Temporal Processing In Children Research Articles

Does Binaural Stimulation Enhance Temporal Processing in Young Children?

Background and objective Temporal processing abilities help perceive signal changes over time. Efficient temporal processing is necessary for pitch perception, voice identification, and speech perception. It plays a significant role in language development. Internal redundancy of the central auditory nervous plays a role in processing sensory information. There is a need to gain more insights into the maturation of neural hardwiring that supports binaural temporal processing at a young age. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the difference between monaural and binaural temporal processing in children aged 7-11 years. Methods Temporal processing was assessed using gap detection and temporal modulation transfer function (TMTF) tests. The tests were administered in 40 typically developing children with normal clinical auditory sensitivity. The maximum likelihood procedure (MLP), a MATLAB toolbox, was employed to deliver the stimulus. A multivariate analysis followed by post hoc analysis was performed to analyze the data. Results There was a significant difference between binaural and monoaural stimulation in children aged 7-11 years. However, there was no statistically significant difference between the right and left ears for gap detection threshold (GDT) and TMTF across all test frequencies. Conclusion Based on our findings, binaural stimulation enhances temporal processing in young children.

Children with amblyaudia show less flexibility in auditory cortical entrainment to periodic non-speech sounds

Objective We investigated auditory temporal processing in children with amblyaudia (AMB), a subtype of auditory processing disorder (APD), via cortical neural entrainment. Design and study samples Evoked responses were recorded to click-trains at slow vs. fast (8.5 vs. 14.9/s) rates in n = 14 children with AMB and n = 11 age-matched controls. Source and time–frequency analyses (TFA) decomposed EEGs into oscillations (reflecting neural entrainment) stemming from bilateral auditory cortex. Results Phase-locking strength in AMB depended critically on the speed of auditory stimuli. In contrast to age-matched peers, AMB responses were largely insensitive to rate manipulations. This rate resistance occurred regardless of the ear of presentation and in both cortical hemispheres. Conclusions Children with AMB show less rate-related changes in auditory cortical entrainment. In addition to reduced capacity to integrate information between the ears, we identify more rigid tagging of external auditory stimuli. Our neurophysiological findings may account for domain-general temporal processing deficits commonly observed in AMB and related APDs behaviourally. More broadly, our findings may inform communication strategies and future rehabilitation programmes; increasing the rate of stimuli above a normal (slow) speech rate is likely to make stimulus processing more challenging for individuals with AMB/APD.

Children with amblyaudia show less flexibility in auditory cortical entrainment to periodic non-speech sounds

We investigated auditory temporal processing in children with amblyaudia (AMB), a subtype of auditory processing disorder, via cortical neural entrainment. Evoked responses were recorded to click-trains at slow versus fast (8.5 versus 14.9/sec) rates in n = 14 children with AMB and n = 11 age-matched controls. Source and time-frequency analyses decomposed EEGs into oscillations (reflecting neural entrainment) stemming from the bilateral auditory cortex. Phase-locking strength in AMB depended critically on the speed of auditory stimuli. In contrast to age-matched peers, AMB responses were largely insensitive to rate manipulations. This rate resistance was seen regardless of the ear of presentation and in both cortical hemispheres. Children with AMB show a stark inflexibility in auditory cortical entrainment to rapid sounds. In addition to reduced capacity to integrate information between the ears, we identify a new functional characterization of AMB in the form of more rigid tagging of external auditory stimuli. Our neurophysiological findings may account for certain temporal processing deficits commonly observed in AMB and related auditory processing disorders (APDs) behaviorally. More broadly, our findings may inform communication strategies and future rehabilitation programs; increasing the rate of stimuli above a normal (slow) speech rate is likely to make stimulus processing more challenging for individuals with AMB/APD.

Audiovisual speech perception and its relation with temporal processing in children with and without autism

Audiovisual speech perception and its relation with temporal processing in children with and without autism

Audiovisual Temporal Processing in Children and Adolescents With Schizophrenia and Children and Adolescents With Autism: Evidence From Simultaneity-Judgment Tasks and Eye-Tracking Data

