Nouns are fundamentally different from verbs semantically and syntactically, since verbs can specify one, two, or three nominal arguments. In this study, 25 children with Specific Language Impairment (age 5;3-8;2 years) and 50 typically developing children (3;3-8;2 years) participated in an eye-tracking experiment of spoken language comprehension…

The brain mechanisms of hearing include large regions of the anterior temporal, prefrontal, and inferior parietal cortex, and an extensive network of descending connections between the cortex and sub-cortical components of what is presently known as the auditory system. One important function of these additional ("top-down") mechanisms for hearing…

Purpose: To describe and compare behavioral profiles associated with auditory processing disorder (APD) and specific language impairment (SLI) in school-age children. Method: The participants in this cross-sectional observational study were 64 children (mean age 10.1 years) recruited through clinician referrals. Thirty-five participants had a…

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A basic tenet of developmental neurobiology is that certain areas of the cortex will re-organize, if appropriate stimulation is withheld for long periods. Stimulation must be delivered to a sensory system within a narrow window of time (a sensitive period) if that system is to develop normally. In this article, we will describe age cut-offs for a…

Speech perception and speech production were examined in 3-year-old Dutch children at familial risk of developing dyslexia. Their performance in speech sound categorisation and their production of words was compared to that of age-matched children with specific language impairment (SLI) and typically developing controls. We found that speech…

Auditory processing disorder (APD) describes a mixed and poorly understood listening problem characterised by poor speech perception, especially in challenging environments. APD may include an inherited component, and this may be major, but studies reviewed here of children with long-term otitis media with effusion (OME) provide strong evidence…

In normal-hearing children the latency of the P1 component of the cortical evoked response to sound varies as a function of age and, thus, can be used as a biomarker for maturation of central auditory pathways. We assessed P1 latency in 245 congenitally deaf children fit with cochlear implants following various periods of auditory deprivation. If…

Performance on a dichotic word task was examined with 15 articulatory-impaired children and 15 non-articulatory-impaired children (all between 5 and 9 years old). Results of presenting words under three conditions (free recall, directed right, and directed left) found no significant differences between groups on ear preference. (Author/DB)

Findings from a study in which twins were given tests of onward repetition and auditory processing are discussed. Children with specific language impairments were impaired on both measures, but deficits had different origins. Auditory processing problems showed no evidence of genetic influence, whereas the nonword repetition deficit was highly…

Auditory pattern recognition skills in children with reading disorders were investigated using perceptual tests involving discrimination of frequency and duration tonal patterns. A behavioral test battery involving recognition of the pattern of presentation of tone triads was used in which individual components differed in either frequency or…