Question
Dr Bellis: If you had a 9 year old boy with normal puretones, normal immitance, normal SRTs, normal WRSs, but the child was suspected of having CAP difficulties, and if you had only ONE CAP test you could use, which ONE test would you choose and why?
Answer
The one test I would choose would be the Dichotic Digits test, double digits version (Musiek, 1983; available from www.audiologyillustrated.com). The reasons for this choice include the fact that it is short and easy to administer and score, is sensitive to a variety of auditory processing disorders while being relatively unaffected by peripheral hearing loss (although that is not an issue in this case), carries an extremely light linguistic and short-term memory load, and has extensive normative data and validity data to support its use. Although results of this one test will not tell the audiologist what the exact nature of the auditory processing deficit is, it will certainly indicate that further testing is needed. For example, both right-hemisphere and interhemispheric deficits will result in a left-ear deficit on this test whereas left-hemisphere deficits will result in either a bilateral deficit or a right-ear deficit. Finally, the consensus conference convened this spring in Texas and overseen by Dr. Jim Jerger indicated that, for auditory processing screening, Dichotic Digits was recommended (in conjunction with Frequency Patterns, actually). One note of caution: first, I would make sure that the child can repeat 4 digits in a noncompeting condition so that memory or other cognitive issues is not a factor.
For more information, please contact: Teri James Bellis, Ph.D., CCC-A at tbellis@usd.edu.
Teri James Bellis, Ph.D., CCC-A
Assistant Professor, Audiology
Department of Communication Disorders
University of South Dakota
414 East Clark Street
Vermillion, SD 57069
(605) 677-6201