Otitis media and language performance in learning disabilities

Abstract

This study was designed to determine the influence of otitis media on the language performance of learning-disabled children and non-learning-disabled children.Four experimental groups were used, viz: learning-disabled children, divided into those with and without a history of recurrent otitis media and average academic achievers again divided into those with and without a history of recurrent otitis media. The language performance of each experimental group was determined using the Clinical Evaluation and Language Function (Wiig and Semel, 1980).The results indicate that recurrent otitis media impaired the receptive and expressive language performance of the subjects used in this study. The impairment of receptive language was greater than for expressive language. Implications for diagnosis, treatment and further research are discussed.