Training-Induced Changes in Rapid Auditory Processing in Children With Specific Language Impairment: Electrophysiological Indicators

The proper course of speech development heavily influences the cognitive and personal development of children. It is a condition for achieving preschool and school successes – it facilitates socializing and expressing feelings and needs. Impairment of language and its development in children represents a major diagnostic and therapeutic challenge for physicians and therapists. Early diagnosis of coexisting deficits and starting the therapy influence the therapeutic success. One of the basic diagnostic tests for children suffering from specific language impairment (SLI) is audiometry, thus far referred to as a hearing test. Auditory processing is just as important as a proper hearing threshold. Therefore, diagnosis of central auditory disorder may be a valuable supplementation of diagnosis of language impairment. Early diagnosis and implementation of appropriate treatment may contribute to an effective language therapy.

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Auditory Processing in Specific Language Impairment (SLI): Relations With the Perception of Lexical and Phrasal Stress

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/2015_jslhr-l-13-0306 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 58 (4) ◽

pp. 1292-1305 ◽

Cited By ~ 21

Author(s):

Susan Richards ◽

Usha Goswami

Keyword(s):

Language Processing ◽

Language Impairment ◽

Specific Language Impairment ◽

Auditory Processing ◽

Rise Time ◽

Digit Span ◽

Typically Developing ◽

Amplitude Envelope ◽

Stress Perception ◽

Specific Language

Purpose We investigated whether impaired acoustic processing is a factor in developmental language disorders. The amplitude envelope of the speech signal is known to be important in language processing. We examined whether impaired perception of amplitude envelope rise time is related to impaired perception of lexical and phrasal stress in children with specific language impairment (SLI). Method Twenty-two children aged between 8 and 12 years participated in this study. Twelve had SLI; 10 were typically developing controls. All children completed psychoacoustic tasks measuring rise time, intensity, frequency, and duration discrimination. They also completed 2 linguistic stress tasks measuring lexical and phrasal stress perception. Results The SLI group scored significantly below the typically developing controls on both stress perception tasks. Performance on stress tasks correlated with individual differences in auditory sensitivity. Rise time and frequency thresholds accounted for the most unique variance. Digit Span also contributed to task success for the SLI group. Conclusions The SLI group had difficulties with both acoustic and stress perception tasks. Our data suggest that poor sensitivity to amplitude rise time and sound frequency significantly contributes to the stress perception skills of children with SLI. Other cognitive factors such as phonological memory are also implicated.

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Spectral vs. temporal auditory processing in specific language impairment: A developmental ERP study

Brain and Language ◽

10.1016/j.bandl.2009.04.003 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 110 (3) ◽

pp. 107-120 ◽

Cited By ~ 24

Author(s):

R. Čeponienė ◽

A. Cummings ◽

B. Wulfeck ◽

A. Ballantyne ◽

J. Townsend

Keyword(s):

Language Impairment ◽

Specific Language Impairment ◽

Auditory Processing ◽

Specific Language

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Auditory Temporal Resolution in Specifically Language-Impaired and Age-Matched Children

Perceptual and Motor Skills ◽

10.2466/pms.1996.83.3f.1171 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 83 (3_suppl) ◽

pp. 1171-1181 ◽

Cited By ~ 36

Author(s):

Jenny R. Helzer ◽

Craig A. Champlin ◽

Ronald B. Gillam

Keyword(s):

Temporal Resolution ◽

Language Impairment ◽

Specific Language Impairment ◽

Auditory Processing ◽

Specific Language ◽

Language Impaired ◽

Masking Condition ◽

Threshold Criterion ◽

Temporal Aspects ◽

Auditory Temporal Resolution

Recently there has been renewed interest in the auditory processing capabilities of children with specific language impairment. In this study, eight children with specific language impairment and eight nonimpaired, age-matched peers completed a task to assess temporal resolution abilities. Children were asked to detect a tone in three masking conditions wherein the masker contained silent gaps of 0 msec., 40 msec., or 64 msec. in duration. Thresholds were measured in each masking condition at 500 Hz and 2000 Hz. Across the groups, thresholds decreased (improved) significantly as a function of increases in the duration of the gaps. Children in the two groups exhibited remarkably similar thresholds for the three masking conditions. However, children with specific language impairment required a significantly greater number of ascending trials to achieve the threshold criterion than did age-matched children. Results suggest that language-impaired children perceive temporal aspects of acoustic stimuli as well as their normally developing peers. Attentional mechanisms may play an important role in the difficulties they exhibit in auditory processing.

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