[Which phonological memory measure distinguishes children with from children without auditory processing disorders? A...

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Developmental Psychology
• Speech and Hearing Sciences

Background:

• Auditory Processing Disorders (APD) can co-occur with developmental disorders like language disorder and dyslexia.
• Phonological working memory is crucial for language acquisition and is often impaired in children with APD.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare phonological working memory performance in children with APD, with and without co-occurring developmental disorders.
• To identify which phonological working memory measures best differentiate children with APD from controls.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective analysis of health care data from children with APD and control groups.
• Assessment of phonological serial recall using digit span, word span, and nonword repetition tasks.
• Statistical analysis including stepwise discriminant analysis to identify distinguishing memory measures.

Main Results:

• Children with APD (alone or with DLD) performed significantly worse on all phonological working memory tasks compared to controls.
• The subvocal rehearsal component, indicated by word span and digit span, significantly separated APD from non-APD groups.
• A 23% misclassification rate was observed in the discriminant analysis.

Conclusions:

• Phonological working memory deficits are evident in children with APD, impacting diagnostic validity.
• The inclusion of phonological memory assessment in APD diagnosis warrants further investigation.
• Future research should explore the central executive and phonological store precision in APD.