Using ASL to help with CAPD

[joycem137]

I've been studying ASL over the past few months, and during that time, also came to discover that I have CAPD, an unusual hearing disorder that involves the brain's ability to process what might otherwise be a fully intact audio signal. I've been finding that learning ASL has been VERY helpful towards reducing the stress I get when trying to communicate in environments that are hard for me to process audio in. Here's a great example of that in action:

A few nights ago, my girlfriend and I went out to dinner. We decided to go separately, and she was waiting in the lobby of the restaurant when I arrived.

The lobby was your typical "airlock" style lobby, with doors going to the outside and the inside, in order to block any unpleasant hot or cold outside air from affecting the carefully controlled climate within. The lobby room is basically an empty cube, with glass walls, a flat, featureless ceiling, and a polished wood or stone floor. The starkness and design of the room combined to make it an echo chamber. Any audio would bounce around the room and make it very difficult for me to understand what was being said. As soon as my girlfriend started speaking, I knew immediately that we were going to have problems. I could barely understand a word she was saying.

As soon as I noticed this, we seamlessly switched to ASL and continued our conversation. What a wonderful treasure! I was able to interact in a terrible noisy environment, without the least bit of stress or frustration! And though we're both relatively new to ASL, we know enough to communicate with one another at what feels like a very reasonable speed about some pretty specific topics. In this case, we were talking about a trip to the doctor I had made earlier in the day.



I am loving the ability to use ASL when my CAPD causes me issues. The relief of being able to communicate comfortably and easily regardless of how bad the acoustics of the environment are is amazing!

 

[dogmom]

I'm so glad you were able to enjoy yourself and had a good time with your friend.

I just wish that more "experts"/authorities would see ASL or any signed language as a "wonderful treasure" for deaf children.....

 

[joycem137]

I'm so glad you were able to enjoy yourself and had a good time with your friend.

I just wish that more "experts"/authorities would see ASL or any signed language as a "wonderful treasure" for deaf children.....

Yeah. Absolutely true.

There's some perspective... What I am finding a great way to help me with those infreqeunt situations where I can't understand spoken language well seems so much more vital and important for deaf kids, whose access to spoken language is far, far more limited.

 

[Cheetah]

Good experience! It's always nice to hear how ASL has improved someone's life and made communications easier.

 

[bethany143x]

I also have CAPD. It stinks to deal with because theres just not much you can do about it. When you have CAPD it makes background noise and other certain noises seem so much louder then they really are and it can drive me NUTS sometimes! I get SOO frustrated when people are talking to me and I just cant understand what the heck they are saying. I am constantly reminding people to look at me while they are talking and having to remind people that I have CAPD and they never fully understand what we go through.

Too many times people have gotten mad at me because ill ask something and they will say "omg didnt you hear me a few mins ago??" or most recently I went out to eat with people and I asked a question about the food and they said " um where have you been we were just talking about it". No matter how many times you tell them, they "forget" or just dont understand how severe CAPD can effect you.

I have heard that low gain hearing aids can work wonders to cut out a lot of the background noise and I have been debating about asking my audiologist about possibly trying this out because I can not take the frustration anymore. I have been teaching myself sign language for about 7 years, but off and on. For the past year I have been REALLY trying to focus on learning and know a LOT already. I have been also teaching my 2 year old son since he was one

If you ever want to talk about CAPD let me know Its nice to talk with another person who was actually diagnosed with CAPD. I have it pretty severe and Ive only talked to a couple of people who "think" they have it.

 

[Lazarus404]

I've had CAPD since day zero. However, I've only known I have it for a couple of years. Before that, I was always the kid at school who "was easily distracted", the guy who's "away with the fairies" or the husband who "doesn't listen". CAPD really affects my relationship more than anything. I'm a software architect by trade, so I spend most of my time typing away on a keyboard. Occasionally, I have to have verbal meetings over Skype, but my colleagues know I'll "zone out" after a few minutes, so if I ask something dumb or miss vital information, they are usually pretty understanding.

As I said, the main area where CAPD causes me issues is with my wife. She's registered blind, so we make quite a pair. However, she has little tolerance with my CAPD, thinking that really, I'm just not paying attention. Fact is, I just find anything auditory (with the exception of music) as a mess that I can't store in memory, fully understand or pay particular attention to. It's almost like my vision is set in the real world and my ears are only dreaming.

I have my good days and bad days. Some days, I hardly know I have a problem, until my wife points out that someone has said something to me and I completely ignored them. I think it stresses her because she thinks they might believe I'm rude However, other days, sound is like white noise that stresses me out and I just wish I could become totally deaf for the rest of the day, so as to give my brain a rest.

I think, really, that's the biggest issue with CAPD. On the one hand, being really deaf would be a shame, as I love music and have quite an aptitude for it, while on the other hand, being totally deaf would mean an end to the dizzying white noise that somehow even manages to affect my vision.

It's interesting to hear that ASL makes a difference. I've been toying with the idea of learning sign language as a fall back for when things get bad, but as conversations are a two way street, I'm not sure how my blind wife will manage in conversation. I've also thought about trying a hearing aid, but have been told that they don't help much.

