Association between auditory temporal and visual processing in reading skill

Ana Carla Oliveira Garcia,Teresa Maria Momensohn-Santos,Márcia Reis Guimarães,Douglas De Araújo Vilhena,Ângela Maria Vieira Pinheiro

doi:10.1590/1982-0216/20192156119

Abstract

ABSTRACT Purpose: to verify whether students screened with altered auditory temporal processing are more likely to present altered visual processing. Methods: the sample consisted of 68 children, aged from 9 to 12 years, 53% males, from the 5th and 6th grades of a public school. All children with alterations in the audiological or ophthalmological evaluation were excluded. The Duration Pattern Test (screening for auditory temporal skill), the Reading Perceptual Scale (visual stress symptom questionnaire and colored overlays selection) and the Rate of Reading Test (number of words correctly read per minute) were used. Appropriate statistical tests were applied adopting the significance level lower than 0.05. Results: participants screened with abnormal auditory processing had higher visual stress symptoms and lower reading rate, with a significant and moderate effect (p< 0.05; d< 0.71), when compared to their peers with normal auditory processing. Among the children with altered Duration Pattern Test, 58% improved the reading rate with the use of colored overlays, whereas 29% did so in the control group (Odds Ratio = 3.4, p = 0.017). Conclusion: children screened with altered auditory temporal processing presented a three times higher possibility of association with visual processing alterations, due to shared magnocellular system.

Highlights

For the last 20 years, progress in neurosciences and cognitive psychology have contributed to a better understanding of neuronal mechanisms involved in the act of reading
As for the temporal processing of visual information in reading, it depends on the perception of movement and contrast, the preservation of spatial order for the quick recognition of the unchanging strokes of the letters that form the words, and the comparison to the images previously stored in our memory
Just as the dynamic auditory processing is related to the perception of speech and to phonological awareness, the dynamic visual processing is related to orthographic skills, and both processes are predictive of reading and writing skills development[4]

Summary

Introduction

For the last 20 years, progress in neurosciences and cognitive psychology have contributed to a better understanding of neuronal mechanisms involved in the act of reading. Reading is a complex multisensorial process, which involves visual perception/processing, visual memory, visual-auditory association, auditory memory/recognition, phonological processing, oral expression, and verbal processes[1,2,3]. An essential aspect for the proficiency in reading is the temporal sequence processing of auditory and visual information, which enables the forming of precise representations of the order of sounds in a word and the visual sequencing of letters[4,5,6,7,8]. As for the temporal processing of visual information in reading, it depends on the perception of movement and contrast, the preservation of spatial order for the quick recognition of the unchanging strokes of the letters that form the words, and the comparison to the images previously stored in our memory (visual vocabulary). Just as the dynamic auditory processing is related to the perception of speech and to phonological awareness, the dynamic visual processing is related to orthographic skills, and both processes are predictive of reading and writing skills development[4]

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Conclusion