Abstract
The aim of this research was to analyze temporal auditory processing and phonological awareness in school-age children with benign childhood epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes (BECTS). Patient group (GI) consisted of 13 children diagnosed with BECTS. Control group (GII) consisted of 17 healthy children. After neurological and peripheral audiological assessment, children underwent a behavioral auditory evaluation and phonological awareness assessment. The procedures applied were: Gaps-in-Noise test (GIN), Duration Pattern test, and Phonological Awareness test (PCF). Results were compared between the groups and a correlation analysis was performed between temporal tasks and phonological awareness performance. GII performed significantly better than the children with BECTS (GI) in both GIN and Duration Pattern test (P < 0.001). GI performed significantly worse in all of the 4 categories of phonological awareness assessed: syllabic (P = 0.001), phonemic (P = 0.006), rhyme (P = 0.015) and alliteration (P = 0.010). Statistical analysis showed a significant positive correlation between the phonological awareness assessment and Duration Pattern test (P < 0.001). From the analysis of the results, it was concluded that children with BECTS may have difficulties in temporal resolution, temporal ordering, and phonological awareness skills. A correlation was observed between auditory temporal processing and phonological awareness in the suited sample.
Highlights
(Central) auditory processing disorder [(C)APD] is defined as a deficit in neural processing of auditory information in the central nervous system
Gap detection threshold (GDT) results were similar for both ears in GI and GII (P = 0.179 and P = 0.163, resp.) and percentage of correct identification (PCI) (P = 0.095 and P = 0.275)
The same similar performance between right and left ears occurred in Duration Pattern test, in GI and GII, and in both modalities: naming (P = 0.069 and P = 0.462) and humming (P = 0.611 and 0.245)
Summary
(Central) auditory processing disorder [(C)APD] is defined as a deficit in neural processing of auditory information in the central nervous system. It has been recognized that patients with epilepsy may present speech recognition impairments or speech processing difficulty [2], suggesting a functional deficit in central auditory processing. Seizures typically begin between 3 and 12 years and resolve spontaneously until 15– 18 years It is usually diagnosed by the association of clinical findings and the electroencephalogram (EEG), which has a BioMed Research International normal background cerebral activity with high voltage sharp waves in the centrotemporal (rolandic) region, followed by slow waves activated by sleep [4]. BECTS was always considered a benign developmental disorder, because of the absence of obvious anatomic lesions, predictable spontaneous remission of seizures, and evidences of no cognitive and language impairments when compared to normal children [5, 6]. Other studies reported difficulty to process speech in the presence of background noise, even with normal hearing [21], worse performance on dichotic listening compared to controls [22, 23], and evidences of cortical auditory dysfunction based on electrophysiological measures [24, 25]
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