk, listening but doesn’t get triggered by answers in a conversation in other words it doesn’t prompt to asking another question or perhaps see the importance of asking as another question or the need to know or see what you might want to know about this person it’s just not there.
Do any of you suffer from hearing music out of tune ? My extensive iTunes library is slowly diminishing. Some tracks are still ok . But most have one problem or another. Instruments missing vocals missing. Out of tune. Especially piano. But the same tune played on guitar sounds ok . I’ve got the rest of symptoms though. Hearing people ok but not understanding. Not coping in noisy environments. Good job I’m a complete introvert that actually seeks solitude. I’m missing my music though. Oh yeah, forgot. With me location is everything. Different rooms have different acoustics. And I can talk all day on the phone to my brother but struggle to understand anything he says face to face. Bloody weird
Omg I tried working at The Original Pancake House and although the job was fun when they told me to use a microphone I couldn’t hear my manager call for me to buss the tables. The owner laughed at me to and management would yell at all of us and was passive aggressive. I finally left after one day because I couldn’t sleep I was so depressed and yet again suicida* Mental health professional diagnosed me with Bipolar 1 now but I know it’s my bad APD it’s just getting worse I’m so depressed I want to cry as I listen to this and type. It’s weird because sometimes I could hear on the walkie talkie other times I can’t hear. But then when I take the tests on here I do well. I feel like my brain is messing with me. I forget things all the time to so does my ex boyfriend he has ADHD and possibly autism. Imagine being abuse* and yelled at by people at work though and made to feel like you are dumb and or lazy or not listening. Imagine being told you all are doing so good but you need to be faster and thinking you are already fast enough. I just want to disappear because I feel so depressed and people (even my family think I’m just mooching off of them and emotionally they won’t help. My mother and grandmother say their is something wrong with me while my dad says their is nothing wrong with me I just need Jesus. It’s so depressing…And other jobs like janitorial that aren’t fun…those jobs aren’t fun to me I really enjoy bussing and dishwashing but I’m not fast enough and am stupi* clearly.
This is a fantastic and inspiring article. I’m on a wait list for an APD assessment in Canada, but right now, I feel kind of hopeless that I could get treatment for my auditory processing difficulties. A little feedback on this article: it is obvious that Dr. Alexander is speaking clearly and slowly for the people perusal, who like me, struggle in processing sound — and that Dr. Alexander’s parts of the article have captions which viewers can follow along with while they watch. However, during the showing of the first of Jackie’s HHIA tests, the “subtitles” (written form) of the questions from the professional conducting the test, as well as Jackie’s responses, did not show up until after the questions were asked. As a person who typically needs subtitles to follow along with a article, I disliked the delayed showing of the questions of that first HHIA test, since the professional asking the questions spoke quickly. I had to pause the article multiple times, to read the questions after they were asked, before moving to the next questions. I was alarmed that during the second HHIA test recording shown, the professional conducting the test spoke slower and clearer, and I only needed to pause the article once or twice. If, in the future, you upload more case studies with HHIA test recordings involved, your presentation of the written questions and their answers prior to the start of each questions being asked would be majorly helpful for people like me who have trouble understanding people who speak quickly and/or unclearly.
I swear I have this.. literally I have so much struggle with understanding people especially in areas with a lot of background noise. I physically can’t focus on the voices with lots of background noise. Instead I focus on the noises and not the voices of others. Makes it hard to understand what others are saying.
Sometimes I just never get someone’s name because I can’t make it out. I prefer to listen to music during “quiet study time” because music is organised and predictable so I don’t have to process the auditory info because I’ve heard it so many times whereas the slight background noise is random and confusing. In class I pretty much always have to ask someone beside me what the homework was or what the teacher said.
I was diagnosed in the 90’s with (C) APD. I was already 25 years old, and it was a roommate that initially pointed out that I rely way too much on lip-reading in order to hear someone, so I finally had gone to a specialist with my symptoms. My exam and testing resulted with my having a major case of (C)APD and was surprised that I had gone this far in life without diagnosis. They were surprised that my teachers throughout my school years never noticed it. Once I got the diagnosis, I did a lot of research, and learned I had a lot of obvious symptoms that should have pointed it out. Some of those symptoms included: – Late speech development in childhood. I even to this day remember my private speech therapy lessons. I didn’t start to really talk until I was 4. – I am a loud talker, and only really hear well when I am listening to a loud talker. – I had a difficult time in language classes, particularly with foreign languages. Math was my jam, but language… not so much. – It was IMPOSSIBLE for me to hear people talking in a restaurant or other loud environments. Even the food chewing sounds in my mouth/head would interfere. Meal times were difficult growing up. – I constantly ask people to repeat themselves, because I never hear the first part of the sentence. By the time I am able to ‘tune in’ to a person talking, I already missed the first half of what they said. – Talking on the phone is extremely difficult. I usually have to put it on speaker and turned all the way up. – I would Hyper-focus on an activity and I just ‘tune out’ outside noises.
