Auditory Processing Abilities in Children with Mild Hearing Loss

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of mild peripheral hearing loss on central auditory processing tests. A central auditory test battery in Korean (Central Auditory Processing Assessment, CAPA-K) that consisted of Speech-in-Noise Test (SINT), Low-passed Filtered Test (LPFT), Dichotic Digit Test (DDT), Frequency Pattern Test (FPT), and Binaural Fusion Test (BFT) was administrated to 10 school-aged children with mild peripheral hearing loss and the age matched controls with normal hearing. Scores of hearing-impaired children were significantly lower than control subjects’ scores when the test stimuli were presented at the comfortable presentation level. All of these tasks were affected by mild hearing loss, with the monaural-low-redundancy tasks being the most seriously affected. The results indicate that while the central auditory test battery can be administered to mild peripheral hearing losses, all results must be interpreted with caution.