Impaired audiovisual temporal integration, manifested as an abnormally widened temporal-binding window (TBW) for integrating sensory information, is found in both autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and schizophrenia (SCZ) and contributes to aberrant perceptual experiences and impaired social communication. We conducted two experiments using age-comparable samples of participants with early-onset SCZ and participants with ASD. Sophisticated paradigms, including a unisensory temporal-order-judgment task (TOJ), an audiovisual-simultaneity-judgment task (SJ), and an eye-tracking task were used. Results showed generalized deficits in temporal processing in SCZ ranging from unisensory to multisensory modalities and from nonspeech to speech stimuli. In contrast, the widened TBW in ASD mainly affected speech stimuli processing. Applying the eye-tracking task with ecologically valid linguistic stimuli, we found that both participants with SCZ and participants with ASD exhibited reduced sensitivity of detecting audiovisual speech asynchrony. This impaired audiovisual speech integration correlated with negative symptoms. Although both ASD and SCZ have impaired multisensory temporal integration, ASD impairs speech-related processing, and SCZ is associated with generalized deficits.

Evaluation of Temporal Processing Abilities in Competing Noise.

Temporal processing is critical to a wide variety of everyday listening tasks, including speech perception. Although the importance of signal to noise ratio (SNR) is well documented in speech perception experiments, it is less explored in temporal processing experiments. The present study examined the effect of SNR on temporal processing abilities using Gap Detection Threshold (GDT) in children and adults. The study included a total of 45 subjects, where in, 25 children (Group-1) and 20 adults (Group-2) with pure-tone thresholds ranging from 0 to 25dB HL at frequency range 250-8000Hz. The GDT was measured at presentation level 50 dBSL. All the measurements were performed in 5 different conditions: 'Quiet', ' + 10dB SNR', ' + 5dB SNR', ' + 0dB SNR' and ' - 5dB SNR'. Gap Detection Thresholds are significantly higher from + 10 to - 5dB SNR when compared to quiet condition in young-adults and all sub-groups of children, whereas at + 10dB SNR, thresholds were not significantly different from quiet condition in young-adults and all sub-groups of children except for sub-group A of children, and were significantly different for all the five conditions. It was revealed that, as the signal to noise ratio (SNR) was decreased from + 10dB SNR to 0dB SNR there was a significant increase in Gap Detection Thresholds. There was a significant increase in Gap Detection Thresholds from + 10dB SNR to - 5dB SNR in both children and adults. The results also suggest that the performance on temporal processing task in the presence of background noise achieves young-adult like pattern by the age of 10-11years. Background noise affect temporal processing in both children and young-adults. Background noise impairs temporal processing in children more than the adults, which could be because of poor temporal resolving abilities in children.

Abstract # 1762 Essential fatty acids intake associated with delay aversion and temporal processing in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

The aim of the study is to investigate the association between intake of fatty acids, or omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n3-PUFAs), and cognitive functions in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Twenty-one drug-naive children diagnosed with DSM-IV ADHD, and 21 non-ADHD controls were enrolled in the study. The parents were asked to record the n3-PUFAs diet intake of their children by using the Food Frequency Questionnaire. Essential fatty acid (EFA) deficiency severity of the children was defined by the EFA deficiency scale scores. The children were also assessed by cognitive tasks, including Go-No-Go Task, Delayed Reaction Time Task, and Finger Tapping Task for inhibitory control, delay aversion, and temporal processing. The findings showed that the ADHD group had a greater severity in EFA deficiency (7.24 + 4.56, p = .02), and poorer performance in delay aversion (−177.88 + 280.40, p = .02) and temporal processing (85.34 + 10.96, p

Testing sensory and multisensory function in children with autism spectrum disorder.

In addition to impairments in social communication and the presence of restricted interests and repetitive behaviors, deficits in sensory processing are now recognized as a core symptom in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Our ability to perceive and interact with the external world is rooted in sensory processing. For example, listening to a conversation entails processing the auditory cues coming from the speaker (speech content, prosody, syntax) as well as the associated visual information (facial expressions, gestures). Collectively, the "integration" of these multisensory (i.e., combined audiovisual) pieces of information results in better comprehension. Such multisensory integration has been shown to be strongly dependent upon the temporal relationship of the paired stimuli. Thus, stimuli that occur in close temporal proximity are highly likely to result in behavioral and perceptual benefits--gains believed to be reflective of the perceptual system's judgment of the likelihood that these two stimuli came from the same source. Changes in this temporal integration are expected to strongly alter perceptual processes, and are likely to diminish the ability to accurately perceive and interact with our world. Here, a battery of tasks designed to characterize various aspects of sensory and multisensory temporal processing in children with ASD is described. In addition to its utility in autism, this battery has great potential for characterizing changes in sensory function in other clinical populations, as well as being used to examine changes in these processes across the lifespan.

