Neuropsychomotor development and auditory skills in preschool children

Abstract

Introduction: Neuropsychomotor development and auditory abilities, influenced by biological and environmental factors, are directly related to school performance. In this way, a screening test in school environment allows the prior identification of change in development, reducing the losses in child life. Objective: To characterize the relationship between neuropsychomotor development and auditory processing skills in preschool children. Methods: 108 preschool children from three public institutions with ages between four years and one month to five years and eleven months, of both sexes were screened. It was performed the screening of Central Auditory Processing (CAP) through the simplified evaluation of auditory processing and the neurodevelopment using the Developmental Screening Test II Denver. The data were analyzed by chi-square tests and bivariate correlation with Pearson coefficient, adopting a significance level of 5% and alpha of 0.1. Results: The screening of the CAP, 100% of the subjects showed normal responses in the test detection, 81.5% in sound localization, 49% in the test of non-verbal sequential memory and 58.3% in the test of verbal sequential memory. In the neuropsychomotor development screening, the frequency of appropriate responses to the chronological age was significant in all areas, being 86.1% (93) in personal social area, 92.5% (100) in the adaptive fine motor, 87 % (94) in language and 92.5% (100) in gross motor. It was found a significant relationship only between the language alterations and proofs of sequential memory (p <0.05). Conclusion: It was found that the group studied was relationship between the language alterations and alterations in the temporal ordering skills of the central auditory processing.