Utility of the ‘Screening Checklist for Auditory Processing (SCAP)’ in Detecting (C) APD in Children

Abstract

Chermak and Musiek (1997) reported that 2 % to 5% of school-going children have central auditory processing disorder [(C) APD]. Since, the prevalence of (C)APD is high in school-going children, there is a need for an efficient tool to screen and to refer them for further evaluation. The aim of the present study was to use Screening checklist for auditory processing (SCAP) to identify children with symptoms of central auditory processing and find the agreement of the checklist with a battery of diagnostic (C)APD tests. The study also aimed to determine an appropriate cut-off score for the SCAP and check its sensitivity and specificity. A total of 3120 children were screened using the SCAP. Forty-two of them, who had varying score on the SCAP, were evaluated using a test- battery consisting of 5 different diagnostic tests speech-in-noise (SPIN),Gap detection test ( GDT), masking level difference (MLD), Dichotic CV (DCV), and Auditory memory and sequencing Test (AMT). These tests were selected to evaluate auditory separation / closure, temporal processing, auditory interaction, auditory integration and auditory memory. The analyses of the data revealed that there was no agreement between a single symptom on the SCAP and the presence of (C)APD. A Kappa measurement of agreement of various cut-off scores of SCAP with the (C)APD diagnostic test findings indicated that a cut-off score of 6 yielded a good agreement with the results of SPIN and AMT as well as with the overall diagnosis of (C)APD. With a cut-off score of 6, the sensitivity of the checklist was71% and specificity was 68%, the prevalence of suspected (C)APD in school-going children was 3.2%. Among the diagnostic tests used, most of the participant failed in the AMT and DCV tests, followed by SPIN and GDT. Hence, it is important to include theses test in a diagnostic test battery. All the participants who had (C)APD did not demonstrate similar auditory processing difficulties. Thus, a test battery approach should be employed while assessing children with suspected (C)APD. It is evident from study that the SCAP could be used as a simple and practical measure to screen for the presence of (C) APD