Processamento auditivo temporal em crianças com transtorno do déficit de atenção com hiperatividade (TDAH)

OBJETIVO:comparar os achados da avaliação comportamental do processamento auditivo temporal em crianças com e sem Transtorno do Déficit de Atenção com Hiperatividade.MÉTODOS:participaram desse estudo 30 crianças na faixa etária de 8 a 12 anos, sendo 15 do grupo controle e 15 do grupo pesquisa, com limiares audiométricos dentro dos padrões de normalidade. Como procedimentos foram realizados os testes temporais de padrão de frequência e de duração.RESULTADOS:na comparação entre o grupo controle e grupo pesquisa em ambos os testes - padrão de frequência e padrão de duração foram verificadas diferenças significantes entre os grupos, sendo que o grupo pesquisa apresentou resultados alterados em sua maioria, enquanto que todas as crianças do grupo controle apresentaram resultados normais. Foi possível observar ainda que todas as crianças de ambos os grupos tiveram resultados inferiores para o Padrão de Duração quando comparado aos resultados do Padrão de Frequência e.CONCLUSÃO:a avaliação comportamental do processamento auditivo temporal de crianças com e sem Transtorno do Déficit de Atenção com Hiperatividade, mostrou que os sujeitos com Transtorno do Déficit de Atenção com Hiperatividade apresentaram alterações, enquanto que o grupo sem Transtorno do Déficit de Atenção com Hiperatividade resultados normais em ambos os testes. O presente estudo possibilitou um maior conhecimento da via auditiva central das crianças com e sem Transtorno do Déficit de Atenção com Hiperatividade, porém, outros estudos ainda se fazem necessários, principalmente na literatura nacional, a fim de se conhecer melhor o funcionamento do processamento auditivo dessas populações.

Time reproduction performance is associated with age and working memory in high-functioning youth with autism spectrum disorder.

Impaired temporal processing has historically been viewed as a hallmark feature of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Recent evidence suggests temporal processing deficits may also be characteristic of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, little is known about the factors that impact temporal processing in children with ASD. The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of co-morbid attention problems, working memory (WM), age, and their interactions, on time reproduction in youth with and without ASD. Twenty-seven high-functioning individuals with ASD and 25 demographically comparable typically developing individuals (ages 9-17; 85% male) were assessed on measures of time reproduction, auditory WM, and inattention/hyperactivity. The time reproduction task required depression of a computer key to mimic interval durations of 4, 8, 12, 16, or 20 sec. Mixed effects regression analyses were used to model accuracy and variability of time reproduction as functions of diagnostic group, interval duration, age, WM, and inattention/hyperactivity. A significant group by age interaction was detected for accuracy, with the deficit in the ASD group being greater in younger children. There was a significant group by WM interaction for consistency, with the effects of poor WM on performance consistency being more pronounced in youth with ASD. All participants tended to underestimate longer interval durations and to be less consistent for shorter interval durations; these effects appeared more pronounced in those who were younger or who had poorer WM performance. Inattention/hyperactivity symptoms in the ASD group were not related to either accuracy or consistency. This study highlights the potential value of temporal processing as an intermediate trait of relevance to multiple neurodevelopmental disorders.

Assessing spectral and temporal processing in children and adults using temporal modulation transfer function (TMTF), Iterated Ripple Noise (IRN) perception, and spectral ripple discrimination (SRD).

There are many clinically available tests for the assessment of auditory processing skills in children and adults. However, there is limited data available on the maturational effects on the performance on these tests. The current study investigated maturational effects on auditory processing abilities using three psychophysical measures: temporal modulation transfer function (TMTF), iterated ripple noise (IRN) perception, and spectral ripple discrimination (SRD). A cross-sectional study. Three groups of subjects were tested: 10 adults (18-30 yr), 10 older children (12-18 yr), and 10 young children (8-11 yr) Temporal envelope processing was measured by obtaining thresholds for amplitude modulation detection as a function of modulation frequency (TMTF; 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, and 128 Hz). Temporal fine structure processing was measured using IRN, and spectral processing was measured using SRD. The results showed that young children had significantly higher modulation thresholds at 4 Hz (TMTF) compared to the other two groups and poorer SRD scores compared to adults. The results on IRN did not differ across groups. The results suggest that different aspects of auditory processing mature at different age periods and these maturational effects need to be considered while assessing auditory processing in children.