In loud environments I find that putting in ear plugs really helps, I haven’t tried this at a club where listening and being social is more important. I do allot of industrial construction and drowning out as much back ground noise as possible helps, but its still difficult for what people are saying to register in my head. My current foreman has a really raspy voice that is very distinct and pierces through background noise which is really helpful.
Listening to and playing music may be of help. I just found out very recently that I was diagnosed with APD about 20 years ago. I am 33 years old. When I was 13 my parents suspected that I had a learning disability, more specifically Attention Deficit Disorder, as I was struggling with school. I didn’t have ADD but I was diagnosed with APD. I always felt bad when people would say I was a bad listener. I am a musician and I just realized APD is probably why I became one. I would often listen to music as a way to self-sooth before I picked up my first instrument. I grew up in a dysfunctional family and had anxiety when I was younger. There is a therapeutic feeling I get when learning or playing an instrument, as it gives me the gratification of controlling a singular sound, or putting multiple sounds/instruments together to create a singular sound. I figured I should share this as it has always helped me cope and maybe it can be helpful for others with APD. Cheers
This makes so much sense. Consistently having to stop whatever I’m doing to listen and watch lips to understand, asking people to repeat themselves not because I couldn’t hear them speaking, but I couldn’t hear what they were saying, hating phone calls and audio books because I can’t see their lips; I can’t count how many times I’ve I’ve asked someone to repeat themselves and specify to not raise their volume. Tone was actually super important growing up, since if I couldn’t catch their words, I could piece together by their tone. I loved learning but had the hardest time listening. In regards to the noise from passing time, I just shut off my focus. I “zoned out”, focusing on where I was going, not what I heard around me.
I can hear a pin drop in the woods, hear everything around me when we are working there BUT I can’t hear people talking when in civilization. I was diagnosed with CAPD years ago and told nothing could be done about it, given no help, and sent out into the world which I couldn’t understand most of the oral communication, and expected to thrive without help. Of course it was obvious to people I can hear but they didn’t and still don’t understand it’s voices and not the background noise. Recently this caused havoc at a doctor’s office and hospital. I’m 66 years old and I was treated like a bad little kid because my voice is loud because I could not follow the conversation. That earned them a report to the medical society, and I am working on a Justice department complaint form right now. After years of abuse just because I can’t hear properly, I’m done accepting that people will abuse me over this. I will take action every time a professional person does this under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Refusing someone the modifications needed to communicate in a professional setting is ILLEGAL in the USA. I won’t put up with it.
I have audio processing disorder. it doesn’t effect me much now that I am almost fifty, but I still take people literally. I think I can tell when a person is being sarcastic. I am a little slow at understanding jokes. what I remember about being a kid was how tiring school was. (I was diagnoised with capd at age 22) I also remember that to get the c-/d+ gpa needed graduate, I employed cheeting on exams, especially in spelling tests. there just wasn’t enough hours in the day to do all the homework assigned. my only regret was that I didn’t drop out of school at age 16 to attend comunity college. at 18 when I attended community college, my gpa shot up to a b+ average. it makes sense now. those classrooms were quiet. it didn’t take as much effort to follow along. also, the pacing of the classes were quicker and in more depth. and I didn’t have to employ devices like cheeting or bringing crib-notes into class to pass exams. I took a lot of math-science courses.
I’ve never related so hard to one of these disorders I just learned about. It would explain a lot because I’ve known for a long time that I have excellent hearing but being able to parse out what you’re saying from all the other noise I hear is so difficult. Also, subtitles for movies and YouTube articles are sometimes a must.
I can recall standing in the hallway while my 6th grade teacher tried to send me on an errand. She handed me a sheaf of papers and tried to tell me what to do with them. The class was noisy and I swear she was speaking gibberish. It was humiliating. No matter how hard I try to listen I end up “tuning out”. I avoid talking with people because I know I will miss half of what they say. Meetings at work are torture. My hearing tests normal. ADP? This is a revelation!
Ive done hearing tests over and over again, ive been called lazzy and stupid my hole life even my mother thinks im autistic… but that test wasnt it ither.. no its this an APD! This make so m7ch sence to me. When she talked about feeling overwhelmed and exhausted after spending hours TRYING to listen, it made sense. This is ME.
