"Children experiencing CAPD reflect an impaired ability to attend, to discriminate, to recognize, and to remember information presented auditorily even though they are of normal intelligence with unimpaired hearing function."
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The Listening Child: What Can Go Wrong by Stephen V. Prescod Trafford Publishing
book review by Priscilla Estes
Up to four million children in the United States are labeled "slow,"” "stupid" or misdiagnosed with ADD, ADHD, or dyslexia when they actually have a neurologically defective auditory mechanism called CAPD, or Central Auditory Processing Disorder. In layperson's terms, a clinical audiologist explains what CAPD is, ways to prevent it, and what to do if your child has it. Children with CAPD can hear but cannot listen: "Effective listening is the process by which information is decoded and encoded by the brain."
Children with CAPD cannot filter out irrelevant stimuli and so cannot decode and comprehend what they are hearing. With simple language and medical line drawings, Prescod clarifies how decoding goes awry by explaining the neural development of the auditory system in the fetus and growing child. Excessive noise levels in today's society and classrooms cause changes in a child’s brain chemistry that affect his auditory processing and hence his ability to think, speak and perform, resulting in poor verbal skills, faulty memory and decreased attention spans.
A wealth of lists, charts, graphs, and charming illustrations assists in helping recognize, prevent, and treat CAPD. The material is dense, reinforces by repetition and examples, and presents clinical case studies with a helpful list of management suggestions. "Chunking," for example, is the process of breaking down and organizing information into small manageable bits for easy assimilation. Music therapy speeds up information transfer between brain hemispheres.
A seasoned audiologist and educator, Prescod presents a manual on recognizing, understanding and managing CAPD for academics, speech-language pathologists, teachers and parents. An extensive glossary and bibliography add practicality, along with a "Self-Evaluation Quiz" to test your comprehension.