Proudly Serving the Twin Cities

Proudly Serving the Twin Cities

(763) 657-0675

(763) 657-0675

Central Auditory Processing Disorder

Understanding and Addressing Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD)

Struggling to hear but finding it hard to understand? Learn how our specialized CAPD assessments can help improve your auditory processing and overall quality of life.

Central Auditory Processing Disorder

Understanding and Addressing Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD)

Struggling to hear but finding it hard to understand? Learn how our specialized CAPD assessments can help improve your auditory processing and overall quality of life.

A person in a bright orange cardigan sits in an office chair while Dr Heidi Hill applies electrodes to their forehead, suggesting a medical or therapeutic setting.
A person in a bright orange cardigan sits in an office chair while Dr Heidi Hill applies electrodes to their forehead, suggesting a medical or therapeutic setting.
A person in a bright orange cardigan sits in an office chair while Dr Heidi Hill applies electrodes to their forehead, suggesting a medical or therapeutic setting.

“I Can Hear, But I Can’t Understand…

If you struggle to follow conversations or distinguish between similar sounds despite a normal hearing test, Auditory Processing Deficits (APD) could be the cause. APD affects how the brain processes auditory information, not just what the ears hear. Through personalized testing and treatment, you can develop strategies to improve your ability to understand and engage in real-world situations. Explore how addressing both your ears and brain can help you regain control over your auditory experience.

CAPD can lead to confusion or frustration that you can hear perfectly fine, but not quite understand what’s going on. Common symptoms include difficulty following complex instructions, struggling to process information you’ve heard correctly, and not understanding speech when it’s partnered with loud background noise.


If this sounds like you, or you have reason to believe a loved one is struggling with CAPD, our professional hearing care team can help you with an assessment to test your hearing and understanding capabilities. Get back to leading your active lifestyle with stronger hearing and cognition thanks to our specialized CAPD testing.  

How Do You Diagnose and Assess CAPD? 

Your CAPD assessment will begin with a chat about you: We’ll ask about your current hearing ability, family history, medications you’re taking, and any concerns you may have to do with your cognition or speech ability. We like to get to know you as both our patient and a person so we can begin to narrow down potential causes and craft your personalized treatment plan. 

The first step to diagnosing and addressing your CAPD concerns is a comprehensive hearing test. That way we can make sure that hearing loss is not the cause of your hearing processing difficulties, as the two can go hand in hand on occasion. 

Your CAPD assessment will include a few different tests that work together to understand a few different characteristics to do with your hearing, including: 

Speech
Speech

Your ability to understand speech coming from multiple speakers at once

Sounds
Sounds

Your strength of distinguishing similar speech sounds (like “cow” and “now”) 

Accuracy
Accuracy

Your accuracy in identifying where a sound is coming from within a room

Noise
Noise

Your comprehension of speech within background noise 

Gaps
Gaps

Your capacity to fill in the gaps of speech with logical filler words 

You’ll receive your results on the same day, and your audiologist will chat with you about the best next steps to treat your CAPD, if present. An example of treatment could include language therapy, which helps boost your communication skills and comprehension strategies.

Start Your CAPD Treatment With
Hearing Health Clinic

CAPD and hearing loss challenges can often be mistaken for each other, as they have pretty similar symptoms. If you’re hearing but not understanding or have reason to believe a loved one could be dealing with CAPD, please contact our team to get started on your hearing health journey today. 

Simply submit this form and a member of our team will get in touch to schedule a hearing test with you so that you can see lasting relief for your CAPD.

A modern building complex features a hearing health clinic on the ground floor with green awnings, surrounded by colorful flowers and landscaped plants.
A modern building complex features a hearing health clinic on the ground floor with green awnings, surrounded by colorful flowers and landscaped plants.