ERIC Number: EJ857438
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2009-Sep
Pages: 16
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1363-755X
EISSN: N/A
Atypical Brain Responses to Sounds in Children with Specific Language and Reading Impairments
McArthur, Genevieve; Atkinson, Carmen; Ellis, Danielle
Developmental Science, v12 n5 p768-783 Sep 2009
This study tested if children with specific language impairment (SLI) or children with specific reading disability (SRD) have abnormal brain responses to sounds. We tested 6- to 12-year-old children with SLI (N = 19), children with SRD (N = 55), and age-matched controls (N = 36) for their passive auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) to tones, rapid tones, vowels and consonant-vowels. Thirty-eight percent of the children with SLI or SRD had less typical passive auditory ERPs in the N1-P2 window to sounds in general, rather than to tones, rapid tones, vowels or consonant-vowels specifically. The ERPs of these children were significantly "flatter" in the N1-P2 region than normal. All the children with flatter ERPs in the N1-P2 region had poor non-word reading. A subgroup of these poor non-word readers also had poor non-word repetition. These findings support the hypothesis that impaired auditory processing is a causal risk factor for both SLI and SRD.
Descriptors: Vowels, Language Impairments, At Risk Persons, Brain, Reading Difficulties, Comparative Analysis, Auditory Stimuli, Auditory Perception, Children, Reading Skills, Cognitive Processes, Learning Disabilities, Diagnostic Tests
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A