Overview of CAPD and Professional Guidelines Flashcards
What is auditory processing?
What the brain does with what the ear hears
The ear picks up sounds and directs them to the central auditory nervous system (CANS)
The CANS, in turn, processes and interprets the signal
What was the ASHA task force (1996)?
They defined auditory processing in terms of performance on a specific group of auditory tasks
Perception of sound, clarification of sound, localization and lateralization of sound, attending to sound, analyzing, storing, and retrieving information, integration of message, auditory performance with competing and degraded acoustic signals
Did the ASHA task force also analyze the processing of temporal features of sound?
Yes
Temporal integration or summation, temporal resolution or discrimination, temporal ordering, temporal masking
Do auditory processes and mechanism just apply to verbal signals?
No, also non-verbal
Do auditory processes have neurophysiologic and behavioral correlates?
Yes
Many neurocognitive mechanisms and processes are engaged in recognition and discrimination tasks
You can test them with behavioral and neurophysiologic tests
You cannot understand speech by just hearing it
Non-acoustic factors (attention, short term memory, long term language representations) also play a huge part in understanding language
What is the ASHA technical report (2005)?
Stated that CAP refers to the efficiency and effectiveness by which the central auditory nervous system (CANS) utilizes auditory information
Are all of the auditory processing skills developed at the same time?
No, but they do overlap with each other
Each are inseparable in their contribution to the efficient and accurate processing of auditory information
Are some of the aspects of normal auditory processing critical to academic skills?
Yes
What is auditory resolution or discrimination?
Ability to discriminate between sounds that differ in frequency, duration, and intensity (high/low, long/short, and soft/loud)
The ability to discriminate between acoustically similar words without reliance on contextual or visual cues (sun/fun, fin/thin)
What is auditory attention?
The ability to attend to relevant acoustic signals, such as speech and sustain that attention for an age-appropriate amount of time
What is auditory figure ground?
The ability to identify the primary linguistic or non-linguistic sound source from background noise
Example: the teacher’s voice is the primary signal in a room of competing noise
What is auditory closure?
It is the ability to understand the whole word or message when a part is missing
In adverse listening environments auditory closure helps to “fill in the blanks” and, therefore, understand the messages
For adults with rich language base/experience this task is much easier than for children who are building language skills
What are phonemes?
The smallest unit of speech sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances
Children need phonemic awareness to learn to read because letters represent phonemes in words
What are morphemes?
The smallest unit of meaning in a language but a morpheme does not necessarily have to be a word
For e.g., Cats has two morpheme; /Cat/ is one morpheme, and /s/ is the second morpheme
Why is auditory analysis important?
Important for distinguishing verb tenses and other morphological markers that may be acoustically distorted or masked by background noise
What is auditory synthesis?
Ability to synthesize (merge or blend) phonemes into words
Auditory synthesis is critical to the reading process
What is auditory association?
The ability to attach meaning to sound
It requires identification of an acoustic signal and the ability to associate it with its source or to label a linguistic or non-linguistic sound or experience
Auditory association is a fundamental for developing auditory memory
What is auditory memory?
Recall of an acoustic signal after it has been labeled and stored
Auditory memory also requires remembering and recalling various acoustic stimuli of different lengths and number
Memory issues can affect auditory memory
What is auditory sequential memory?
The ability to recall the order of a series of acoustic stimuli
Some acoustic information must be recalled in exact order to be useful
What is auditory short-term memory?
The ability to retain and recall auditory information as it is immediately presented
What is temporal integration?
The ability of the auditory system, specifically the auditory nerve and CANS, to integrate inputs over time, which in a variety of real-world circumstances, enhances the detection and/or discrimination of a sound
If you don’t get the correct timing, you will have a hard time understanding
Signal duration effects signal detection (too short, won’t detect - 200 to 300 ms absolute shortest)
Pure tone duration of 200 to 300 ms = lowest absolute threshold
A tenfold increase in duration results in 10 dB improvement in threshold
Tonal durations >300 ms does not improve signal threshold
What is temporal resolution?
Detection of small timing differences when processing speech
A common method used to assess temporal resolution is the gap detection threshold (GDT)
It is affected by SNHL, maturational delays, (C)APD?, Aging
Poor GDT task performance suggests an inability to hear subtle acoustic changes that may negatively impact speech perception (especially true in noise when fluctuations in noise can obscure fluctuations in speech)
What is temporal masking?
Masker and test signal do not overlap in time; separation delay b/w signal and masker
Temporal masking by louder, longer vowel sounds can swamp softer, shorter consonant sounds
Are two ears better than one?
Yes
Frequency and intensity difference detection is better with two ears
Threshold for pure-tones and spondees is better by ~ 3 dB with binaural vs. monaural hearing because of binaural summation
Binaural speech intelligibility is better than monaural speech intelligibility especially in noise