Wow this is interesting; one of my symptoms is that I often have a hard time recognizing sarcasm, but somehow I’m also very adept at understanding the “gist” of what’s being said in a foreign language solely by listening to inflection and pitch and relating it to contextual clues. Maybe it’s because my brain isn’t trying to process everything that’s being heard when it hears a foreign language, so it can focus just on the tone/inflection alone?
I am diagnosed with A.P.D. and music is abit different. It helps me focus! Especially if its loud! It’s busy noise that is the problem! When my music is loud it helps me complete tasks! Especially paper work it is not easy for me to do! I also have A.D.D. music always helps me! Driving my loud music helps me focus!
Your welcome. The noise you are referring to is more than likely the air conditioning in the office, which was quite loud at the time of recording and could not be switched off. But, as you say, people who suffer with this condition are the most likely to be distracted by it. If there are particular areas of auditory processing disorder you would like to know about, let us know as we use this feedback to generate more articles.
I have this disorder. I never realized it as a child, but discovered it when I started working with children who have this disorder. One of the occupational therapists asked me questions and helped me realize that CAPD was the cause. My disorder causes a delay in what is said. I get easily “lost” in a big group meeting. In school, I excelled at my school work, but I asked a zillion questions. I also forget or miss what was just said. At work it can be hard at meetings. People don’t understand.
As @suadela87 points out, “parsing” seems to be a major hurdle, maybe exacerbated by background noise and other social conditions (bad domestic/neighborhood scene, diet, etc.), the “serial position effect” (what the student will or won’t remember) is a fascinating angle—thanks for including it. My suspicion is that the stress activates their amygdala more than is healthy (thinking about long-term effects from mental exhaustion (2:07)) as it relates to cardiovascular health, while they don’t even know that they’re the proverbial baboon in the “U. of Pennsylvania experimental lab”–nobody even knows they’re there. THEY don’t even know they’re there, and probably assume everyone else has the same level of difficulty as they do. Students should be made aware that this could be happening to them so that testing can be done. A record of head-trauma patients could be a place to start. This series of articles is beyond brilliant; thanks for posting.
My APD got really bad in college. I have great hearing, but sometimes I can pay very close attention to what someone is saying and my brain just processes it as noise, not as words. It affected my grades and a bit of job performance. I have to write everything down. I can’t listen to music, especially not with lyrics, when I need to write or read. Background noise gives me anxiety too. I wonder if there’s treatment, or if I’m just screwed :/
my mom was a few classes away from getting a degree in Audiology in the early 80’s. Did they know about auditory processing disorder then? or did they assume that hearing comprehension issues could be rooted in a processing issue? I had so so many of these symptoms but she (and no one else) never noticed. I even was taken to get a hearing assessment at one point and when I passed the assessment they were like “seems like your hearing is normal” and didn’t listen to me when i said i had a hard time understanding people talking to me. My mom was like “you do fine in choir, how could you have a hearing problem?” it hurts to know that maybe i could have felt less isolated/dumb with a combination or accommodations and training/therapy, but here I am at 33 finding out there is a way to help me with this. I missed out on so much because i couldn’t really understand what was going on around me as good as others. Guess it is better to something about it now than never..
I can’t hear anyone saying anything if there’s a small background noise like a fan sound or sth of the kind in the background. However if the background noise is not like that but for example bird tweeting then I have no trouble hearing the person talk. Is that a form of auditory processing disorder or do I just have bad hearing?
Doing homework is the easy part. It’s not a visual processing disorder it’s auditory. The hard part though is learning how to read since the speech behind it is taught through auditory means. But once you develop those skills you can fall back on visual learning and memory. This is coming from someone who has lived with it their whole life. I spent years in speech therapy, was held back in 1st grade, and was in special ed. Once I learned how to cope with the disorder my grades went up, I graduated from college, and now I have a very good job at an IT consulting company.
I’m 17 (going on 18 in a few days, and it’s still a pain in the ass to keep up with a simple conversation. My mom (every fucking time) tells me to talk to people in school; I can’t bring myself up to speak, and I still consider myself ‘socially awkward’. This also applies to family events with all the hooplah going on. Not only this, but I’m a complete disorganized person with everything. Swim practice is also Hell.
