Practical guidelines to minimise language and cognitive confounds in the diagnosis of CAPD: a brief tutorial

Objective: To provide audiologists with strategies to minimise confounding cognitive and language processing variables and accurately diagnose central auditory processing disorder (CAPD). Design: Tutorial. Study sample: None. Results: Strategies are reviewed to minimise confounding cognitive and language processing variables and accurately diagnose CAPD. Conclusions: Differential diagnosis is exceedingly important and can be quite challenging. Distinguishing between two or more conditions presenting with similar symptoms or attributes requires multidisciplinary, comprehensive assessment. To ensure appropriate interventions, the audiologist is a member of the multidisciplinary team responsible for determining whether there is an auditory component to other presenting deficits or whether one condition is responsible for the symptoms seen in another. Choice of tests should be guided both by the symptoms of the affected individual, as established in an in-depth interview and case history, the individual’s age and primary language, and by the specific deficits reported to be associated with specific clinical presentations. Knowing which tests are available, their strengths and limitations, the processes assessed, task and response requirements, and the areas of the central auditory nervous system (CANS) to which each test is most sensitive provides the audiologist with critical information to assist in the differential diagnostic process.