A child with (central) auditory processing disorder: a case report

Abstract

Background: Subjects with (central) auditory processing disorder (C)APD may manifest a range of complaints including difficulty in speech perception in noise, following directions, and discrimination of similar speech sounds. Other disorders may also have the same behavioral manifestations.
The Case: Here we present an 8-year-old boy who was misdiagnosed and mismanaged as a child with learning disability. His speech, language and cognition problems at initial evaluation included semantic problem, a short length of speech, phonological sound disorder, and attention disorder. He showed abnormality in the dichotic digits test with free recall approach and monaural selective auditory attention test. Based on his performance and test results, he was suffering from (C)APD especially in dichotic listening and speech perception in competition. It was suggested that binaural hearing training with differential interaural intensity, informal localization training including localization clock, and auditory training in noise be added to his classic auditory training program.
Conclusion: Studying this subject was important because (C)APD diagnosis needs a team approach. Evidently, the parents, teacher and speech-language pathologist (SLP) did not seek a central auditory processing evaluations early enough but some of his behaviors could potentially be a red flag for (C)APD and could guide SLPs to refer him for central auditory testing. As we may not be able to evaluate central auditory processing in the early childhood, identifying the possible (C)APD signs by a SLP may help them to plan a more suitable program even before reaching a definite diagnosis.