Auditory Processing Disorder

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I just did a hearing test the other day and got a result of APD with subtype of 'Auditory Decoding Deficit'. It was caused by ear problems in my infancy, apparently. I have narrow eustachian tubes that get blocked really easily. My brother has them too, and still has trouble on planes.

I got slugged with an AS diagnosis when I was 14 which kinda messed me up for the rest of my high school years. I wish my mum had never said anything to me about it.

Many say there's a connection between APD and AS. Is there a connection? Can one cause the other? Can one be mistaken for the other? Yeah i know, i hope too much... but there ARE a lot of similarities! I'd be interested to hear some more opinions.

Sensory integration issues are very common in autism, and as a result neurologically-based auditory processing disorders (which I have) are also fairly common. I don't see off hand how physiological-based conditions such as constricted eustachian tubes relate to autism, but plead ignorance to the state of research in that area. One could expect the autistic brain to have difficulty interpreting sensory signals. Whether autism also affects the physical reception of stimuli and creation of signals is a separate question.

The wiki article for auditory processing disorder says it's hard to diagnose and that it can be misdiagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, if I recall correctly.

why was the AS diagnosis bad for you?

I have AS, and I believe I have an APD even though its not been diagnosed. I do better with text and cannot interpret information given to me orally, pretty much at all. It's pretty bad.

I'm not sure if this is related, but I have a hard time figuring out the spelling of a word when I type because I've heard it wrong or have been saying it wrong for many years. When I first started programming I thought 'integer' was 'interger'. My professor can to check my code and she said "You're adding an extra R" and I was really confused. I had a lot more of these instances when I was little. My grandpa was giving me words for a spelling quiz when I was little and I kept spelling "Library" wrong and he's like "You're spelling it wrong because you are saying it wrong."

14 was a very bad time for me to be diagnosed. It was like being handed a list of all the things I could never do and should never attempt. And my mother pretty much took it as as excuse to stop parenting. She had a book all about it and would just assume she knew me and the way I was thinking even though she was often wrong but the thing that got to me is she never listened and never asked me anything. I still have difficulty with the 'i shoudln't do this cos its probably not normal' attitude and even though 99% of the time the thing IS something considered normal i end up not doing it and I always second guess everything i do. I dont remember any problems like this before the diagnosis but i cant remember very well...



I get overwhelmed by too much speech but never by 'noise'. And i get overwhelmed much more quickly if i can make out some of the words theyre saying cos im attempting to process them.

One connection i read recently is an article about how autistic children have a higher risk of ear infections because of a weaker immune system. But apart from the ear problems my immune system has always done very well. I was often the last one standing when a bug was going around. My ear weakness could even be atributed to antibiotics. Apparently APD is common with ADHD and OCD but they CANT use the same connection there cos those arent ASDs. I also read something that said APD could be as common as 5% of children and recurrent ear infections happening to around 10%. Whats AS like 1 in 200 or something? Its a shot in the dark

I obviously had enough traits to get a diagnosis early on in life. I also assume i was a lot worse when i was younger hearingwise. My dad says my kindergarten teacher suggested to them that i get my hearing checked out (with no result of course) and all my report cards say i couldnt pay attention so there were obviously problems with my hearing. And i was suffering bad depression at the time of diagnosis which can immitate the symptoms of AS fairly closely. eg. no eye contact, no displayed empathy, monotone voice, doesnt laugh at jokes, etc. Add APD to that and who knows what you get... I get this nagging feeling that i may have given misleading answers on the quiz they gave me so i could get out of school. I dont meet the criteria for AS now cos i dont have the trademark lack of empathy or obsessive interests and i use and read non verbals without thinking about it. But i cant remember if i had them in the past or not.