Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Updated again: no CAPD

Bumping for more input on CAPD if anyone here has it. An open-ended discussion with DD yielded the following info...she says she has trouble with:

--following a conversation when more than one person is talking at once
--remembering oral multi-step directions
--paying attention to a quieter voice when other voices are around her

She volunteered this info--I did not solicit it. That is pretty CAPD-ish, huh? She denies having trouble actually hearing, though of course, she may not know that she does, since she used to living in that body. She has a long history of serious middle ear infections in toddlerhood and had ear tubes.

The thing that doesn't fit is that she has no reading issues, no spelling issues, nada. So my question is whether that would be typical in a gifted kid with CAPD or whether that would pretty much always go along with it. I'll look into the screening for sure. She's going to start OT soon and they have audiology and so on on staff there so it should be easy. The testing looks nice and concrete.

She IS a "Huh?" kid. She's also a kid who looks bewildered a fair bit. Sort of a "Why is this confusing to you?" sort of character, since you know she's smart. It's always fairly easy to get her set straight, so it's never really that big a deal, but. She is also very literal and tends to miss some nuance in conversation at times, or to be slightly "behind."

The two things that are red flags to me in identifying clients who need screened for CAPD: 1) The Huh Kid (as you have described)...sometimes it feels as if I'm speaking a foreign language to them. I see them trying to figure out what I've said, but it doesn't compute. 2) Kids who mix up similar sounding words either speaking or hearing. I find this more often with brighter kids with a large vocabulary. "The Blank Look" is common...and the kids I've seen never complain about hearing issues....they just tell me they don't understand. Public schools have a simple CAPD screening tool they can give. But I usually suggest an audiologist who will give a very thorough hearing test initially to rule out normal hearing issues before giving the more advanced CAPD tests.

I have never noticed that she mixes up words at all. No issues with phonics. Self-taught reader. Flawless and fast. Very precocious verbally, in fact, as a toddler. So that part doesn't fit. But, although she has always talked a lot, she would still miss things. It wasn't that she wasn't reciprocal in conversation, but she does need to have things repeated, and always has. She gets called "spacey" by teachers and instructors. Other children complain that she doesn't seem to hear them or is in her own world. At home I'm afraid we tend to read this more as defiant/intentionally ignoring or oppositional, which it may be--or not. Her teacher brought up inattentive ADD as well (I guess I said this upthread) but we generally have no problems with completion of work. In fact, written work is almost always excellent.

Boy, she is a puzzle.

You know... A simple hearing test might be a good place to start. They're almost always covered by insurance. If you go to an audiology clinic, you'll have a foot in the door for CAPD testing if they recommend. I would bark up this tree before any ADHD talk.

DS14 has been diagnosed with CAPD. He cannot follow multiple people talking at once, needs to have things explained to him again in class, has real trouble understanding accents and has trouble hearing in gyms or swimming pools because the sound bounces around. He has that "Huh" look on his face in social situations because the talk flies by so fast. He had lots of ear infections when he was young.

In my opinion, people with CAPD often have anxiety because they get teased about being confused, and may look spectrummy even if they are not. Of course, you can have CAPD and be on the spectrum. My son has excellent theory of mind, but avoids social situations if he doesn't know the people. He has good give and take in conversation if he is comfortable with people.

He had his hearing tested by an audiologist with special training in auditory processing. He is on the 5th percentile for hearing in noise. The last few years he used an FM system (microphone for the teacher and earphones for him) to listen in class. This year, he hardly used them due to logistical problems in a large high school. Hopefully next year, it will be easier to get the FM system before class.

To me, your daughter sounds like she has some CAPD issues. My son also has dyslexia, so spelling is creative and phonics are still shaky, but he reads well (silently) and has excellenet comprehension. There are 4 types of CAPD, if you want to research it further.

Ultra, I know nothing about CAPD. But I will also say that you can often see this "huh" quality in people on the autism spectrum. They are so deep in what's in their own heads that they don't come out of that fast enough to listen to what you're saying (that is, a listening, not a hearing problem). We do spend a lot of time repeating/clarifying directions around here.

I hope you can sic your professionals on sorting this out.
DeeDee

My son has CAPD and is hearing impaired. Even with an excellent hearing aid, he still misses things in class or even at home. For example, in our house (which is quiet) with the hearing aid on, he was watching the Disney Channel. He said, "I can't believe they are saying bad words!" (What bad words?). He said, "They keep saying "hell, hell, hell."" Actually, they were saying "Help, help, help."
On the other hand, he reads 2-3 grade levels above, strong phonics (but we did 5 years of a phonics workbook series in 3 years), etc.
You can try to make sure she always sits in the front row (preferential seating). That is in my son's IEP. FM system can help. Ask teacher for their notes to photocopy or get a friend's notes, etc. There are ways to compensate.
I've just accepted that my son with hearing loss and CAPD will always miss spoken things, but my hope is that he is just so bright and can compensate in other ways that it will hopefully not ultimately matter.
How many teens miss things because they are spacey or are on their I-phone, etc? I always tell my son, you will have to work harder than the other kids just to keep up.

As I say, fortunately, this one should be an easy one to get tested through people we are already referred to (though not yet set up with).

Deedee, I got a chance to talk to her teacher about ASD concerns (we'd touched on it before but very briefly). I actually trust her almost as much as a professional, considering she has a number of years at a gifted magnet under her belt and has seen a number of gifted ASD kids. She also said that DD does not present as ASD in her opinion, in particular mentioning that she is socially well-liked--but she agrees that "something is there." She says, in fact, that she has spent the school year trying to figure out what it is, but still isn't sure what. In a way, it's comforting to know that this very experienced teacher (20+ years) finds DD as baffling as I do!

Update:

DD is in week 2 of 3rd grade. Here is a first: she has expressed to both me and her teacher that she is having difficulty hearing the teacher speak in the classroom. Her desk was towards the back and has been moved. (However, last year they moved desks all the time so it's not like this was just something that cropped up due to desk placement.) I don't know if this teacher has a soft voice or something. I also wonder if DD was simply not paying attention and said "I couldn't hear you" as an excuse, but I don't want to be too dismissive. Her teacher seemed to believe her; when I contacted her, she said she had already put a message through to the school to see about testing. As explained above, we also have wondered about CAPD--this has also been discussed with the teacher prior to school starting.

What should I be asking to have done?

Is it better to go through the school or our insurance?

ETA: this summer has clarified some things for me. DD had a very socially successful summer. She had an amazingly great time at sleepaway camp and made numerous new friends. She got a lot of calls for playdates and was very socially active; in fact, other kids seem to be seeking her out a lot. There's just no way you can say that this kid is having problems making friends or is socially isolated, though she also has a strong personality and is not always liked by other kids with strong personalities. So this really big piece of the puzzle for ASD just isn't there. We continue to see major emotional lability, though. I am more and more thinking that the depression diagnosis is the correct one.

We took my son to the audiologist for his regular exam right before school started. We had bought a new hearing aid in March, but she couldn't program it to the highest level since he said it was "too loud." This time, she was able to do that, which increased it by 20%.
He says he's hearing well in the classroom, even though there are 34 kids in the class. He's alot more focused also (although he's now in the full-time gifted program so maybe he's not as bored). We have opted not to use the FM system this year since our school also has a Surround Sound or overhead mike system.
The audiologists and psychologists we have seen said that the auditory part of the brain keeps developing throughout puberty. They think his CAPD will get better! He's in his third year of piano lessons and will start the string orchestra this year.
I definitely think music lessons help CAPD alot. That is something to think about if you think your daughter has CAPD.