ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: It has been suggested that training in temporal processing may significantly improve language processing and reading skills. However, improvement effects of training on language impairment or dyslexia have not been proven so far. In the present study a temporal processing training was evaluated. METHOD: The participants of the present study were 42 children (5th graders) of a special school for children with reading and spelling problems. Children of one class (n = 21) were assigned to a training group (n = 21), the other class to a control group. Children in the training group took part in a training program consisting of auditory and visual order threshold and sound localisation tasks, over a period of eight weeks. We determined the order thresholds, sound localisation ability and reading and spelling performance of all children before and after the training period. Six months later all subjects were re-tested. RESULTS: Auditory and visual order thresholds decreased significantly more in the training group than in the control group. However, these changes were not accompanied by improvements in reading or spelling skills. CONCLUSIONS: In the present study no training effects on reading and writing performance were observed by using a program including temporal processing tasks. It is questionable whether training programs of temporal processing are useful methods in therapy of dyslexic children.
Subject(s)
Dyslexia/therapy , Education, Special/methods , Learning Disabilities/therapy , Time Perception , Writing , Adolescent , Auditory Perception , Child , Discrimination Learning , Female , Follow-Up Studies , Humans , Learning Disabilities/psychology , Male , Sensory Thresholds , Sound Localization , Treatment Outcome , Visual PerceptionABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Specific language impairment is assumed to be caused by deficits in auditory perception and therefore the training of auditory abilities is recommended as a treatment. Our study focussed on the question of whether a correlation between language disorders and auditory perception abilities can be proven empirically. PATIENTS: 23 language impaired children and 52 controls aged 7 to 11 years were examined. METHOD: Auditory abilities were measured by means of a battery of nonverbal and verbal tests. The children had to identify tones of different frequencies, loudness, duration or patterns as well as every day sounds and mixtures of such sounds. Noise-overlaid, time-compressed and frequency-limited speech tasks, and binaural summation tasks were also used. In addition, phoneme discrimination ability and auditory memory were assessed. RESULTS: Language impaired children scored low on phoneme discrimination and auditory memory tests but not on nonverbal or verbal auditory perception tasks. There are significant correlations between their expressive language ability and their scores on phoneme discrimination, auditory memory and sound duration identification tests. CONCLUSIONS: The results do not support the assumption that developmental language disorders are associated with auditory perception deficits. However, there are indications that auditory memory and time processing are deficient. Thus, training of auditory perception does not appear to be a suitable treatment for language impaired children.
Subject(s)
Auditory Perceptual Disorders/diagnosis , Language Development Disorders/etiology , Audiometry, Pure-Tone/statistics & numerical data , Child , Female , Humans , Language Development Disorders/diagnosis , Male , Memory, Short-Term , Phonetics , Reference Values , Speech Discrimination Tests/statistics & numerical data , Speech Perception , Statistics as Topic , Verbal LearningABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: It has been claimed that children with dyslexia show auditory processing deficits and a training of auditory perception is recommended as a therapy. this study addresses the question whether a causal connection between auditory perception and dyslexia can be proven empirically. METHOD: 27 dyslexic children with average intelligence and normal hearing and 31 controls were examined. The auditory perception ability was judged with non-linguistic (pitch, tone duration, sound discrimination tasks) and verbal (speech in noise, compressed speech) tasks. In addition auditory short-term memory, nonverbal IQ, spelling and language ability were assessed. RESULTS: Group differences were found in tone processing tasks, but not in sound discrimination or auditory verbal tasks. Despite significant main effects in tone processing tasks the individual values of the dyslexic children lay predominantly in the range of the controls. In addition, there was no correlation between tone processing and spelling ability. CONCLUSION: Dyslexic children do not show remarkable deficits in verbal auditory processing. Auditory low level deficits can only be observed within a small subgroup. There is no evidence for central auditory dysfunction as a cause of dyslexia. The relevance of auditory processing training for treatment programmes for dyslexia should be questioned.
