CAPD and kids

How CAPD affects a child at school in the classroom

We listed some of the signs that could be a warning of CAPD in your child in our CAPD introduction. These included an inability to remember and complete instructions, delayed speech development, difficulty listening in noisy environments like classrooms, delayed academic progress and more.

Importance of auditory processing skills in the classroom

It’s easy to see how important these skills are in the classroom and the academic areas most affected by CAPD are language subjects and abilities like spelling and phonics. Maths subjects are less like to be affected as long as the child can hear, understand and action the teaching instruction given.

The difficulty arises when the child appears to mix together statements made by the teacher and any words heard in the background noise in the classroom. A child with CAPD has difficulty discerning between the two sources of noise and therefore mixes them together.

As a coping mechanism kids with CAPD rely heavily on observed context to fill in any missing words they didn’t hear or discern. Trying to fill in words like this is something we all do when we miss a word or two. But when it is a constant for the child, they can miss or misunderstand the most important parts of the teachings and fall further and further behind.

It is therefore very understandable that when listening becomes increasingly difficult, and the effort becomes too great, the child will ‘switch off’ and become withdrawn in the classroom setting. This can also extend to social settings as the process of listening and participating in conversation is the same in the playground as it is in the classroom.

In a classroom setting direct intervention as part of the treatment and management of CAPD will be required to ensure the child is able to maintain their academic standards.

Read more about Central Auditory Processing Disorder:

• Introduction to auditory processing disorder
• What is auditory processing disorder?
• What causes auditory processing disorder?
• How do you test for and diagnose auditory processing disorder?
• What treatment exists for auditory processing disorder?