Auditory Processing Disorder - Identifying Symptoms

Includes videos and the chance to present your questions about Auditory Processing Disorder to a speech language pathologist with over 40 years experience.

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Video interviews and transcripts with specialist, Devon Barnes.

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Clinical Director, Devon Barnes, continues the discussion on Auditory Processing Disorder by explaining some of the major symptoms and the effects they have on APD sufferers. Methods for detecting the disorder in students are discussed.

[sandratimmons]

At 52 years old I'm just now seeing what it was that I struggled with so much in school! I still struggle socially with this. Wow!

[mayakeely]

I find it funny how they are talking about how it is hard trying to listen with background noise while they are playing music in the background of the video, messing with my head. lol

[michelleus]

they just said its hard for people with this to understand stuff with background noise, and they play background music while she talks.

[shinnonosabakux]

I honestly want to cry of happiness. this explains so much for me!

[CARTONofSUKI]

Sometimes I just never get someone's name because I can't make it out. I prefer to listen to music during "quiet study time" because music is organised and predictable so I don't have to process the auditory info because I've heard it so many times whereas the slight background noise is random and confusing. In class I pretty much always have to ask someone beside me what the homework was or what the teacher said.

[elenalaloca]

I was diagnosed in the 90's with (C) APD. I was already 25 years old, and it was a roommate that initially pointed out that I rely way too much on lip-reading in order to hear someone, so I finally had gone to a specialist with my symptoms.
My exam and testing resulted with my having a major case of (C)APD and was surprised that I had gone this far in life without diagnosis. They were surprised that my teachers throughout my school years never noticed it. Once I got the diagnosis, I did a lot of research, and learned I had a lot of obvious symptoms that should have pointed it out.

Some of those symptoms included:

- Late speech development in childhood. I even to this day remember my private speech therapy lessons. I didn't start to really talk until I was 4.
- I am a loud talker, and only really hear well when I am listening to a loud talker.
- I had a difficult time in language classes, particularly with foreign languages. Math was my jam, but language... not so much.
- It was IMPOSSIBLE for me to hear people talking in a restaurant or other loud environments. Even the food chewing sounds in my mouth/head would interfere. Meal times were difficult growing up.
- I constantly ask people to repeat themselves, because I never hear the first part of the sentence. By the time I am able to 'tune in' to a person talking, I already missed the first half of what they said.
- Talking on the phone is extremely difficult. I usually have to put it on speaker and turned all the way up.
- I would Hyper-focus on an activity and I just 'tune out' outside noises.... for HOURS! (like puzzles or crafts etc) Someone would practically have to yell my name to snap me out of it, and get my attention. If someone WAS talking to me, it would sound like someone talking low from another room- all muffled, almost like how adults sound on Charlie Brown animations, so I wouldn't look up or mentally acknowledge that someone was talking to me.
- when something is said to me in an environment with background noise, if I cannot see their mouth, it sounds like they are speaking a completely different language.
- During my youth, my mother would be angry with me claiming I had 'selective hearing' as if I was doing it on purpose.
- I need CLARITY in statements spoken to me, so, many times I follow up with a bunch of questions regarding to their comment to ensure I heard/understood them properly. Sometimes I simply try to repeat what was said to me to ensure I heard them right. Scarily enough, many times I would have it TOTALLY WRONG. Funny how my brain will 'fill in the blanks', no matter how wrong it can be.

After additional follow-ups, the 'audiologist' pointed out why i was able to get that far in life without a diagnosis. Apparently, I developed a major coping mechanism... and that was lip-reading. I didn't realize how much I depended on watching someone's mouth to 'hear' what they are saying. Apparently, I became very good at it, and I had no idea that others didn't do it to the extent of what I had been doing.

