A scientific and training conference devoted entirely to central auditory processing disorders took place in Katowice on 3 June 2017: ‘CAPD without secrets: diagnosis and therapy of central auditory processing disorders in children and adolescents’. The Silesian MEDINCUS Center of Hearing and Speech organised it with support from the Institute of Sensory Organs, the World Hearing and Speech Center, and the Society of Polish Otorhinolaryngologists, Phoniatricians and Audiologists.
The Marshal of the Silesian Region provided honorary patronage, enabling the meeting to be held in the historic Silesian Parliament Hall at the Silesian Voivodeship Office in Katowice.
The 130 participants included speech therapists, teachers, educators, doctors and medical technicians interested in exchanging experience between medical professionals and those providing speech therapy for children and adolescents with CAPD.
Dr hab. Piotr H. Skarżyński, MD, PhD, MSc, delivered a lecture stressing the importance of hearing screening.
The programme covered many aspects of specialists’ work with CAPD: the disorders’ causes, the purpose of screening, preparing patients for diagnostic tests and practical explanations of individual tests. Particularly important were the original stimulation tool, the Polymodal Sensory Perception Stimulator (SPPS), and a detailed account of planning the auditory training that speech therapists and educators should develop for pupils diagnosed with central auditory processing disorders.
Participants enthusiastically joined the workshops to find answers to their questions. Praise during the conference and in participant questionnaires demonstrated its scientific quality. It showed that such meetings should recur regularly to spread reliable practical knowledge of CAPD diagnosis and therapy.
