My son has APD and just told me about this big city greens episode and said it's similar to how he experiences APD. Thought you all might like to see this:

https://youtu.be/MUqkQlhhW2k?feature=shared

My 11 yo has APd. He recently went to his first sleepover, he probably went to bed 3-4 hours later than usual and slept somewhere new. The next 3 days it seemed like his auditory processing was off line, and gradually came back. Do you guys have a harder time processing with sleep deprivation or was this a fluke?

Hi everyone,

I’m not sure if my son has APD, but it’s the only thing that seems to make sense right now.

He started talking at the usual age, and it seemed fairly normal at first—"mama" and "dada" sounds—but when he really began chattering, he replaced almost every consonant with "d" or sometimes "g," which I later found out was called a total phoneme collapse. Despite this, he’s passed every hearing test he’s had. Though I’ve always found it odd that they seem to retest one of his ears repeatedly until he passes—this has happened every single time, even as a newborn. I’ll never forget standing there in my hospital gown, waiting forever for them to get a “good” result.

Since then, he’s had his hearing tested twice more and passed again, though the results for each ear always look different. At his last checkup, he actually failed in one ear because it had fluid in it, and the nurse didn’t retest him like they normally do. (I guess I should say he’s passed every test but one.) They referred him to an audiologist, but somehow it turned into another ENT visit instead—a complete waste of time. That’s when he passed again, of course.

He does get frequent ear infections, but no one has ever recommended tubes or suggested this could be tied to his speech difficulties. He’s 6 now, in first grade, and has been in speech therapy since preschool. He can read really well (even tested about a year ahead), and he seems to understand everything people say to him—which I know isn’t typical for APD. But when I asked him if he had trouble hearing in the ear he failed, he said he has trouble hearing in both ears.

His speech has improved a lot, but people who don’t know him can’t understand him at all. Even his own family struggles most of the time. His 8-year-old sister is the only one who really understands him, mostly. He uses a mix of ASL, his own signs, and spoken words, but it’s hard for him to communicate fully. He’s recently started typing, but it’s slow, and he gets so frustrated. It breaks my heart not to be able to understand all his thoughts and curious questions like other kids his age have.

We’ve ruled out apraxia—his hand-eye coordination is great, and his mouth and tongue are very articulate. Still, no one has been able to tell me what’s going on. Has anyone here experienced something similar?

My husband is hard of hearing, and has APD. I'm not sure if this stems from his hearing loss or APD, but he has a very hard time following conversations with a group of more than 3 people. I already talk at a very fast pace, and when I'm around other people, it probably is worse. That being said, he gets really upset because he feels left out of conversations. He's usually really quiet anyways, and rarely talks, which I'm attributing to his hearing loss.

How can I help him feel more included in conversations with a group of people?

Hi, I'm in college in the UK (so Junior year of HS for USA) and I've been dealing with suspected APD all of my life but it's not good. I can lip read somewhat ok, not amazing but does help me survive. I've been to audiology with the NHS and they can't refer me onto any specific clinics (as there aren't any for 16-17 year olds). My hearing loss check came out better than what should be my age group. But due to no clinics for APD, I am not being formally diagnosed for at least a year. Private tests are very expensive in my area (£3000+). I was diagnosed with sensitive hearing (it's on my NHS record) but the audiologist suspected APD too.

I'm struggling with my APD especially at college. It's hard not understanding what is going on or what people are talking about. I was wondering what I could do and if there is anything that would help. I use subtitles when possible including speech to text on my phone.

Is there anything that I could do to help with the APD or even just the sensitive hearing that is discrete? Any hearing aids or assistive tech? Or is there any therapy or something to help?

Thanks

I am a medical student but all my life I have always struggled being in the same wavelength with the teacher during a class, I have just been there because a good student doesn't miss classes, I would just go back home and study the things the teacher taught and be like "oh so this is what he meant" . Now that I am in med school it's even more difficult for me as the materials are voluminous and the lectures are so important to understand some important experiential stuff I won't be able to get from the books. The lecturer would just say something and people start laughing and I am like "oh maybe he said something funny, would like to know what that is" and sometimes he ask a question to the whole class , I didn't hear it , nobody raise his hand, then he point at me to answer the question and I am like "sir I don't know what the question is" and he's like "so you haven't even be following the lecture? Get out!!"