Auditory temporal processing in children with stuttering

Purpose: To study auditory temporal processing performance in 30 children with stuttering (CWS) and compare it with 30 age -matched controls. Materials and Methods: Auditory temporal processing was compared in two groups of children: With and without stuttering; in the age -range of 9 -14 years using Gap Detection Test (GDT) and Duration Pattern Test (DPT). Ear differences in the gap detection thresholds and duration pattern scores were also studied in both the groups. GDT was carried out using the GDT CD developed by Shivprakash and Manjula (2003) and DPT was carried out using the DPT CD developed by Gauri and Manjula (2003). Results: No significant difference was seen in the gap detection thresholds and DPT scores between the right ear and left ear scores in typical children and between the scores of the two ears in CWS. The performance of CWS group was significantly poorer as compared to that of typical children in both GDT and DPT. These auditory temporal processing deficits may interfere with the auditory feedback loop that is crucial to fluent speech production. Fluency inducing conditions like slow reading, DAF, or frequency -altered feedback reduce the dependence on auditory feedback thus inducing fluent speech. The results of the present study show that deficient auditory temporal processing in CWS may add to the demands placed on the feedback mechanism thereby increasing stuttering. Conclusions: As a group, CWS show evidence of compromise in their auditory temporal processing abilities. Tests of temporal processing should be included in assessment of IWS as a pre-therapy assessment tool along with assessment of stuttering.

Adjustment of Time Perception in the Range of Seconds and Milliseconds

Objective: The nature of time-processing alterations in ADHD was assessed by means of duration judgments and temporal set-shifting tasks lasting several seconds and milliseconds. Method: After training with visual sample stimuli for long and short durations, 31 children with ADHD and 29 controls estimated the durations of test stimuli. During testing, the temporal context was systematically varied by shifting the duration of stimulus sets to longer or shorter intervals. Results: Children with ADHD generally overestimated the durations of stimuli on the seconds scale. Their assessment of stimuli on the milliseconds scale can be characterized as less-efficient adaptations to new temporal sets alongside otherwise normal discrimination performance. Conclusion: Findings support a pure time perception alteration in ADHD. In addition, results provide first evidence that difficulties in mental set-shifting, which have been reported for other tasks, extend to temporal processing in children with ADHD.

Brain responses to spectral and temporal auditory processing in typically developing 5-6 - years old children

Event Abstract Back to Event Brain responses to spectral and temporal auditory processing in typically developing 5-6 - years old children Leena Ervast1*, Paavo H. Leppänen2, Kaisu Heinänen1, Swantje Zachau1, Kalervo Suominen3, Mirja Luotonen3 and Pirjo Korpilahti4 1 University of Oulu, France 2 University of Jyväskylä, Finland 3 Oulu University Hospital, Finland 4 University of Turku, Finland The ability of the brain to recognize spectral and rapid temporal acoustic cues is important for phonetic perception and thus for successful language development. Here we studied how typically developing Finnish speaking children process non-verbal spectral and temporal acoustic stimuli with speech like elements. Twelve typically developing 5 - 6–year old children participated in the study. Auditory processing skills were assessed by using brain event-related potentials (ERPs). Three sine tone stimuli were presented in a passive oddball/ MMN paradigm. The standard stimulus (80 %) was a tone pair with a 150 ms within-pair interval (WPI), the spectral deviant stimulus had a pitch change in the 2nd tone, and the temporal deviant stimulus had a rapid rhythmic change including a third tone (all parts with 50 ms WPIs). Temporal principal component analysis (tPCA) was used to extract ERP responses of interest. The 2nd tone with the pitch change in the spectral deviant stimulus generated fronto-central negative response at peaking at 176 ms (from the 2nd tone onset) with a reversed polarity below Sylvian fissure. This response overlapped with N250 for the standard stimulus but emerged earlier, suggesting mismatch negativity (MMN) for spectral change in temporally complex stimuli in pre-school aged children at about the same time window as in adults. The temporal deviant stimulus generated a response pattern reflecting the temporal structure of the stimuli. The topographical distribution was similar to that of the response for spectral change but the amplitude was lower, suggesting obligatory stimulus dependent temporal processing in children. Keywords: Children, Language Conference: XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI), Palma, Mallorca, Spain, 25 Sep - 29 Sep, 2011. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Poster Sessions: Neural Bases of Language Citation: Ervast L, Leppänen PH, Heinänen K, Zachau S, Suominen K, Luotonen M and Korpilahti P (2011). Brain responses to spectral and temporal auditory processing in typically developing 5-6 - years old children. Conference Abstract: XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI). doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2011.207.00507 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 22 Nov 2011; Published Online: 28 Nov 2011. * Correspondence: Dr. Leena Ervast, University of Oulu, Oulu, France, leena.ervast@oulu.fi Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Leena Ervast Paavo H Leppänen Kaisu Heinänen Swantje Zachau Kalervo Suominen Mirja Luotonen Pirjo Korpilahti Google Leena Ervast Paavo H Leppänen Kaisu Heinänen Swantje Zachau Kalervo Suominen Mirja Luotonen Pirjo Korpilahti Google Scholar Leena Ervast Paavo H Leppänen Kaisu Heinänen Swantje Zachau Kalervo Suominen Mirja Luotonen Pirjo Korpilahti PubMed Leena Ervast Paavo H Leppänen Kaisu Heinänen Swantje Zachau Kalervo Suominen Mirja Luotonen Pirjo Korpilahti Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.

