Comorbidity of Auditory Processing, Attention, and Memory in Children With Word Reading Difficulties

Abstract

ObjectivesTo document the auditory processing, visual attention, digit memory, phonological processing, and receptive language abilities of individual children with identified word reading difficulties.DesignTwenty-five children with word reading difficulties and 28 control children with good word reading skills participated. All children were aged between 8 and 11 years, with normal hearing sensitivity and typical non-verbal intelligence. Both groups of children completed a test battery designed to assess their auditory processing, visual attention, digit memory, phonological processing, and receptive language.ResultsWhen compared to children who were good readers, children with word reading difficulties obtained significantly lower average scores on tests of auditory processing, including the frequency pattern test, gaps in noise, frequency discrimination, Dichotic Digit difference Test, and Listening in Spatialized Noise. The two groups did not differ on the discrimination measures of sinusoidal amplitude modulation or iterated rippled noise. The results from children with word reading difficulties showed that 5 children (20%) had comorbid deficits in auditory processing, visual attention, and backward digit memory; whereas 12 children (48%) had comorbid auditory processing and visual attention deficits only, and 2 children (8%) had comorbid deficits in auditory processing and digit memory; the remaining children had only auditory processing, visual attention, or digit memory deficits.ConclusionThe current study highlights the general co-existence of auditory processing, memory, and visual attention deficits in children with word reading difficulties. It is also noteworthy, however, that only one fifth of the current cohort had deficits across all measured tasks. Hence, our results also show the significant individual variability inherent in children with word reading difficulties.

Gaps-In-Noise Test Performance in Children with Speech Sound Disorder and Cognitive Difficulty

“…Chaubet, et al [12] also found that pediatric groups with dyslexia or reading and writing disorders performed worse on the GIN test than normal-hearing typically developing children did. Similarly, other previous studies reported the lower auditory temporal processing in children with dyslexia or word reading difficulties [23][24][25]. This supports the assumption that gap detection performance could be used to clinically assess the phoneme-specific speech perception of students with SSD.…”

“…Chaubet, et al [ 12 ] also found that pediatric groups with dyslexia or reading and writing disorders performed worse on the GIN test than normal-hearing typically developing children did. Similarly, other previous studies reported the lower auditory temporal processing in children with dyslexia or word reading difficulties [ 23 - 25 ].…”

Marcadores Do Desempenho Em Leitura De Escolares Do Ensino Fundamental Público E Privado/ Reading Performance Markers of Students From Public and Private Elementary School

“…Tais atividades serão responsáveis por sustentar uma importante base da aprendizagem para que futuramente, o desempenho na identificação e manipulação no nível silábico e fonêmico, responsável pela identificação da palavra, ocorra com sucesso (ANTUNES, FREIRE, CRENITT, 2015;NICOLAU, NAVAS, 2015, GOKULA, SHARMA, CUPPLES, VALDERRAMA, 2019.…”

The Role of Phonological, Auditory Sensory and Cognitive Skills on Word Reading Acquisition: A Cross-Linguistic Study

“…Those studies investigating the influence of orthography on reading predictors have mostly focused on phonological processing, memory, and rapid automated naming. However, studies involving children with reading difficulties have shown that some other factors involving both top-down and auditory sensory aspects might also be relevant to the reading process ( Tallal et al, 1993 ; Willcutt et al, 2000 , 2005 ; Hämäläinen et al, 2013 ; Goswami et al, 2014 ; Gokula et al, 2019 ). Several studies have shown, for instance, the poor performance of children with reading difficulties in tests involving auditory temporal processing skills ( Tallal et al, 1993 ; Van Ingelghem et al, 2001 ; Murphy and Schochat, 2009a , b ; Goswami et al, 2014 ; Casini et al, 2018 ; Fostick and Revah, 2018 ).…”

“…Emerging theories have also associated reading and overall attention skills ( Casco et al, 1998 ; Dally, 2006 ; Shaywitz and Shaywitz, 2008 ; Gokula et al, 2019 ), especially through studies addressing the high rate of comorbidity of dyslexia and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder ( Willcutt et al, 2000 ; Aaron et al, 2002 ). Casco et al (1998) , for instance, reported a correlation between attention task performance and reading rate.…”