I have very obviously got APD. I can’t recite music or movies even after listening to them a million times. It’s the first telltale sign I think. Paying for a diagnosis is worthless as well. It’s so confusing to why it’s hard to retain written information though. Like I love history but it’s annoying because I can’t remember any of it. Any names or stories. I hate it so much. Because i think the only job I’d really want to do is become a Musuem guide. You don’t get paid a lot but I do actually find history fun to learn but I just can’t remember any of it. No matter how much I read. I love Japanese history but I just can’t encode it in my memory.

I have always had an issue with this I think because I always performed badly in school. Even though my peers who never tried got straight As.

I suspect I have central auditory processing disorder and I'm looking into getting tested. I have always had major issues understanding oral discussions in work meetings and lectures, and previous testing ruled out ADHD.

I've found a couple university clinics in my area that test for it, but they each charge at least $750 for testing, and my medical insurance told me they won't cover auditory testing for adults.

Curious what others' experience is with setting up testing for adult CAPD -- is this pricing about what I should expect? Anything else I should consider?

Edit: I'm located in the Washington DC/Baltimore area.

Do you have much experience with APD and stethoscopes? I’m an autistic doctor with fairly mild APD but find it difficult to process a lot of sounds with a steth, particularly with all the noise on a ward/ED etc. I’m considering getting an amplified steth but they’re pricey and I’m not certain they’d fix the issue, so it’s a fair gamble. I do know some let you record and listen back later so at least I could review somewhere quieter. Thoughts?

I have always had a really hard time processing audio. I absolutely need captions to watch a show and fully understand what's going on, and some noises just make me want to cry. I have most of the symptoms (except difficulty reading, I also have hyperlexia) but my parents won't take me to get tested since they think I'm just looking for more disorders to have.

I'm pretty sure I have APD, in fact, I'm almost 100% sure. I was wondering if I can just say I have it without getting tested, especially since I understand the testing is not very accurate?

Oftentimes Ive seen "programs" available for dyslexia or speech or auditory processing disorder but when you get into the details, they are wildly expensive and some online videos.

My daughter does not do well with online learning and Im starting to wonder if all of these "treatments" are ripoffs. Its seems like the vulnerable being preyed upon.

Has anyone here EVER seen anyone get some positive results from APD programs?

We just found out that our 4 year olds teacher and OT therapist believe she has APD. We have an appointment scheduled with her primary to discuss this further. In the meantime at home she is having a hard time following directions and remembering rules. I am curious if anyone has experienced this and if so any tips?

Recently, I was fortunate to get an evaluation for APD. My goal was to use this diagnosis to have my insurance cover hearing aids since I think there is good reason to believe that they would help my symptoms (especially with blocking out background noise). Unfortunately, the result of my evaluation was that I don't have APD. All of my test results were "normal".

I'm not giving up, but I'm certainly disappointed and frustrated.

I have had these symptoms since I was a child-- I even had my hearing tested as a child because I was worried I was going deaf-- and I finally worked up the courage to get myself properly evaluated as an adult.

And here we are.

I wonder if I "tried too hard" on the test, or maybe the test itself failed to capture the nuance of my symptoms. Maybe I shouldn't have "filled in the blanks" or made guesses if I failed to fully capture a word or phrase. Maybe I should have stressed to the evaluator that doing the test was exceptionally straining for me-- I was straining far more than I would during a casual interaction in my day-to-day. Had this been a casual interaction, I would have failed to pick up most of the words and phrases.

Regardless, I still believe I have APD and will continue to refer to myself as such.

The evaluator suggested that I might have a sensory processing issue, though I'm going to need to explore that option a bit more before I go in for an evaluation.