Linguistic and auditory temporal processing in children with specific language impairment.

Several studies suggest the association of specific language impairment (SLI) to deficits in auditory processing. It has been evidenced that children with SLI present deficit in brief stimuli discrimination. Such deficit would lead to difficulties in developing phonological abilities necessary to map phonemes and to effectively and automatically code and decode words and sentences. However, the correlation between temporal processing (TP) and specific deficits in language disorders--such as syntactic comprehension abilities--has received little or no attention. To analyze the correlation between: TP (through the Frequency Pattern Test--FPT) and Syntactic Complexity Comprehension (through a Sentence Comprehension Task). Sixteen children with typical language development (8;9 +/- 1;1 years) and seven children with SLI (8;1 +/- 1;2 years) participated on the study. Accuracy of both groups decreased with the increase on syntactic complexity (both p < 0.01). On the between groups comparison, performance difference on the Test of Syntactic Complexity Comprehension (TSCC) was statistically significant (p = 0.02).As expected, children with SLI presented FPT performance outside reference values. On the SLI group, correlations between TSCC and FPT were positive and higher for high syntactic complexity (r = 0.97) than for low syntactic complexity (r = 0.51). Results suggest that FPT is positively correlated to syntactic complexity comprehension abilities.The low performance on FPT could serve as an additional indicator of deficits in complex linguistic processing. Future studies should consider, besides the increase of the sample, longitudinal studies that investigate the effect of frequency pattern auditory training on performance in high syntactic complexity comprehension tasks.

Auditory processing in children with language-based learning problems: a magnetencephalography study

We examined basic auditory temporal processing in children with language-based learning problems (LPs) applying magnetencephalography. Auditory-evoked fields of 43 children (27 LP, 16 controls) were recorded while passively listening to 100-ms white noise bursts with temporal gaps of 3, 6, 10 and 30 ms inserted after 5 or 50 ms. The P1m was evaluated by spatio-temporal source analysis. Psychophysical gap-detection thresholds were obtained for the same participants. Thirty-two percent of the LP children were not able to perform the early gap psychoacoustic task. In addition, LP children displayed a significant delay of the P1m during the early gap task. These findings provide evidence for a diminished neuronal representation of short auditory stimuli in the primary auditory cortex of LP children.

Resolução temporal de crianças escolares

OBJETIVO: estudar a resolução temporal de crianças com desenvolvimento normal no teste de detecção de intervalos de silêncio (Random gap detection - RGDT) e no teste de detecção do intervalo no ruído (Gaps-in-noise - GIN). MÉTODOS: a população foi composta por 73 crianças escolares, sendo selecionadas 19 com desenvolvimento normal, na faixa etária de seis a 14 anos, de ambos os sexos, ausência de histórico otológico e/ou audiológico e de queixas escolares; audição normal; produção articulatória de todos os sons do Português e sem distúrbios do processamento auditivo. Os procedimentos da pesquisa foram os testes RGDT e GIN, realizados a 50 dB NS sendo o primeiro apresentado binaural e o segundo monoauralmente. Para análise dos dados foi aplicado teste t de Student. RESULTADOS: no teste RGDT, a média dos intervalos de silêncio para as freqüências de 500 Hz, 1000 Hz, 2000 Hz, 4000 Hz foram respectivamente, 10,13 ms; 8,69 ms; 11,94 ms; 10,56 ms, não ocorrendo diferenças estatisticamente significantes em relação à freqüência testada. No teste GIN, a média do limiar foi de 5,7 ms para a orelha direita e 5,4 ms para a orelha esquerda, não havendo diferença estatisticamente significante quanto à orelha avaliada. CONCLUSÃO: há evidências de diferenças dos limiares dos testes, o que aponta a hipótese de que GIN e RGDT não estejam avaliando a mesma habilidade auditiva ou requisitem processos não auditivos nas tarefas solicitadas. Desta forma, são necessárias novas pesquisas para entender melhor a aplicabilidade e os parâmetros de ambos os testes na prática clínica no Brasil.

