My son is suppposed to be assesssed for CAPD through the school district. They are already out of compliance timewise. Today he had a hearing test as part of his check-up at the pediatrician;s office. Using tetratone audiogram, he scored 40 db (mild loss) in both ears at a frequency of 500 Hz. The response level was normal at 3 other frequencies. The nurse just handed me the results which I asked for, but since she didn’t say anything, I didn’t look at it until I was home and the office was closed. Is there a relationship between this and central auditory processing? I don’t know if he was attentive during the testing or if other factors were involved - or if this is significant. The nurse didn’t point it out to the dr. either, nor write anything in the “remarks” area.
Does this give me ammunition to tell the district to pay for a private CAPD screening, since no one from the district can do it until sometime in the summer or fall, and it might have an impact on whtever summer program he may have?
Re: hearing tests
‘Water on the ear’ caused intermittent hearing loss for my son, and this definitely contributed to his school problems, but that is not CAPD. If you suspect CAPD, you should get a private DX with an SLP who knows CAPD. It is NOT a hearing problem — it is the processing of what the ears hear, and the subtle difference is enormously important.
When the school said my son’s Gr. 1 hearing test was fine, I didn’t worry. (they were pushing ADD — he is not, however!) The audiologist said, when we got there 2 years later, that she often sees kids who have passed the school screening — but have significant hearing loss due to problems like my son’s, which is greatly impacted by directionality. Try following a conversation that you can’t quite hear — exhausting! If you are highly motivated, you might try — my son preferred window gazing and thinking of what he’d do as soon as the bell rang!
My advice is to take private responsibility, and not waste time fighting with the school. I had my son’s school do testing since I did not agree with the teacher, who was a real bad apple, and I had great respect for the administration and some real illusions about the quality of school psychologists.
I did not understand that there is a systemic problem in my local system that causes them to have certain opinions I disagree with. (Such as ‘some children just can’t learn to read well — despite loads of ‘expert’ programs like Reading Recovery!) I did not realize how much the bias of the tester and interpreter would affect the outcome of the testing process, nor did I realize the systemic pressure of the belief system that exists in my local school and board.
It ended up being a BIG mistake, since they then had ammunition that has made my job much more difficult. Once you have done testing, you can’t even counter by getting private testing — since they’ll then be able to dismiss any differences, saying that they are due to familiarity with the test, etc.
I know it is expensive, but at least with private testing you can share or not share, and testing is not infallible — you might be very glad to be able to keep certain things private!
Best wishes to you and your child!
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Re: hearing tests
Amy,
I’ll have to agree with the others. I do not really feel that it is the school’s repsonsibility to test for or disgnose APD. They may suspect APD from certain behaviors or tests that they give, just as they may suspect ADD or other disorders. But when a specialist is needed to diagnose a disorder such as APD, then I think it is the parents’ repsonsibility to take the next step. The SLP at school can do testing that will indicate possible APD, but if you want a real diagnosis, then you would find an audiologist who specializes in APD to test your child. A school audiologist woudl probably not do more than screen for APD anyway, and that is very inadequate.
Oh, and if he failed part of the hearing screening, that is all the more reason to have the follow-up wiht an audiologist. Your child may have a hearing loss and not APD. Audiologists always test hearing before they do the APD tests, by the way. Your insurance may even cover the testing if the pediatrician makes a referral to the audiologist.
Janis
A hearing loss is not the same thing as CAPD. My son has perfect hearing but CAPD. CAPD has to do with the way your brain processes what you hear.
I have a friend whose son had a mild hearing loss in certain ranges and he was acting much like a child who might have CAPD. It is also possible to have both a hearing loss and CAPD.
We pursued CAPD testing privately. I would be suprised at a district that is really capable of doing anything but screen for it.
Beth