I have autism and really struggle to process and understand things people say. When people talk, it’s fuzzy, mumbled, gibberish or I can’t hear it at all. And sometimes I know what they are saying but I can’t process what they are saying. I don’t think it’s a hearing problem because I can usually hear other sounds quite well. I am going to tell my occupational therapist about this but I don’t know what they can do.

Does learning sign language help? I’ve been ignoring my APD diagnosis for about two years and basically know nothing about it. But I’ve started to realized that maybe I would have a better time if I understood some sign language and learned lip reading. I’m very bad at lip reading so it does not help my APD at all. Any advice in general for someone who has APD but didn’t decide researching because of ignorance but now finding it harder and harder to deal with without mechanisms?

Hi everyone! I was just diagnosed with Auditory Processing Disorder and my ENT mentioned that hearing aids do not help much with it because my hearing is perfectly fine and it's a problem with how my brain is filtering out the background noise. He said the only thing that'll help is how I cope and deal with it. Like asking people to talk louder and clearer or talking in a calmer environment. He said that I still do a trial period with some aids just for mental peace but I'm wondering if it actually helps.

I'm from India so I don't know how advanced tech is here rn. I did see some pretty expensive options which are in the 4000 dollars range but idk how much it'll actually help me. Some perspective will be nice

There are certain people in my life that I have found just tend to mumble worse than anyone else in the world. I do read lips to a certain extent but that can only get me so far. I can get by with saying “huh?” or “sorry, what did you say?” maybe twice but then after that, it gets really awkward so I just say something like “oh okay” and hope they weren’t asking a question or giving me vital information. I really hate operating this way, it can be very isolating and lonely, but I try to see the humor in it and be self deprecating about it. Who can relate?

I have a really weak episodic memory (events of my life in detail) this might be due to my Aphantasia. But what’s even more affected is my semantic memory so if I read a book, even if read that book 1000 times in one week. I could probably just about remember the main characters name and few main things that happened. If I listen to a song and hear the lyrics, it still doesn’t go into my memory.

I’ve looked at the big Facebook group for APD and almost every person on there says they have this besides one person I came across who had no issues like this. Just hearing people was hard. Which must be a super mild form of APD.

I’ve known about my APD since 2019 I think. The reason I even found out about it was because I became friends with people in this time who always sing songs quote movies together and I could never do it, even if I listened to the music or watched the film a bunch.

Another thing I’ve been thinking about recently if my APD was acquired from this one time when I got in a fight and this kid punched me which caused a concussion but it’s the only time I’ve been punched like that and it got broken up. But even before that I wasn’t some smart kid at all and I don’t think I was that big into music. Could one punch from another kid do this to me? Boxers and mma fighters get hit 100 times harder all the time. So maybe I’m just ruminating on this thought for no reason.

I have been researching how to improve my ability to actually hear my family. My audio processing is so bad now I can only hear people if their right in front of me where I can read their lips.otherwise I can't process what they are saying. I looked into what helps and I'm confused should I get a certain type of hearing aid or remote mic? And if so what type of hearing aid or remote mic? And if I need a mic which one can I connect to my ear buds

Hello everyone! I’ve created an online test for Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) inspired by a series of standard APD tests.. While it’s not a substitute for a diagnostic test, which should be done with an audiologist, I’d love to get your feedback on it. If you could give it a try and share your thoughts, I’d really appreciate it. Thank you! https://www.forbrain.com/auditory-processing-disorder-test/

I’m not sure how to title this, but what I said above. I’m not diagnosed with APD, but my entire life I’ve struggled with comprehending words. It’s like I can tell they said something, but I couldn’t even tell you what one syllable sounded like. It feels like my brain just stops working and has to reboot. My hearing is just fine but I chalked it up to poor hearing anyway. When I found out about APD I was like “uh oh” but I’m choosing to ignore the possibility because I’m tired of the internet telling me I have x y and z disorders.

