Prevalence and remediation of spatial processing disorder (SPD) in Indigenous children in regional Australia

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to determine the prevalence of spatial processing disorder (SPD) in the Indigenous Australian population and the benefit of and logistical issues arising from remediation of the disorder. Design: Participants were assessed for SPD with the Listening in Spatialized Noise – Sentences test (LiSN-S). Participants diagnosed with SPD were instructed to use the LiSN & Learn auditory training software until 100 games had been completed. Study sample: Participants were 144 Indigenous Australian children (aged between 6;0 [years;months] and 12;2). Results: Ten participants (6.9%) presented with SPD. Nine took part in the auditory training study. Post-training LiSN-S performance improved on average by 0.9 population standard deviations (1.4 dB). There was a significant correlation (r = 0.71, p = 0.031, η² = 0.51) between total number of LiSN & Learn games played (mean = 65, SD = 27) and improvement in LiSN-S performance. Teachers rated all participants as improving in their listening abilities post-intervention. Conclusions: There is a high prevalence of SPD in the Indigenous Australian population. LiSN & Learn training is effective in remediating SPD in this population and is considered a beneficial intervention by teachers, however improvement in spatial processing is dependent on training program uptake.

Key Words::

• Spatial processing disorder
• chronic otitis media
• deficit-specific auditory training

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support of the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing. The authors would also like to thank the principals, teachers, and students of the schools in Kempsey, NSW who participated in this study. We would also like to thank Mr Mark Seeto for assistance with statistics.

Declaration of interest: This research was funded by Australian Hearing. The authors would like to disclose that the LiSN-S test described in this paper is distributed under license by Phonak Communications AG. The LiSN & Learn auditory training software described in this article is distributed by the National Acoustic Laboratories. Financial returns from the sale of the LiSN-S and the LiSN & Learn benefit the National Acoustic Laboratories and Dr Cameron. This has in no way influenced the research reported in this article.