Grand Rounds on Auditory Processing Disorder

Duration: 2 hours

Presenter: Deborah Moncrieff, PhD; Teri James Bellis, PhD; Jay R. Lucker, PhD; and Larry Medwetsky, PhD

CEUs: .2 CEUs

Who Should Attend: Clinical and educational audiologists, as well as other professionals interested auditory processing disorders

Instructional Level: Intermediate
Program Focus: Knowledge and Skills

Learner Outcomes:
Upon completion, each participant in the eAudiology Web seminar will be able to:
1. List the importance of differential diagnosis in APD, as well as explain the various types of APD, with specific cases on amblyaudia, children with cognitive limitations, and test patterns differentiating between higher-order, pansensory disorder and APD.
2. Explain various diagnostic APD approaches, the Auditory Spoken-Language Processing (AS-LP) model, identifying functional auditory processing problems (fAPD), and other behavioral and electrophysiologic methods.
3. Explain how to interpret information gleaned from test results.
4. Explain how to use test results to guide referrals, treatment, and management for various types of APD.
5. Discuss methods for treatment of various types of APD.

Description:
This Grand Rounds style presentation on APD will cover a variety of cases, diagnostic test batteries, and treatment methods, including: 1) electrophysiologic measures for diagnosis and treatment efficacy, 2) identification of functional auditory processing problems, 3) a case on an adult male with cerebral vascular deficits and use of the spoken-language processing model, and 4) a case on the diagnosis and treatment of Amblyaudia, a common type of APD in school-aged children.

  Teri James Bellis, PhD - Author of When the Brain Can't Hear: Unraveling the Mystery of Auditory Processing Disorder (2002, Pocket Books), Dr. Bellis has been involved in the development, management, and implementation of audiologic and neurodiagnostic programs in clinical and educational settings for the past 29 years, including multimodality evoked potentials programs and central auditory processing service delivery programs. She received her doctorate in Audiology with specialty certification in Language and Cognition from Northwestern University. An internationally recognized expert in (C)APD, she has lectured and published widely on the subject of central auditory processing assessment and treatment. Dr. Bellis is Professor and Chair of the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at The University of South Dakota and is a Fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. The second edition of her bestselling textbook: Assessment and Management of Central Auditory Processing Disorders in the Educational Setting: From Science to Practice is available from Plural Publishing.

Jay R. Lucker, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Howard University, Washington, DC.  He also has a private practice specializing in APD and language processing disorders in the greater Washington, DC metropolitan area.  Dr. Lucker has made numerous presentations (internationally) and published many articles regarding auditory processing and APD in children.  His recent research has focused on APD in special populations including children with cognitive impariments/limitations.

  Larry Medwetsky, PhD graduated with a MSc in Audiology from McGill University and a PhD in Speech and Hearing Sciences in 1994 from the Graduate Center, City University of New York.  He has served as an educational audiologist, VP of clinical Services in a large speech and hearing clinic, and is presently an associate professor at Gallaudet University in the Department of Hearing, Speech and Language Sciences.  Dr. Medwetsky has published and presented on many different topics with a special focus on the underlying speech processes and deficits in both individuals with normal hearing and hearing loss. 

  Deborah Moncrieff, PhD joined the CSD department at Pitt in 2007.  Her research focuses on auditory disorders across the lifespan, with particular emphasis on the negative impact of auditory disorders on communication, language, learning, and reading.  She has developed new tests for clinical assessment of APD and has called for an alternative approach in diagnosis to differentiate specific types of processing difficulties.  She has coined the term "amblyaudia" to characterize a binaural integration type of APD and has developed a therapeutic approach for remediating children with amblyaudia.  She uses electrophysiologic and functional magnetic resonance imaging methods to characterize levels of brain activation during binaural integration tasks in children with amblyaudia.  At Pitt, she teaches courses on adult aural rehabilitation, educational audiology, the aging auditory system, and the neuroscience of communication.