Frequently Asked Questions

The purpose of this link is to list frequently asked questions posed to the author of this web site. Persons browsing this web site are invited to submit questions for posting here. Responses to questions represent the personal opinion of the author. Readers should be aware that the questions and answers posted here are for information only. While answers may be generalized to other situations, but individual circumstances may result in different interpretations. The diagnosis of central auditory processing disorder can be made only after complete testing has been accomplished, and all individual factors considered.

Question

I tested a 12-year-old boy who is having academic difficulties in school. He is very disorganized, has poor long-term memory, is two years delayed in reading comprehension, and also moderately disfluent. Here are the standard scores: FW-8, AFG-9, CW-5 (with a -7ear advantage for the left ear), CS-12. So, he did show a delay or disorder in central auditory processing by the CW subtest, but showed no problem by the CS subtest. How do you explain the difference between these two tests when they are both dichotic listening tests? I know that with a sentence, of course there is more grammatical information for closure, but is there any other reason for this?

Answer

This boy is slightly delayed in neuromaturation, or development of the auditory system, as indicated by CW test. The SS = 5 is not disordered, but indicates that some maturational delays exist. That is confirmed by the significant left ear advantage (-7) that is in the 2nd %ile for a child that age. You are absolutely correct that the added semantic cues (grammatical information) are the difference between the CW and CS. I always consider that the CW is a harder test, and if your subject has difficulty on the CS, the child has a substantial problem. So, as a borderline child you may want to have some remediation based on this and other aspects of his performance, and re-check in a year or so to see how auditory maturation is developing.

Question

I have been under the impression that SCAN-C is for use with kids up to and including age 11-11years. SCAN-A is for adolescents and adults starting at age 12. Norms on the SCAN-C are only up to 10-11 years. Can someone enlighten me as to which is the test to use with regard to scoring for a child who is 11-7 years old?

Answer

By strict sense of the word the child 11-7 should get SCAN-C. However, I would be very tempted to give the SCAN-A, because the 10 and 11 year olds are grouped together, you are really comparing your 11-7 year old to a young group. In your case I would be curious to see how the child stacked up against the 12 year olds. It is not a good idea to give both tests at the same sitting. You could give SCAN-A and then compare to performance norms on both SCAN-A and SCAN-C to see how he/she compares on the two tests. If the person has a problem, it will show up on SCAN-C. If it is a minimal problem comparison to the higher age norms will be more revealing.

Question

I'm hoping you can offer me some information regarding I.Q. and validity of responding to the CAPT. I have been under the impression that a child or adult with a slow learner label, I.Q. ranging between 70 and 85, could perform satisfactory on CAP testing. This assumption, of course, is based on an experienced examiner doing the testing.

Answer

I have always taught that you can do valid central auditory testing on persons with low I.Q. If they have the language to repeat the words, and the attention to do so, you can get very reliable results. My interpretation is then based on comparison of the SCAN-C standard scores to the standard scores of the speech-language and IQ measures. For example, if the overall SCAN-C standard score is a 4, (about the 10th %) and the SLP standard score results on any measure (Token Test, CELF-R, etc) is about a 4, and the IQ is 80, then everything is equivalent and the person does not have a specific CAPD. If the SLP& and IQ scores are standard score of 4 and the auditory processing results are SS of 1, then the performance discrepancy indicates a possible problem in auditory processing.

Question

I use the SCAN-C and SCAN-A regularly and had some questions about test administration. I noticed that with some clients, it is advantageous to pause the test between stimuli. Some seem to require just a bit of extra time to answer, but given this time are usually correct. Although the manual states that the test should not be paused once it has begun, it does not state specifically that the time between stimuli and the subject's ability to respond are tied to the assessment of processing disorders. Basically I am wondering if a number of no-responses due to time constraints are valid in classing a person as disordered. I have also noted that, when rushed, clients often make errors on subsequent stimuli presentations as they are still focused on previous stimuli or concerned over missed responses.

Answer

Regarding pausing between items. The SCAN-C and SCAN-A tests were nor med without pauses. Some persons would view the inability to respond within the time given as an indication of a listening problem, if not a true CAPD. That is, the patient who requires more time on this test may require more time in a school or social or work situation to keep up with what is being said. Some kinds of learning problems require more time for processing, as you know, and you may be seeing that in some children/adults. One way to see if that is the case is to do a SCAN-C or SCAN-A in the standard way, without pausing, and later (a couple of weeks) bring the person back and repeat the test giving all the time that is required. Remember the standardization data indicates that many clients will improve one standard score on retest, not enough to change their diagnostic category (unless they are right on the borderline) but you have to take into account the likelihood of slightly better performance. If there is a big difference in performance giving time for pauses, then the child/adult may benefit from suggestions regarding the need for extra time to process auditory information. It has important implications for teacher counseling (and parents).

Question

I tested an adult who is Russian speaking but has been in this country for 10 years. She did VERY poorly on all the SCAN-A subtests except the competing sentences. In your experience is this a common problem with non-native speakers?

Answer

We have published several articles reporting research on native linguistic background and central auditory test results. All of our research found that non-native speakers of English do very poorly on central auditory tests, regardless of how long they have spoken English, unless they learned it as a young child and were truly native bilingual speakers. Therefore you have to be careful when interpreting results of the central auditory test battery obtained on non-native speakers of English. Your results are pretty predictable, and the person may not have a true CAPD.