Auditory processing and speech production in children with typical development and developmental phonological disorders.

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to compare auditory processing of non‐speech and speech sounds in children with developmental phonological disorders (DPDs) and children who are typically developing (TD). Basic auditory processing capacities of frequency selectivity, temporal processing, and speech perception for TD, and DPD children 4–6 years of age, were measured. Auditory filter bandwidth was examined at 4 kHz using the notch‐noise method, and psychometric functions for gap detection and /b‐p/ identification were measured. Preliminary results showed that DPD children had higher boundaries and shallower slopes in the psychometric functions of gap detection and /b‐p/ identification than TD children, indicating that DPD children needed longer duration gaps for detection and longer voiced onset time for voiceless stop identification than TD children. There was no significant difference in auditory filter bandwidth between the two groups of children, although DPD children showed slightly higher detection thresholds than TD children. These results suggest that frequency selectivity was comparable between TD and DPD children, although DPD children have a lower central auditory processing efficiency. The relationship between auditory perception and speech intelligibility will also be discussed.