Age-Related Changes in Transient and Oscillatory Brain Responses to Auditory Stimulation in Healthy Adults 19-45 Years Old

The capacity of the human cerebral cortex to track fast temporal changes in auditory stimuli is related to the development of language in children and to deficits in speech perception in the elderly. Although maturation of temporal processing in children and its deterioration in the elderly has been investigated previously, little is known about naturally occurring changes in auditory temporal processing between these limits. The present study examined age-related (19-45 years) changes in 3 electrophysiological measures of auditory processing: 1) the late transient auditory evoked potentials to tone onset, 2) the auditory steady-state response (ASSR) to a 40-Hz frequency-modulated tone, and 3) the envelope following response (EFR) to sweeps of amplitude-modulated white noise from 10 to 100 Hz. With increasing age, the latency of the auditory P1-N1 complex decreased, the oscillatory (ASSR) response became larger and more stable, and the resonant peak of the EFR increased from 38 Hz at 19 years to 46 Hz at 45 years. Source analysis localized these changes to the auditory regions of the temporal lobe. These results indicate persistent adaptation of cortical auditory processes into middle adulthood. We speculate that experience-driven myelination and/or refinement of inhibitory circuits may underlie these changes.

Does successful training of temporal processing of sound and phoneme stimuli improve reading and spelling?

The aim of this study was to measure and train auditory temporal processing in children with dyslexia and to examine whether there was a transfer of improved auditory temporal processing to reading and spelling skills. Computer-based procedures to measure and train temporal processing of sound and phoneme stimuli were developed. Test-scores for a normal control group consisting of 8-year-olds were established. Second graders with dyslexia were included in the training condition and divided into three groups: a control group, a group specifically trained in sound processing, and a third group specifically trained in phoneme processing. After an initial diagnostic procedure, both training groups received specific training every day for 4 weeks. All children, regardless of the group, received the same standard reading training programme designed for children with dyslexia at school. Outcome measures were assessed immediately after training as well as 6 and 12 months later. Tests for temporal processing of sound and phoneme stimuli proved to be highly reliable. Children with dyslexia (N = 44) showed impaired auditory processing of sound and phoneme stimuli compared to normal controls (N = 51). There was a specific significant improvement in sound, respectively phoneme, processing for the training groups immediately after the end of training. The improvement of phoneme processing remained stable after 6 months and as a trend after 12 months. After 6 and 12 months of training, children of all three groups improved significantly in reading no matter what group. In spelling, the sound training group had a slight advantage after 6 months, which was not stable after 12 months. Auditory temporal processing could be trained effectively at the sound and phoneme levels. However, no significant stable transfer of these improved abilities on reading and spelling exceeding the effect of the school-based standard training was demonstrated.

Auditory temporal processing in children with specific reading disability with and without attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

The auditory temporal deficit hypothesis predicts that children with specific reading disability (RD) will exhibit a deficit in the perception of auditory temporal cues in nonspeech stimuli. Tasks assessing perception of auditory temporal and nontemporal cues were administered to children with (a) RD without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (RD/no-ADHD, n = 40), (b) ADHD alone (ADHD/no-RD, n = 33), (c) RD and ADHD (RD/ADHD, n = 36), and (d) no impairment (NI, n = 41). The presence of RD was associated with a specific deficit in detection of a tone onset time asynchrony, but no reduction in performance on other tasks assessing perception of temporal or nontemporal acoustic cues. The presence of ADHD was associated with a general reduction in performance across tasks. The pattern of results did not indicate a pervasive deficit in auditory temporal function in children with RD, but did suggest a possible sensitivity to backward masking in this group. Results also indicated that the comorbid presence of ADHD is a significant factor in the performance of children with RD on psychoacoustic tasks.