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HEARING AND
AUDITORY PROCESSING:
Hearing impairment includes individuals who have mild hearing
loss up to total hearing loss, or deafness. Individuals may be
diagnosed in infancy, childhood or as an adult, from noise or
environmentally induced hearing loss. An audiologist and ear,
nose and throat (ENT) physician often work together to diagnose
hearing impairments. Individuals with severe to mild hearing
impairment typically use hearing aids to improve the strength of
the auditory signal to help them hear better. In rare cases,
when an individual is completely deaf and there is no likelihood
of recovering hearing, a cochlear implant is placed. Guidelines
for the placement of cochlear implants are stringent and
placement is completed by a ENT physician during a surgery.
Speech-language pathologists are responsible for ensuring
hearing impaired individuals are able to adequately communicate
their wants and needs in their environments. SLP's often help
individuals with hearing loss improve their articulation of
speech sounds or learn to produce speech sounds utilizing
tactile, visual and auditory methods. SLP's also help
individuals with hearing impairment improve their language
skills since most people with hearing impairment demonstrate
moderate to severely delayed language skills when compared to
their peers. Therapists help hearing impaired individuals learn
and utilize compensatory strategies which make it easier to
attend to auditory information, like sitting in the front of a
classroom.
Patients who are completely deaf have special needs including
learning sign language, use of an augmentative communication
device and use of cochlear implants, if they are placed. SLP's
help these individuals learn to utilize their chosen means of
communication to communicate with family and friends in home and
community settings.
Additional Links:
National Institute on
Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
Listen-Up Web
Hearing Exchange
Central
auditory processing disorders
(CAPD) can best be described as a disorder in which the brain
has difficulty understanding and utilizing auditory, or heard,
information. Children and adults with auditory processing
disorders typically have hearing which is within normal limits.
These individuals typically have difficulty with auditory
information in situations with lots of background noise, when
auditory information is distorted, such as whispered, and may
have difficulty identifying important information from
unimportant information.
Individuals with CAPD demonstrate the
following difficulties:
-
have difficulty understanding information
presented auditorily
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say "huh" or "what" a lot
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has difficulties following oral
directions
-
needs directions or information repeated
frequently
-
is easily distracted by background noise
in the environment
- has problems discriminating different speech sounds and
phonics
A CAPD deficit often results in poor job or
school performance because of the lack of ability to process
auditory information. Intervention can help individuals with
CAPD learn compensatory strategies to function better in daily
environments. Many of the above symptoms may also occur as part
of normal development, therefore evaluation by qualified
individuals is necessary to determine if the symptoms are due to
CAPD.
Additional Links:
Living And Working With A Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD)
CAPD
Parents' Page
CAPD Useful Links |
