Clinic - Week 9

This week in clinic I saw a 20 year old male. He was referred to our clinic for CAPD testing. This client reported some fullness and felt like his right ear was better than the left. He also reported severe allergies and was a little congested on the day of testing. This client mentioned he had some difficulty when talking one-on-one with somebody, especially in the presence of background noise. He had previously been diagnosed with ADHD and was currently taken medication.

First, a complete hearing evaluation was performed. Normal otoscopy and tympanograms were obtained. Puretone testing resulted in thresholds within the normal limits at most frequencies, although borderline at 25 dB around 1000 Hz. The importance of hearing protection was discussed with this patient when working on his truck and being in the presence of loud noise.

Next, the SCAN-A, Auditory Fusion Test, and the SSW were administered. Some time was spent discussing the results with the client. A quick over view if the tests showed that this client did have some auditory processing disabilities. A complete report would be sent to him as well as the doctor who referred him. Management such as seating in the classroom, etc was mentioned to him.

In this article is suggests that tasks used in the assessment of auditory processing may also assess attention. This study was done on 38 children and looked at the correlation between children with impaired SSW performance with other auditory measures, cognitive ability,
language functioning, and behavioral ratings specific to inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity. The results were suggestive that CAPD and ADHD are not the same.
Check it out :)

Riccio, C., Hynd, G., Cohen, M., & Molt, L. (1996). The staggered spondaic word test: performance of children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, American Journal of Audiology, 5, 55 - 62.
http://aja.asha.org/cgi/reprint/5/2/55?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=CAPD+and+ADHD&andorexactfulltext=and&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=relevance&resourcetype=HWCIT