Difference between ADD and Auditory Processing problem?

Hi. Pattim is an expert and has add himself and a daughter with both, CAPD and ADD I believe. His answers have always been knowledgeable and kind.
What I’ve gleaned from posts is they can exist together. You have to address both if that’s the case. If the ADD medication didn’t help your daughter to concentrate and learn then she may not have been or if her problem was ADD and severe Central Auditory Processing Disorder it wouldn’t have been enough.
When you post tell Pattim whether she’slearned to read or not and if you have any test scoresthat might help diagnoses. Poor thing. If she has both no wonder she’s depressed.

http://home.earthlink.net/~mcoleman/cpdadd.html

I am unframiliar with the actual technichal information but a local social service agency may be able to direct you to the right area. I have difficulty processing what I hear especially in noisy rooms or anywhere with background noise at times, it appears to fluxuate. I learn visually and learned ways to compensate for that. If that is your duaughters difficulties then there is good compensatory software available to assist with reading (Kurswell 3000) and organisational software (Inspirations).

I always tell everyone and they’re probably sick of hearing it but here I go. The important thing is to determine how her deficits affect her activities of everyday living, ability to complete a task, what appears to cause her distress and onthe other end of the scale the opposite;what are her strengths, when/why does she complete some tasks with minimal difficulty and when does she appear at ease. Analysing this together may help identify stengths to compensate for deficit areas and ways to minimise exposure the areas of difficulty all together (I.e. assistive software).

In my report cards as a child all of them stated that I had a very poor attention. My wife will tell me something such as a grocery list, I have to repeat it in my head the whole way to the store so I don’t forget what she said. If I write it down I usually can recall the information with little effort. I think my brain probably processes or encodes (remembers) information better when it is presented visually.

I also have alot of difficulty understanding new information when it is presented only auditorily. I usually need time to try to decipher it on my own but again, if presented visually I usually do OK. Once I have a general understanding of the information it’s not as difficult if it’s presented auditorily. A good speech and language pathologist or occupational therapist may be able to help.

One approach that helped me as well was to Stop - Think - Respond to information to allow me to properly organise my thoughts. Initially it took time but now I do it naturally, I’m doing it right now. My LD didn’t stop me. I tell parents this to not to show off but let them know LD isn’t a death sentence. I graduated from College/University certifications and now work as a Rehabilitation therapist and in a childrens treatment facility. I have a wife and 2 children (son inherited LD from me).

I also went through a pretty self destructive stage that I was lucky to get out of. I’m not trying to alarm you but alot of my self destructive behavior I think rooted from a poor self esteem. I thought I would go nowhere in life and did a lot of drugs and alcohal. When I started independant activities that I learned to do well they really helped me to feel better (Karate and weightlifting). One last thing, look in to sensory integration dysfunction and food allergies.

Take acre,

Brad

This post has me wondering about the correct diagnosis for my son. I have always been told he is ADD and dyslexic. But now i’m wondering about APD. School started yesterday, I guess he had a homework assignment, but he says he didn’t know about it. He swears he never heard the teacher say it, even after I told him what his friend said the assingment was. He has started on Concerta this year. What do you all think.
BAckground: 14 yr old 8th grader, reading on 4th grade level, spelling 1st grade. Been in LD classroom for language arts since 1st grade. Also, one very frustrated mom (and it’s only the second day of school)

Maybe then relying on his visual memory may be the better option. Have him write out what needs to be done (don’t know if you’re already doing that or not) and see if there is any improvement.

Kathy, I was under the impression that most all dyslexics have some degree of APD and that’s part of the reason for the poor spelling.

If you suspect an auditory learning disability, take your child to an audiologist and have them test for a central auditory processing disorder. It will cost a few hundred dollars but then you’ll exactly what’s going and how to address it. We did this a few months ago and I’m so glad we did. Our daughter’s school said we didn’t need to do this, but we did it anyway and found out that she did have an auditory processing disorder. A hearing test is not the same. In fact, they can have normal hearing and still not be able to comprehend what they’re hearing. Good luck.

I am the parent of a gifted child with ADHD, neurological impairment, and a genetic hormonal imbalance. I also teach middle school learning disabled students. My husband is a physician, and I have worked in pharmaceutical research as well. I consider myself an expert by education and life experience. Ball is way off base in his assumptions and anger.

Objective, long-term longitudinal research has shown that therapy and special ed are helpful but not as helpful as medication alone, and the combination of medication and special education is the best answer. Recent research on neurotransmitters in the brain and PET scans of ADHD students show definite brain differences in kids with ADHD.

Check out what Dr. Robert Barkely, phD has to say about ADHD and Central Auditory Processing. His books are available at www.guilford.com. Basically, he contends that CAPD has not been adequately defined as a disorder distinct from a receptive language disorder, but it is not attentional in nature. ADHD, he believes is not so much an inability to pay attention, but an inability to inhibit inapproriate behavior and to execute appropriate behavior. He also believes that the two disorders can coexist. Not only that, he believes, based on research, that inattentive-type ADD, particularly that which does not respond to stimulant medication may be an entirely different disorder.

My understanding is that CAPD involves the inability to interpret auditory input such as language in a timely fashion, which is related to difficulties in rapid automatic naming (RAN) seen in dyslexia, although RAN is visual in nature.