Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 2, 2026
Infant Auditory Processing and Event-related Brain Oscillations
Published on: July 1, 2015
[Children with specific language impairment: electrophysiological and pedaudiological findings]
T Rinker1, K Hartmann2, E Smith3
1Zukunftskolleg/Fachbereich Sprachwissenschaft, Universität Konstanz, Konstanz.
Background:
Auditory deficits may be at the core of the language delay in children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI). It was therefore hypothesized that children with SLI perform poorly on 4 tests typically used to diagnose central auditory processing disorder (CAPD) as well in the processing of phonetic and tone stimuli in an electrophysiological experiment.
Material And Methods:
14 children with SLI (mean age 61,7 months) and 16 children without SLI (mean age 64,9 months) were tested with 4 tasks: non-word repetition, language discrimination in noise, directional hearing, and dichotic listening. The electrophysiological recording Mismatch Negativity (MMN) employed sine tones (600 vs. 650 Hz) and phonetic stimuli (/ε/ versus /e/).
Results:
Control children and children with SLI differed significantly in the non-word repetition as well as in the dichotic listening task but not in the two other tasks. Only the control children recognized the frequency difference in the MMN-experiment. The phonetic difference was discriminated by both groups, however, effects were longer lasting for the control children. Group differences were not significant.
Conclusions:
Children with SLI show limitations in auditory processing that involve either a complex task repeating unfamiliar or difficult material and show subtle deficits in auditory processing at the neural level.