The background noise is very distracting in this article. I remember in school it is exactly as she describes. But it affects you as an adult too and you’re self esteem. You think you’re dumb and forgetful and you get frustrated with yourself which is very sad and unfair on yourself. It affects you professionally. Working in retail was a complete nightmare you have to be able to multitask, answering phones then face to face, writing a list helped but you’d forget in two seconds what you wrote or forgot numbers for stock or have to ask customers or colleagues to repeat themselves it annoys everyone. I flat out had a colleague turn to me and asked if I was dyslexic. And then another job my boss asked me if I had been tested because of my memory. Then relationships. At family dinners I can’t keep up with them because they all talk so fast and are loud and talk over eachother and I forget what was said even though im trying so hard to listen. Then my relationship with my hubby especially when we have arguments its very difficult to hear the other person and understand. I have trouble reading his emotions and tone I have to ask him to slow down his speech so I can write things down in an argument. If we’re in a noisey place like the shopping mall I have to step aside and force myself to listen or we have to step outside to the carpark. It’s very hard. But being aware of it now and taking steps makes it easier. And if I want to write my book or draw I have to do my hobbies late at night when its quiet and there’s no outside noise or I shut the windows and doors draw the curtains and hope its going to be a quiet day.
Love this article. Only issue is that people with (C)APD also have trouble with accents so processing UK accents are also difficult. I have short term memory loss as well as (C)APD and its just so rough putting two and two together. It’s such a process everyday. Sometimes I wish I could just switch my hearing off for the day. Concentrating all day every day is exhausting.
Oh so this really is a thing. I have always been struggling to understand people. So very often I have to say ‘sorry, what did you say?’. And if the person repeats the same thing exactly the same, if he or she doesn’t vary anything in the speech (speaking more clearly, or slower, or using other words), then i sometimes just can’t understand it no matter how many times it’s repeated to me. Cool to have a name for it now. People get so surprised when I say that I have trouble with understanding speech even in my mother language (not english).
I have same issue for a long time now.when I was in college and I couldn’t listen to my teacher I’d just sit on front bench and ask teacher to. Write the name of the topic we r learning and I would go home and revise it again ..so passing the degree was double work for me😁.I still have hard time while I talk with a group of people and also when the celing fan or the wind is blowing
I 100% believe I have this. I never thought I was deaf, even though I was called that many times however I’ve gathered that I have majority of the symptoms of APD. It’s really frustrating when I’m not able to understand people and have to keep saying ‘what?’ Embarrassingly.. especially when someone cracks a joke and my brain doesn’t process it so now I’m smiling because they’re smiling. Ah. I’ve also realised why I would get A’s in Spanish GCSE but would always have a difficult time trying to listen to the person talk in the listening exam. It’s not that I didn’t understand the sentences, but it’s the fact that their words sometimes were muffled to me.
They are talking about children but this still effects adults. It’s very difficult to be someplace where there’s music playing with words and someone is also talking to you. When you ask if they can turn it down people say, can’t you block it. They don’t understand and think you’re being difficult when you’re not. So now we have to explain it to people! So random people like the employees at a clothing store etc. Now complete strangers have to receive an explanation of your personal information in order to turn some music down!!
I have enough trouble tuning out noises (I have ADD), but I still struggle even when I’m in a quiet environment. Whether it’s spoken, written or I have to figure it out on my own, I fail to grasp the concept. I have problems with terminology as well: “get on the plane”? How about “get in the plane”? “The alarm just went off.” Don’t you mean “it just went on”? “25% off all blouses.” Does that mean 25% less material or 25% discount on the cost? Those electronic paper towel machines that reads “If no towel, pull handle. Now why would I pull a handle when there’s no paper? It just goes on and on. I’m dealing with disabilitism on a daily basis, especially when I’m looking for a job . . . or even volunteering.
I seriously didn’t hear a difference when she was saying, “That was smart.” I’m just realizing at age 47 that this is what is going on with me. I do find it ironic that you have really enjoying background music playing in this article. I couldn’t tune it out and kept realizing I wasn’t hearing the words.
Haha yeah that music is distracting, but I never really understood how to explain to people how I learn I couldn’t ever find the right words to tell them, but ever since elementary school they’ve thought I’ve had this && now I’m almost 23 and finally getting testing for it. I had never done the research before until now & all I can say is wow. everything they say clicks and I can relate I knew that I had a learning issue but I could never explain it to people. We need more awareness thank you!
