Hearing Loss & CAPD: Understanding the Connection

Research has long established that evaluating the central auditory nervous system before fitting hearing aids is critical — yet many individuals with hearing loss never receive a CAPD assessment.

When CAPD goes unidentified, hearing aids alone may not resolve the core difficulty of understanding speech in noisy environments. In some cases, bilateral (two-ear) hearing aids can overwhelm the auditory processing system in noisy settings, reducing a person's ability to understand speech rather than improve it. Leading researchers in the field have noted that the standard practice of recommending two hearing aids for individuals with bilateral hearing loss in noisy environments must be reconsidered in light of what we now know about central auditory nervous system function.

Able Kids Foundation’s clinical data reflects the peer-reviewed research. Among a recent sample of the Foundation’s clients with both hearing loss and CAPD, speech understanding averaged 58.9% without hearing aids and improved to 71.1% with hearing aids. When a filter was added to support auditory processing challenges, understanding jumped to 85.7%.

At Able Kids Foundation, our evaluations and recommendations are designed to support both hearing loss and CAPD. If you have been fit with hearing aids but struggle to understand speech in noise, a CAPD evaluation may be beneficial.

Research supports CAPD evaluations for individuals with hearing loss when indicators are present; however, depending on the nature of the hearing loss, central auditory processing testing may not always be possible. If you would like to learn more, please contact Able Kids Foundation.