So now it's been 25 years since my diagnosis, and have learned additional coping mechanisms. The best thing I do when I am in a group environment, socially or otherwise, Once I notice I have been asking people to repeat themselves (usually more than once or twice) I quickly follow up by saying "I apologize, I have an auditory disorder so I cannot make out speech at times". Everyone seems to be quite forgiving once they know and/or understand. My poor husband, he knows to repeat himself whenever I ask.

Here's the kicker... I am now living in my second foreign-language country, so working on my third language. The struggle is real, but at the same time it really helps train my brain to listen. I am sure I would be a lot more advanced in this language if it wasn't for my disorder. I have a disorder, but it doesn't hold me back. I plug through and purposely challenge myself to hone my much needed additional skills to overcome my shortcomings with APD.

[PaulineLovesPhysics]

Thumbs up if the backround music is pissing you off.

[bonto]

I find it easier to process what someone is saying when I don't have to look them in the eye. If I'm uncomfortable, I also have a bad time focusing as well as when there is a pressure to focus like in a classroom setting.

[LONGLIVELAYNESTALEY]

I'm 21 and still have this problem. Respect to others who struggle with this!

[erinhowell]

What were they thinking with that music?

[slantsix]

Also, people that talk fast are a huge headache for me. Spoken directions that have lots of steps are also a nightmare for me. Driving directions are impossible when spoken. I ask people to write things down.

[Gio-yyot]

I usually say, ”what” a lot even though I here them I just didn’t process it, sometimes not often when a person talks it sounds like gibberish, and I misinterpret some words with background noise or don’t hear some words in the sentence

[piplup]

Literally every time i listen to someone on the phone they sound like the damn adults from charlie brown.

[FaroeBourke]

background sound while discussing auditory processing problems!

[Tiffany-zhtt]

I'm so tired of people getting mad at me for asking "what?" 5 times before I can comprehend them and then giving up on speaking with me

[donnaschim]

And, yes, that background music is just enough to create problems for me. At first I thought I was imagining it. Closed captioning is a blessing to me. Sometimes when I hear music, I keep hearing it for a while after. Same thing with sirens, I keep hearing them after they are off.

[williamgrand]

In loud environments I find that putting in ear plugs really helps, I haven't tried this at a club where listening and being social is more important. I do allot of industrial construction and drowning out as much back ground noise as possible helps, but its still difficult for what people are saying to register in my head. My current foreman has a really raspy voice that is very distinct and pierces through background noise which is really helpful.

[renebest]

This makes so much sense. Consistently having to stop whatever I'm doing to listen and watch lips to understand, asking people to repeat themselves not because I couldn't hear them speaking, but I couldn't hear what they were saying, hating phone calls and audio books because I can't see their lips; I can't count how many times I've I've asked someone to repeat themselves and specify to not raise their volume.
Tone was actually super important growing up, since if I couldn't catch their words, I could piece together by their tone.
I loved learning but had the hardest time listening. In regards to the noise from passing time, I just shut off my focus. I "zoned out", focusing on where I was going, not what I heard around me.

[jessicalt]

I was evaluated by a dr. who put background noise on and I asked her to turn it off. She said that was done on purpose to find out if I had one. Fascinating.

[patriciacooper]

I can hear a pin drop in the woods, hear everything around me when we are working there BUT I can't hear people talking when in civilization. I was diagnosed with CAPD years ago and told nothing could be done about it, given no help, and sent out into the world which I couldn't understand most of the oral communication, and expected to thrive without help. Of course it was obvious to people I can hear but they didn't and still don't understand it's voices and not the background noise. Recently this caused havoc at a doctor's office and hospital. I'm 66 years old and I was treated like a bad little kid because my voice is loud because I could not follow the conversation. That earned them a report to the medical society, and I am working on a Justice department complaint form right now. After years of abuse just because I can't hear properly, I'm done accepting that people will abuse me over this. I will take action every time a professional person does this under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Refusing someone the modifications needed to communicate in a professional setting is ILLEGAL in the USA. I won't put up with it.