Have you ever had trouble understanding what people are saying, even when there isn’t background noise? You might have APD. It makes it difficult to understand speech in noisy places, but fortunately, it can be treated with special exercises and therapies.
People with auditory processing disorder can’t understand what they hear in the same way other people do. This is because their ears and brain don’t fully coordinate.
What is Auditory Processing Disorder?
People with auditory processing disorder have difficulties interpreting the sounds in speech. They find it difficult to recognize and interpret sound waves. This leads to issues such as not being able to follow a conversation or understand what people are saying, even though they may be right next to them.
When children have difficulty understanding spoken language, they are diagnosed with a disorder called auditory processing disorder. Auditory processing disorder can affect people of all ages and is not always easy to diagnose because some people just don’t know that they have it until they experience symptoms like trouble understanding words.
According to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, auditory processing disorder is diagnosed by difficulties in one or more auditory processes known to reflect the function of the central auditory nervous system. Auditory processing disorder can affect both children and adults, but it’s not always easy to tell because some people don’t know they have it until they experience symptoms like trouble understanding words.
Auditory Processing Disorder Signs and Symptoms
There are many signs that a person is struggling with Auditory Processing Disorder (APD). Those who have APD may experience difficulty localizing sound. Even if the cause of the difficulty can be clarified, it is not necessarily in one specific place.
People may also have difficulty understanding spoken language in different types of situations or when presented with various competing messages. For instance, people might struggle to understand rapid speech and become easily distracted by noises, echoes, and reverberations while listening to audio input sources such as lectures or webinars. As a result, they typically take longer for their response time.
Auditory Processing Disorder and ADHD
If you’re struggling with ADHD and APD, it can be difficult to distinguish between the two. This is why it’s important to seek medical attention to be able to get the right intervention. Knowing the difference between APD and ADHD will help you avoid barking at the wrong tree.
Auditory processing disorder (APD) is an auditory condition affecting how nerve signals are interpreted by the brain. Though there may be some overlap of symptoms between this disability and others such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), it’s often hard to make a distinction without comprehensive medical evaluation.
If you have something in common with these people, there’s no need to feel stressed out. Seek professional assistance from an audiologist or ADHD specialist.
If you or your child are having difficulty listening to one person talk, understanding a conversation in a noisy area, following directions, and/or completing tasks that require sustained attention at school even after adding additional time for reading, you may have poorly functioning hearing and auditory processing disorder.
Diagnosis and intervention is important because if auditory processing disorder is left untreated, it can lead to other issues such as poor grades in school or poor performance at work. HearCare Audiology Indiana specializes in providing hearing care for both children and adults. If you suspect you or your child may have auditory processing disorder, call us for an appointment.
Causes of Auditory Processing Disorder
Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) is a condition of the auditory system that affects a person’s ability to understand language, whether spoken or heard.
APD can happen in any age group, but it may be more prevalent in adolescents because the teenage brain undergoes dramatic changes at this time.
Symptoms of an auditory processing disorder in young children include:
• Problems listening to sounds in words and sentences.
• Trouble telling the difference between words that sound similar, like “saw” and “so.”
• Difficulty copying instructions given by a teacher or parent.
Auditory Processing Disorder can also manifest after chronic ear infections, meningitis (an infection of the brain), or lead poisoning (exposure to heavy metal). Some people who have nervous system diseases such as multiple sclerosis also develop APD.
What causes APD in adults?
While auditory processing disorder is more common in children, APD affects some adults, too. The cause of APD in adults may range from head trauma, genetics, tumors, auditory deprivation (untreated hearing loss) and periods of anoxia. In some cases, the cause is unknown.
Do adults with APD have the same symptoms and presenting complaints as children with APD?
The most common auditory symptoms that adults living with ADHD have are difficulty hearing in noisy environments and following verbal presentations. These difficulties can be frustrating for adults and affected individuals may need support from family and friends.
Adults with APD have found themselves struggling to maintain connections with friends, family members, and colleagues due to the profound emotional impacts of this disorder. Research has shown that adults with attention deficit tend to disproportionately struggle academically as well. This typically means that they score much lower than their peers in mathematics while scoring equivalent or higher levels in areas such as reading comprehension and vocabulary.
