Auditory Processing Disorder Treatment
Brain training is known to improve central auditory processing.
Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD) is what we call the “silent epidemic.” Although research literature varies widely on its incidence, reports indicate that 5% to 30% of the population may suffer from some degree of central auditory processing disorders.
We detect sound with our ears, but our brain constructs what we actually perceive from the hearing process, sorting and organizing that sound into meaningful information. A person with an auditory processing problem may have difficulty distinguishing similar sounding words in speech such as “card” and “carts” or “moon” and “noon”. Other struggling brains can add a sound that is not there, can drop a sound that is there or, can, most commonly, change the order of sounds within a word. This occurs not only when listening to people speaking, but also occurs when the subject is reading, because the experience of reading involves a little voice in your brain that reads the words back to you. Just like an external spoken voice your internal voice can distort sound as you read.
CAPD affects the writing process
The problem can manifest itself in the writing process as well. In fact, many people with central auditory problems find simultaneously listening to a speaker and writing or typing notes nearly impossible. They can listen or write, but can’t do both at the same time. This is why many students receive modification in their classes allowing them to have hard copies of their instructors notes. However, as a student advances in school, or if competitively employed in the workforce, these accommodations may be harder and harder to obtain.
The ultimate results of an improved central auditory processing system are improved listening, reading, spelling, writing and note-taking
This is why the Brain Potential Institute team works so very hard to repair the central auditory processing system, housed predominately in the left temporal lobe of the brain. We begin the repair by having the student process single sounds one at at time. Each letter is artificially restricted to the most common sound that it makes. We design all of our processing to go completely from left to right to drive data from one side of the brain to the other across the Corpus Collosum, which connects the left and right hemispheres of the brain. Our students simultaneously listen and write those sounds, most often in medium they can touch and feel. This allows tactile engrans, or “touch prints” to be stored in the brain in the shapes and forms of the letters. This results in much more legible handwriting output, producing for many the first well-formed and attractive writing of their lives!