Development of auditory perception in preschool children
Nadia Vilela1, Seisse Gabriela Gandolfi Sanches1, Renata Mota Mamede Carvallo1
1Department of Physiotherapy, Communication Science & Disorders, Occupational Therapy, Faculdade de Medicina Universidade de Sao Paulo - FMUSP, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Insights
Early auditory skills in five-year-olds predict later auditory processing abilities at seven. Identifying children with poor auditory perception at age five allows for targeted interventions to support development.
Area of Science:
- Developmental psychology
- Audiology
- Speech-language pathology
Background:
- Auditory processing (AP) skills are crucial for language and academic development.
- Early identification of AP deficits can inform timely interventions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if auditory skills in five-year-old children can predict their AP test performance at age seven.
- To identify early indicators of potential auditory processing difficulties.
Main Methods:
- Longitudinal study of 35 children evaluated for AP at ages five and seven.
- Discriminant analysis used to predict group classification at age seven based on age five test results.
- Children categorized into three groups based on AP test scores and speech complaints.
Main Results:
- Discriminant analysis accurately predicted group classification for 74.3% of children.
- High predictive accuracy for children with typical auditory skills (87.5%) and those with deficits and speech complaints (77.8%).
- Results indicate that auditory performance at age five is a significant predictor of AP abilities at age seven.
Conclusions:
- Children with lower AP test scores at age seven demonstrated poorer auditory perception at age five.
- Early auditory skill assessment in preschoolers can identify children at risk for AP disorders.
- Intervention and training of auditory skills in preschoolers may foster better developmental outcomes.
Objective:
The aim of this study was to determine whether the auditory skills presented by five-year-old children can predict their performance in auditory processing (AP) tests at seven years old.
Design:
Thirty-five children were evaluated for AP at two different times. At evaluation 1, the children were between 5 years 2 months and 6 years 1 month of age, and at evaluation 2, they were between 7 years 1 month and 7 years 8 months of age. The interval between the evaluations ranged from 18 to 23 months. After evaluation 2, the 7-year-olds were classified according to their performance on central AP tests. The children were divided into three groups: GI included nine children with at least two AP tests that scored two standard deviations below the mean and the presence of a speech complaint; GII included 18 children with at least two AP tests that scored two standard deviations below the mean and no speech complaints; and GIII included eight children with no more than one test scored two standard deviations below the mean and no speech disorders complaint. The analysis was performed considering each test individually and as a battery of applied tests. From the results obtained, a discriminant analysis was performed to assess the differences in test performance between the groups when the children were 5 years old.
Results:
The discriminant analysis showed that with the results obtained during evaluation 1, it was possible to predict which group 74.3% of the children would be classified into after evaluation 2. The percentage of correct classifications for each group was 77.8% for GI, 66.7% for GII and 87.5% for GIII. That is, 87.5% of the children who were classified as GIII after evaluation 2 had already demonstrated good auditory performance in the tests applied at 5 years of age.
Conclusions:
Children who exhibited lower scores on AP tests at 7 years of age had demonstrated poor auditory perception at 5 years of age. This finding is relevant because it offers the possibility of stimulating or training these auditory skills in preschoolers to foster their development.
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