 

[SummerP]

I'm in my second year of ASL, and one of my close friends is in it with me. I am really loving being able to chat with him in ASL. Percentagewise it's not a huge chunk of my life, but even to have a little piece of it where I don't get exhausted by conversation is really nice. I was diagnosed with CAPD just recently, and since then I've been trying to use ASL more often with the few people I know who can sign. "Relief" is the right word. It's a really happy thing. Now I just wish that more people in my life knew how to sign, and that I were more proficient at it already.

 

[shimo]

Uh-oh, I'm one of those people who think they have CAPD but have not made the effort to be diagnosed. I always assumed it was because I was bilingual that my brain was just functioning different... but nowadays I notice more and more that it isn't a matter of language but hearing something, and not being able to remember what I heard fast enough to figure out what word were said.

Right now I can cope with processing problems, for the most part, by avoiding loud places and asking people to text or e-mail me instead of trying to talk to me.

I guess right now I am still dealing with the despair that there is nothing that can fix it after reading up about it. Also, I can't imagine what kind of accommodations my grad school could grant me, I'm having a tough time determining how going in for a diagnosis will help me... I guess it may be that I have adult ADHD, but just for hearing?
Also, there might be other people with more pressing needs at school.. I don't want to make it harder for them to get the help they need.

I miss out in some classes (grad school), but the professors that I have right now like to share powerpoint slides, and base the class structure around reading the textbook. So even if I feel anxious from being unable to hear, I can try to read the slides to figure out what he might have been talking about.

I've been studying ASL thse past few months and have encouraged my husband to take an ASL class. Yes! It is a relief when I can use ASL instead of voice! Just the other day I couldn't remember how to say "spoon" but I was able to show in ASL that I wanted a spoon. Before I knew ASL I would try to gesture or mime what I wanted but often with poor results. Kind of like how "remote control" in ASL is a thumb pressing invisible buttons on a cupped hand, but I would do that with everything: mugs, keys, hat, scarf, bills, fruits ..anything. Now we have agreed signs for many items at home. I want to become conversational in ASL one day, so that we can even have speech-free days at home because we can talk in ASL..


Just today, my group-mates from my evening class wanted to go to a bar to celebrate our good grades.
I thought "ok.. that might be fun" but the bar she had chosen was really loud! Loud people, loud music, many people and dark.
Tough to see if mouth is moving.

I was overwhelmed: It felt like it was hard to breathe.

A group-mate of mine was saying something to me, the same thing, over and over. She was shouting so I could hear her voice but I couldn't link those sounds to words: "wagh wah wagh". I can't lipread at all.

I couldn't figure out what words to say, so I wrote a note: I have to go home! Sorry.

I've explained to her before that I can hear when someone is talking but it takes me longer to understand, and that loud sounds and distracting environments make it difficult for me to understand, but... I don't think my group mates really get it. Since I can talk very well and read very quickly, they think everything is OK....


Now I am debating if I should write an e-mail to the group mate that left alone at the bar, or if I can hope that she can understand that I wasn't trying to ditch her but that I was too overwhelmed to do anything anymore.


Actually, I am curious... does CAPD affect word recall and grammar too?
This is my most frightening symptom: Declining grammar and word recall (takes seconds to recall simple words several times a day; word is at the tip of my tongue).

It seems the more I need something, the more likely I am to forget the word for it. :roll:

Also, even before I started to study ASL, my grammar has been becoming more and more error-prone. My husband laughs at me for saying stuff like "I have to put feet on my socks" or "I'm going to dinner and then house clean." (when I think of "clean the house" I think of "house cleaning" too, and "house cleaning" will jump out of my mouth before I consider "clean the house)

I also drop words in sentences that really need to be there, like "I'm going to a book" instead of "I'm going to read a book."

He knows me so he can sometimes figure out what I mean, but, for example, on facebook, I'll leave a nonsensical comment like that "I'm you really liked it!" [I'm glad you really liked it] and sometimes people retaliate "Huh??"


Maybe declining grammar & vocab is something else..
Oh.. I did some reading about language disorder, and it lead me to an article about Aphasia.
..but for aphasia, it also affects ASL users because it is a language disorder...
so even if I learn ASL, same problems will persist if I have aphasia..

 

[Anij]

Shimo - for school you can request an assessment from disability services and request CART for lectures/class ... this is where a transcriptionist (like a court reporter) writes verbatim what is said in class, either on a overhead screen or displayed on your laptop etc.

In some schools you may need to also be assessed (and a note written) by and Aud. Audiologist who specializes in Processing disorders to get a diagnoses (there isn't really "Testing" as much as it's an interview and complete hearing assessment).

 

[shimo]

Shimo - for school you can request an assessment from disability services and request CART for lectures/class ... this is where a transcriptionist (like a court reporter) writes verbatim what is said in class, either on a overhead screen or displayed on your laptop etc.

In some schools you may need to also be assessed (and a note written) by and Aud. Audiologist who specializes in Processing disorders to get a diagnoses (there isn't really "Testing" as much as it's an interview and complete hearing assessment).

I saw a sign at my school's disabilities support center that they do not diagnose. I did meet an audiologist who said my hearing is within normal range (which I was surprised to hear. I was actually considering that I may be hard of hearing), but from what I've read about CAPD and Aphasia is that you have to meet with a pathologist and a neurologist to diagnose.. I'm afraid it will be a lot of money to meet the doctors...

Also, part of me wants to believe that I can just "deal with it" without bothering other people
But I'm also afraid things will become worse or that there is something I should do to stop it from getting worse...

I will ask them about diagnoses but I won't expect them to save me.