Impaired auditory attention skills following middle-ear infections

The present study investigated auditory attention skills in a sample of children with non-chronic otitis media with effusion (OME). Twenty children with repeated episodes of OME but not found in the need for myringotomy and insertion of ventilating tubes were compared to 20 control children with no known episodes of OME based on parental reports and medical records. Mean age during assessment was 9 years, and none of the children showed signs of impaired language functions and with normal general cognitive abilities. They were assessed with dichotic listening CV-syllables (DLCV-108) free recall and directed attention tasks. The control children showed the expected right ear advantage during free recall and the directed right condition, and demonstrated a shift toward a left ear advantage during the directed left. The children with a history of OME showed a predominant right ear advantage across all three tasks. Although some change in ear accuracy occurred across tasks, impaired auditory attention skills were found following a history of middle ear infections. These results replicate those reported earlier from a sample of children with persistent otitis media with effusion, and suggest that treatment with ventilating tubes does not appear to make any difference in the development of auditory attention skills, whereas occurrence of OME must be considered when testing auditory attentional skills as a part of a neuropsychological assessment.