Central Auditory Processing Disorder
Found in: Special Needs & Learning Differences
Jan D., Ohio
I have a new student beginning private lessons who has been diagnosed with Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD). I have only had two students in the past who had CAPD and their disorders were so mild that I never noticed anything other than they were easily distracted by noises outside the studio.
Does anyone have any experience teaching students with CAPD or have any insight into working with students with CAPD? I’ve read several articles on CAPD but any insight that anyone can offer about teaching Simply Music to a CAPD student would be greatly appreciated.
Cathy H., California
I have had a few children with this disorder and they were all considered moderate to severe cases. All struggled. Of all the disorders I’ve worked with, CAPD has been the most difficult. It appears that part of the problem is the lack of connection between eyes, ears and hand. “Visual tracking” is a learned behavior (where the brain learns to remember what it’s just read) sometimes the learned behavior is overlooked as a child is growing up but can be taught at a later time with no problem. Although this may appear to be unrelated with CAPD, other SM teachers have told me that they have experienced the same problems. What I discovered is that most of these kids were diagnosed with dyslexia as well. Although these children had no have difficulty following hand patterns away from the piano, they DID have difficulty identifying specific keys on the keyboard and playing their pieces at the piano. Visually it was too much for them. So, I had them shut their eyes, or I had them fold their fingers so they could concentrate on one finger at a time. What this means I don’t know! But it worked.
All these children needed to move extremely slow…several weeks on one piece, so just be patient.