Computer-based central auditory processing screening for school-age children (audBility): an initial investigation

To study an initial version of a new computer-based program for auditory processing screening of school-age children: "audBility." Specifically, the study aimed to analyze performance in individual tasks, level of difficulty per age group, administration time and data management and propose adjustments for a final version to be validated in future research, based on the administration of "audBility" on children with good school performance.

Forty-three school-age children with good school performance were selected. The program assesses hearing skills related to sound localization, competitive dichotic listening, binaural integration, auditory figure-ground, auditory closure, temporal resolution and temporal ordering, as well as a self-perception questionnaire answered by the children.

The mean score obtained in the questionnaire was 44.75 ± 6.3. Based on the analysis of performance in the individual tasks, improvements were made in the auditory closure and temporal resolution tests and also the research protocol was reduced and defined to adjust to administration time. It was identified a necessity of two separate modules: one for the age groups of 6 to 8 and other for 9 to 12 years, beyond the inclusion of two new versions of the questionnaire that can be answered by teachers and/or parents.

The development of audBility is an advance in the area of central auditory processing screening in school-age children. New researches for the validation of audBility are underway, with an increased sample and comparison with the diagnostic battery. The initial results enabled the development of the final version of the protocol to be used in the validation study.