But that’s beside the point. I want to know if anyone can relate to this on this subreddit. I’m a freshman in college so I joined some clubs, naturally big groups would talk, or little groups, but the important thing is that I’m participating in group discussions. I’m constantly reminded of my struggles because someone will say something and I’ll think they said it too quietly. However, by the time my brain has rebooted, another person is responding without missing a beat. I’m like huh? You actually heard that? It’s even worse when you are significantly closer to the person talking and this happens. I have to discern what was said by listening to the response because asking someone to repeat what they said when everyone else could hear it just fine is awkward. Then it just looks like I wasn’t actively listening, which is not what happened, I genuinely couldn’t understand what was said. Idk it’s starting to annoy me cuz it’s like I’m always trying to keep up in conversations in noisy settings, I can’t truly think about the subject matter when my brain is a step behind. Can anyone relate, or am I just crazy?

This might be confusing.

Let me explain, I want to lip read but I am terrible at it because essentially I need noise and lips to connect what others are saying if that makes sense. Like putting two and two together.

I don’t know if I’ll just pick it up by watching YouTube/YouTubers or if there is a website or something. I am also planning to learn BSL.

The thing is I need a lot more time to process information than others (I have autism). So I need advice on how to get better at lip reading. Thanks for reading.

ETA: I would also like to mention sign language. With the slower processing thing, when I watch I program with a vocal to BSL interpreter (Iykyk) it looks like they’re rapping with their hands. I also use to take Spanish as a GSCE (Before my APD diagnosis) and all I’ve learned is that native Spanish speakers talk fast.

hello. recently I have seen some people talking about their experiences with auditory processing disorders, and I felt I related, so I looked more into it online. several of the symptoms listed reminded me of things people would get mad at me about when I was a child.

is there any good way, short of formal testing, that could give me a general idea of whether I might have this or not? for other disorders and such I've found questionnaires/checklists that may give a general idea, but I'm not finding much of the sort with regard to auditory processing disorder.

My 11yo daughter has struggled with what seemed like "typical" childhood anxiety for years. We finally started treating it this year. It's gone OK, but I don't think we've gotten to the real issue. We love her therapist, and we're trying medication that seems to help a bit, but...I see her not being her fullest self yet. Her dad (divorced) and I have separately done some research and a LOT of what we've read about ADP seems to fit her. In fact, separately from this, my current partner was helping daughter with homework and kindly asked if there may be "some sort of processing issue."

I've sent an email to our school counselor (we were already in the works for a 504 for her anxiety), but what other first steps should we take? Any favorite resources out there? I'm doing lots of internet reading, but it's hard to tell the good sources from the less than good.

Hey everyone,

I’ve seen a lot of posts here about using hearing aids or getting audiometry tests done, and it got me thinking. From what I understand, APD (Auditory Processing Disorder) isn’t typically about not hearing sounds, but rather about the brain’s ability to process and make sense of those sounds.

So, no matter if you use something to improve your hearing since the problem is not there.

People with APD often have normal hearing on tests, so the problem doesn’t seem to be about volume, but clarity. This makes me wonder if hearing aids, which amplify sound, might not always be the best solution.

Maybe focusing on strategies or therapies to improve auditory processing could be more effective? My doctor wanted me to train my brain to improve this but it was like 6 intensive weeks of training, could not do it but not sure if someone did it.

Thanks!

Hi-I recently started using my signia active pro Device again and it makes my vision worse and fog. But it greatly helps my fatigue at work and pain. It used to actually help my vision but now seems to be doing the opposite. Any recommendations?

Hey, all! Do any of you wear buttons or have signs at your work that disclose that you've got auditory processing disorder? I work at a library and I have difficulty hearing folks everyday, so I thought having some kind of notice that they need to speak clearly with me would be helpful. I've seen buttons on Etsy that say things like, "I have APD, so please speak clearly", which may be helpful, but I'm curious to hear others' opinions. If you have something like this, does it work for you, or has it done the complete opposite?

I read it was because of Auditory Processing Disorder that I talk wicked wicked fast sometimes. Psychiatrists think it’s Mania but it’s not. Do any of you talk wicked fast at times too?