Auditory Processing Theories of Language Disorders: Past, Present, and Future

Abstract

Research on the role of auditory processing in communication disorders springs from a variety of theoretical perspectives and assumptions, and this variety, combined with controversies over the interpretation of research results, makes it difficult to draw clinical implications from the literature. Neurophysiological research methods are a promising route to better understanding of auditory processing. Progress in theory development and its clinical application is most likely to be made when researchers from different disciplines and theoretical perspectives communicate clearly and combine the strengths of their approaches.

Listening difficulties in children: Bottom-up and top-down contributions

“…When a purely sensory measure, presumably reflecting only bottom-up processing in the central auditory system, is used the relationship is lost. It may be noted that the many reports in the communication disorders literature showing a relationship between AP and language/literacy problems among children with specific language impairment (SLI; Miller, 2011;Tallal, Miller, Bedi, Byma, & Wang, 1996) and dyslexia (Amitay, Ben-Yehudah, Banai, & Ahissar, 2002) have all used what are called here individual tests of AP. This suggests that, rather than measuring impaired sensory processing and, in particular, impaired temporal processing, they were actually measuring the ability of the children described in their reports to perform the cognitive aspects of the AP tasks used (also called the 'procedural' aspects of the task; Ortiz & Wright, 2009 Since only a small minority of children are thought to have APD, their results might be masked in a correlation analysis by the vast majority who do not have APD (Chermak & Musiek, 1997;Hind, Haines-Bazrafshan, Benton, Brassington, & Towle, 2011), explaining the relatively weak correlations in Table 1, even for the individual AP tests.…”

Investigation of auditory processing disorder and language impairment using the speech-evoked auditory brainstem response

“…Similarities in the symptoms of (C)APD and LI have been described, and several researchers have investigated the performance of children with LI on behavioral tests of central auditory processing (Dawes and Bishop, 2009;Ferguson et al, 2011;Miller, 2011). For instance, children with LI exhibit abnormal temporal processing and discrimination of the frequency (Lowe and Campbell, 1965;Tallal and Piercy, 1973,;McArthur and Bishop, 2004;Mengler et al, 2005).…”

Auditory Processing Disorders with and without Central Auditory Discrimination Deficits

“…A close relationship was reported between APD and other developmental disorders such as SLI Sharma et al 2009;Boscariol et al 2011;Ferguson et al 2011) or dyslexia (King et al 2003Miller 2011). Some authors argue that there is hardly any difference between these impairments, and the fact that they may or may not co-occur (Dawes and Bishop 2009; Miller 2011) limits any attempt to disentangle whether and how these disorders are causally linked.…”