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Quantitative Assessment of Cortical Auditory-tactile Processing in Children with Disabilities
Published on: January 29, 2014
Behavioral assessment of auditory processing disorder in children with non-syndromic cleft lip and/or palate
Xiaoran Ma1, Bradley McPherson1, Lian Ma2
1Division of Speech and Hearing Sciences, Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
Insights
Children with non-syndromic cleft lip and/or palate (NSCL/P) show delayed auditory processing maturation, particularly in temporal resolution and speech-in-noise tasks. These findings highlight the need to assess auditory processing in children with NSCL/P.
Area of Science:
- Audiology
- Developmental Pediatrics
- Speech and Hearing Sciences
Background:
- Peripheral hearing disorders are common in children with non-syndromic cleft lip and/or palate (NSCL/P).
- Auditory processing disorders are often overlooked in NSCL/P despite potential impacts on academic performance.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare auditory processing skills in school-aged children with and without NSCL/P.
- To investigate temporal resolution and speech recognition in noise abilities.
Main Methods:
- Recruited 141 Mandarin-speaking children with NSCL/P (6-15 years) and 60 controls.
- Assessed peripheral hearing and auditory processing using adaptive tests of temporal resolution (ATTR) and the Mandarin pediatric lexical tone and disyllabic-word picture identification test in noise (MAPPID-N).
Main Results:
- Children with NSCL/P demonstrated delayed maturation of temporal resolution, with significant differences between age groups (6-8 vs. 12-15 years).
- Subgroups with bilateral cleft lip and palate and cleft palate showed poorer speech recognition in noise and reduced ability to utilize spatial cues compared to controls.
Conclusions:
- Auditory processing maturation, specifically temporal resolution, is delayed in children with NSCL/P, reaching typical levels later than in craniofacially normal children.
- Children with NSCL/P exhibit deficits in using timing and intensity cues for speech recognition in noise.
- Auditory processing disorder should be considered in the audiological assessment of children with NSCL/P.
Objective:
Peripheral hearing disorders have been frequently described in children with non-syndromic cleft lip and/or palate (NSCL/P). However, auditory processing problems are rarely considered for children with NSCL/P despite their poor academic performance in general compared to their craniofacially normal peers. This study aimed to compare auditory processing skills, using behavioral assessment techniques, in school age children with and without NSCL/P.
Methods:
One hundred and forty one Mandarin-speaking children with NSCL/P aged from 6.00 to 15.67 years, and 60 age-matched, craniofacially normal children, were recruited. Standard hearing health tests were conducted to evaluate peripheral hearing. Behavioral auditory processing assessment included adaptive tests of temporal resolution (ATTR), and the Mandarin pediatric lexical tone and disyllabic-word picture identification test in noise (MAPPID-N).
Results:
Age effects were found in children with cleft disorder but not in the control group for gap detection thresholds with ATTR narrow band noise in the across-channel stimuli condition, with a significant difference in test performance between the 6 to 8 year group and 12 to 15 year group of children with NSCL/P. For MAPPID-N, the bilateral cleft lip and palate subgroup showed significantly poorer SNR-50% scores than the control group in the condition where speech was spatially separated from noise. Also, the cleft palate participants showed a significantly smaller spatial separation advantage for speech recognition in noise compared to the control group children.
Conclusion:
ATTR gap detection test results indicated that maturation for temporal resolution abilities was not achieved in children with NSCL/P until approximately 8 years of age compared to approximately 6 years for craniofacially normal children. For speech recognition in noisy environments, poorer abilities to use timing and intensity cues were found in children with cleft palate and children with bilateral cleft lip and palate compared to craniofacially normal children. Consequently, it is worthwhile to consider the potential for auditory processing disorder in when assessing the auditory status of children with NSCL/P.
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