Man i have many of that symptoms that are touched upon in this article. What i wonder if auditory processing is also linked to having problems understanding speech through a telephone. While in training for an office job i had such a hard time i even avoided taking calls. Didnt help that many of the calls came from people who were driving at the same time.
i know this article is old but yeah growing up and thinking you’re stupid because you don’t get things and don’t remember things that were just told to you was very depressing. Everyone always thinks your slow or not smart. Also yeah talking to people all day or trying to focus all day on what people say is exhausting. My job requires a lot of social interaction and man am I tired after a day at work but yeah wish people understood this more or it was talked about more. Now days I try to work with my disorder and make myself seem funny like I hear things wrong so I repeat what I hear and they laugh because it had nothing to do with anything. One more thing the mono tone voice yeah people think that’s hilarious which I’m glad I can make people smile. But always remember as a kid it can be depressing, as an adult it does make life hard at times but can be used sometimes to make others happy.
This also effects your relationships with the opposite sex. The spouse can think that you are ignoring what they are saying and to make it worse, you don’t care what they say. They can very sincerely give you directions and it seems like you don’t follow through. The fact is that you aren’t able to memorize auditory information.
I thought the first, “…that was smart.” was the one that sounded sarcastic, rather than the second one. Maybe I have auditory processing disorder. I wouldn’t be surprised, I have difficulty hearing when there is running water in the background. I get severely startled when I’m showering and someone knocks on the door for example.
I think I have this myself. I always have trouble making out what people say becuase it comes out as giberish. Many people think I may be partially deaf, because in hearing tests where you push a button when you hear a noise, I get overwhelmed and often don’t bush the button when I hear it. I think the only way one is going to be able to tell if I am truly hearing impared is to test my hearing the same way they test babies and animals.
How about hypersensitivity and/or hyper-responsiveness to changes in tonality? It may be an overcompensation to avoid shame of being tone blind, or who knows? Perhaps they come together; I don’t know as I’m only just learning about this disorder and while I identify with many of the symptoms (including the occasional social blunder of misinterpreting implied meanings), I find that I’m extremely sensitive to changes in tone and often mistrustful when a person’s tone, words and sometimes posture, appear to me to be out of synch.
I believe that I have this, I’ve always thought I had dyslexia but recently and in the past someone suggested that I have autism so I researched dyslexia more and symptoms of autism and discovered that first I had none of the early development issues that usually go along with autism and second I have a lot of symptoms of dyslexia and then I’ve been saying for years that I have hearing dyslexia too but only just realised auditory dyslexia is usually called auditory perception disorder and so much made sense after looking ingo it. I have so much anxiety about talking on the phone that I developed a legitimate phobia of it bc I can’t understand ppl over the phone, I rely heavily on body language and partial lip reading when talking to ppl and being around a lot of noise and having someone try to talk to me is like hell, idk what the hell is going on and I’m always scared to be rude or be annoying bc I’ll ask what? so many times XD and I can’t talk fast, I mess up words and say things wrong or stammer or sometimes say the opposite of what I mean like it might be hot and I’ll say it’s cold, idk why bc ik what it is I think I just think like I want it to be cold so cold accidentally comes out or sometimes I’ll get words like he, she, him, her mixed up, ik the one I need to say but can’t find it in my brain. I sometimes miss letters when hearing for example in the song you can call me al l sometimes hear betty and sometimes hear eddy and am not sure which it is still and I have a cousin named anna who for most of my like I couldn’t tell if it was anna or hannah bc I would sometimes hear an h (context clues are my friend big time XD) I also get asked something like if someone asks me to get them a drink from the fridge or more specifically “could you get my ice tea from the fridge, it’s on the door” I hear kitchen, all I have in my head is kitchen so I go to that room and walk back a second later to have the question repeated bc I got an image in my head from the word fridge which gave me a location but the rest of the sentence didn’t actually mean anything to me, that particular one has been repeated a lot so I don’t need to get the whole sentence anymore but god forbid it gets switched up XD the other day I told them that saying “fridge ice tea get” would probably work better as an instruction XD
I have trouble with speech, mostly pronunciation, articulation, and I very often use the wrong word, like saying kettle instead of iron for example. This has led to many embarrassing moments, like telling a perfect stranger that I have been sat waiting for years to see the doctor 😂. I had a neuropsychology test recently and they said I didn’t have aphasia, but it was likely related to APD. I don’t know but I have to really concentrate when I speak or else I will talk gibberish. Its like I am not completely in control of my speech 😕. I always get lyrics wrong of songs I hear and even when I learn the right ones, I still say the wrong things. This is the reason I have lived most of my life thinking I am a retard 😫
That “air conditioner” that you hear in the background must be playing the sax, because there is definitely easy listening jazz playing in this article. Trust a CAPDer. That little noise in the background is our world. OGM! That sax is annoying. Its much worse than having full toned music in the background. Is this tape a joke? A little april’s fools on the CAPDer that comes to visit for a little information?