If your child displays the following symptoms, he/she should be evaluated for CAPD:
Easily distracted or unusually bothered by loud noises,
Marked improvement in ability to focus when placed in a quiet environment; for example, a good attention span at home, but poor attention at school,
Difficulty following multi-step instructions,
Difficulty with word problems in math,
Unwillingness to go first during games and contests,
Difficulty comprehending verbal or abstract information,
Inappropriate responses to questions,
Doesn’t know the names of children in his/her classroom,
Inability to carry on long telephone conversations.
Diagnosis
I knew for a long time that Hannah had a problem, but her kindergarten teacher insisted she was fine, just a little “immature.” When Hannah finally said, “Mom, I like kindergarten, but I just don’t know what she’s talking about,” I knew we had a serious problem. I immediately sat down and made a list of all the things that I thought were strange, and I took Hannah and the list to the pediatrician the next day.
Fortunately, we got the good pediatrician. He took my concerns seriously and made an appointment for Hannah to see a pediatric neurologist. After some basic tests to rule out a tumor, the neurologist sent us to a pediatric audiologist. She performed a long battery of tests, including tests of hearing comprehension in both quiet and noisy environments. Hannah was able to comprehend almost 100 percent of the information in the quiet environment, but only 30 percent in the noisy environment (sound like a kindergarten classroom?).
Although I was distressed to discover that my perfect child had a learning disability, I was relieved to find out she was not mentally challenged.