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Central Auditory Processing Disorder and Its Connection to Autism

© Olga Bogdashina

Autism has often associated with auditory processing disorders. Auditory problems in autism include inability to filter auditory information, hypersensitivity, hyposensitivity, inability to modulate certain sounds, delays in auditory processing and others. These problems may be covered by a single definition - auditory dysfunction. This dysfunction is often undetected, as a conventional hearing test may not show any problems, especially in older children and adults who have acquired strategies to cope with their difficulties, such as blocking out sounds.

Recently a subtype of auditory dysfunction has been singled out and described as central auditory processing disorder (CAPD). CAPD is defined as a neurological dysfunction responsible for impairments of neural pathways of the brain that link the ear with the central auditory system when the ear works properly but the parts of the brain that interpret and analyze the auditory information do not. The causes of CAPD are unknown.

Some indicators of CAPD (from different sources) are:

• May seem deaf at some occasions but hears the slightest sounds at other occasions
• Covers ears even if there are no loud sounds (Seems to hear sounds which other people do not hear)
• A very light sleeper
• Produces sounds (banging doors, tapping things, making vocalizations, etc.)
• Cannot concentrate in noisy environments
• Speech problems

The pioneers in the field of auditory dysfunction are Alfred Tomatis and Guy Berard.

The Tomatis Method

French otolaryngologist and psychologist Alfred Tomatis conducted research in the field of auditory processing problems that resulted in his theory - the Tomatis Effect: "a person can only reproduce vocally what he is capable of hearing", i.e. auditory and vocal organs are part of the same neurological loop and changes in the auditory system will immediately bring the changes in the voice and vice versa. According to Tomatis, listening problems (if they are not physiological) are psychological. Tomatis thought that psychological problems such as difficult birth, disruptive home environment, physical and emotional abuse, etc. could cause shutting out auditory stimuli and thus, create a relaxation of the muscles of the middle ear. If the muscles of the ear are inactive for too long, they lose their tonicity. As a result, the sounds are distorted and incorrectly analyzed (Tomatis, 1991).

Tomatis hypothesized that the ear can be "re-tuned" to hearing faulty frequencies and that, in turn, can alter one's self-listening and production of sounds. Tomatis developed the Tomatis Method to use sound stimulation in order to provide corrective auditory opportunities.

After analysis of the test results and a detailed developmental history, a specific individual program using the Electronic Ear (the apparatus developed by Tomatis in 1953) is implemented. The program consists of two stages: auditory (i.e. receptive, when the person is trained to develop better listening skills) and audio-vocal (i.e. expressive, when the person is trained to develop voice of good quality and tone to maintain listening skills).

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