Article
Auditory temporal processing in children with specific reading disability with and without attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder
Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research
(2003)
Abstract
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.
Keywords
- Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity/complications,
- Auditory Threshold/physiology,
- Child,
- Cues,
- Dyslexia/complications,
- Female,
- Humans,
- Male,
- Psychoacoustics,
- Speech Perception/physiology,
- Time Factors,
- Time Perception
Publication Date
2003
Citation Information
Breier, J.I., Fletcher, J.M., Foorman, B.R., Klaas, P., & Gray, L.C. Auditory temporal processing in children with specific reading disability with and without attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 46:31-42, 2003.