Diff between auditory processing disorder and auditory disynchrony?

[TerryJ2]

http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/836769-overview

I just met a woman who had a successful cochlear implant. She was talking about disynchronicty and it sounded so much like auditory processing disorder. Is there a way to figure out the difference? Or is processing more like an adjective and neuropathy is one of the biological dxes and causes for it?

 

[InsaneCdn]

Well... there's something like 5 different Auditory Processing Disorders (APD) conditions, and they all present differently. SO, I can't say if it overlaps with any of the other APDs but...

I highly doubt it overlaps with auditory figure ground. With this Auditory Processing Disorders (APD), the person hears normally and processes sounds normally... in a quiet environment. That is, they can carry on a whole conversation and understand the meaning, follow instructions, etc., except when there is background noise. At that point, they can't "tune in" to the important sounds, OR it takes incredible effort to do so.

 

[TerryJ2]

Hmm. Well, my son passed a regular hearing test with background noise. I still think we haven't done the "right" kind of testing. We are doing a child study at school and I am hoping they give us a school district referral for an auditory processing disorder test, very specific only to that issue.

 

[InsaneCdn]

My son passed that one too.
Here, the Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) does specialized screening - and she flagged a "possible" issue, enough to recommend specialist audiology for testing (PhD level specialist in APDs...)
The PhD Audiologist spent over an hour and a half testing ALL forms of Auditory Processing Disorders (APD) (regular audiologist had done thorough hearing test, so she didn't re-do that part).
Four of five areas were definitely not a problem.
The other one (auditory figure ground) was... off the bottom of the charts.

The test for that one used specialized headphones with multiple directional speakers that could create background-noise soundfields accurately. It tests using real words, not "sounds". difficult child said it was the hardest thing he's ever done... and he was wiped out for several days after.

 

[TerryJ2]

Sounds like a great test! (Set of tests.) Thank you.

 

[InsaneCdn]

Irony? PhD specialist told us that she should be getting a LOT more referrals than what comes through... and we had to fight for years to get there.

 

[TerryJ2]

Sigh. It's all about education. doctors need to educate other doctors about their fields.

 

[InsaneCdn]

The Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) screening test that got us the referral... wasn't even available 5 years ago.
In practice (not in research), this is really just hitting the radar now.
Some people still use the older screening tests, and... they don't cover auditory figure ground. Many older tests even miss auditory discrimination.

 

[buddy]

Q passed the auditory discrimination tests too. His was identified during the auditory processing evaluation ....

 

[buddy]

Hey, Terry .....bring difficult child here to do it. It's in mpls. Wonder if insurance would pay out of state.

 

[TerryJ2]

hmm ... that's a though!