Comparison of auditory temporal processing ability between children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and normal children aged 7 to 12 years using Gaps-In-Noise test

Abstract

Introduction: Auditory temporal processing is an important ability of central auditory nervous system which has a basic role in speech and language development. It seems the ability of such processing is deficient in children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder(ADHD) in comparison to normal children. So, the aim of this study wasto compare the auditory temporal processing ability in children with ADHD and normal childrenwithGaps-In-Noise(GIN) test. Materials and Methods: In this cross sectional comparative study, 27 ADHD children aged from 7 to 12 years were selected byconvenient sampling method. The control group was paired accordingto the age and sex. GIN test was administered to assess temporal processing and approximate threshold(A.th.) and the percentage of correct responses were calculated for all participants. Nonparametric (Mann Whitney) test was used to compare GIN test parameters between two groups. Paired t test was used to compare the result of two ears in each group. Results: The mean approximate threshold and percentage of correct responses in ADHD group were7/9(2/55) ms, 53/21(12/87)% respectively and in the control group were5/42(0/96)ms and 65/4(6/65) %. ADHD group performed worse than control group and there were significant differences between two groups in test parameter values .There was no significant difference between right and left ear performance in both groups(p>0.05). Conclusions: Based on findings of current study, it seems to be a deficient auditory temporal processing in ADHD children that might be due to a Central Auditory Nervous System dysfunction. So GIN test can be useful in examining such processing in children with ADHD. Keywords: Central Auditory Processing, temporal processing,Gaps-In-Noise test,Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. مقدمه :