Studies also show a high level of symptoms overlap among children and adults suffering from AD/HD, which means that both populations will exhibit noticeable impairments in school performance and relationships at home.
Adults with ADHD often have difficulties completing tasks they find boring or too complicated. This makes it difficult to maintain a full-time job. Where therapy for children often focuses on managing hyperactive behavior, adults in treatment learn coping strategies like breaking down large tasks into smaller goals and using organizational skills to stay on track with work projects.
Do adults with APD closely resemble adults with hearing loss?
Adults with APD often don’t get the help they need because their symptoms are not well understood. A good place to start is how a hearing aid can help, which may alleviate some difficulties.
APD and hearing aids
There are certain rules that an adult wearing a hearing aid needs to follow if they want it to last and work efficiently- maintenance of the battery, cleaning of the device and occasionally replacing parts such as tubing or bellows. They also require periodic system checks at an audiologist, so that any issues caused by ageing can be addressed early on before they become major problems.
It’s easy to think that if a device doesn’t work for you, it must not do what its intended purpose is. But sometimes what a person needs is a type or style of amplification that better matches their hearing loss – and adults with auditory processing disorder (APD) are no exception to this rule. When someone spends years compensating and using the wrong devices because they don’t know there is appropriate solution out there, they can experience anxiety and depression, burnout from prolonged use of the ineffective device(s), and neglecting other important areas in their lives while trying to keep up with what’s going on around them.
It can be a frustrating experience when people are not hearing as well as they should. They may have been living with hearing loss for many years and never knew it or children may suddenly become very withdrawn due to difficulties in the classroom environment.
There’s no reason or excuse to let auditory processing disorder drag on. At HearCare Audiology, we diagnose and treat adult patients of all ages who suffer from auditory processing disorder (APD). Our team is experienced in diagnosing APD—even when there’s no underlying peripheral ear disease present.
Diagnosing Auditory Processing Disorder
Auditory processing disorder, or APD, is one of many maddeningly puzzling auditory disorders. When the electrical transmissions between brain and ear go wonky, it can lead to anything from headache-inducing sensitivity to debilitating hearing loss.
Auditory processing disorder explains a range of difficulties that people may experience when hearing, including: difficulty understanding speech and other sounds; trouble locating the source of a sound; perceiving distance from the speakers in a conversation; determining whether two sounds are simultaneous or not. Auditory processing problems often occur together with communication disorders such as dyslexia, autism, and ADHD, yet APD is not exclusive to those diagnoses—it can strike at any time during development.
The long list of challenges faced by people with auditory processing disorder includes difficulties comprehending speech, listening memory, and reading comprehension. For some, the cause for these struggles might lie in neuropathy, which can filter communication between two parts of the brain involved in sound reception and perception through neural pathways.
At HearCare Audiology Indiana, we have the necessary resources and qualifications to diagnose auditory processing disorder. If you think that you or your child might be suffering from an APD, come in for a personal consultation at our clinic.
We also offer a variety of treatments and state-of-the-art programs such as the next generation broadband hearing aids to help treat hearing loss resulting from APD.
Auditory Processing Disorder – Treatment and Management
There are some well-practiced interventions for Auditory Processing Disorder that can help people with this genetic condition to better listen, learn more and participate in life. We offer a proactive approach that is personalized to the individual’s needs because auditory processing disorder causes vary widely.
If your child has both hearing loss and auditory processing disorder, they may need a combination of services from an audiologist and a speech-language pathologist. There are also a number of corrective treatments for symptoms of the condition, including hearing aids that help amplify sound to the level where it is easier to process or assistance in learning how to manage being distracted by background noise. Brain training programs can also be helpful.
Auditory Processing Disorder – HearCare Audiology Indiana
We are here to help by offering our audiologist’s expertise and state-of-the-art equipment to pin down the cause of your hearing problems. Together we can make you hear better so you can function better and live the life you deserve.
Call us today to schedule a consultation!