Frequency discrimination and non-lexical reading in children with auditory processing disorders: a preliminary study

ABSTRACT

Purpose: To explore the potential differential effect of auditory frequency discrimination (FD) difficulty on a range of reading and cognitive processes in children with Auditory Processing Disorders (APD).

Methods: Sixteen children with APD (aged 7;5 to 10;2), eight with FD difficulty (FD-POOR group), and eight with age-appropriate FD (FD-TYPICAL group) were tested on measures of non-lexical and lexical reading, phonological processing (phonological awareness, phonological memory and rapid automatized naming), receptive language, auditory sustained attention, and executive function.

Results: The results showed that children with poor FD experienced difficulty with tasks associated with non-lexical reading and phonological awareness. There were no significant differences between the groups on lexical reading, phonological memory and rapid automatized naming. Children with FD difficulty also showed poorer executive function. Specifically, they showed greater lag in reaction times (slower reaction times) on incongruent verses congruent trials on a modified Simon Task, indicating a larger Simon Effect. This suggests that these children were more affected by incongruency and showed poorer attention control. This finding was in the absence of significant differences in receptive language and auditory sustained attention.

Conclusion: These findings support the notion that FD difficulty often co-exists with reading difficulty in children with APD. Extending the previous findings, the present results suggest that FD pertained largely with specific aspects of reading, namely the non-lexical reading process and phonological awareness. These findings are consistent with the current models of reading that non-lexical reading and phonological awareness are more dependent on AP abilities. Additionally, poorer executive function in children with poor FD support further investigation into the association between executive function, FD, and reading in children with APD.

KEYWORDS:

• Auditory processing disorder
• dyslexia
• specific reading disorder
• reading difficulty
• frequency discrimination
• language
• sustained attention
• executive function
• Simon effect

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express their thanks to Professor Genevieve McArthur, Macquarie University, for permission to use the SoundsPod Software for this study, Mr Rob Seiler from ELR Software Pty Ltd for software implementation and technical support, and Mr David May and Dr. Judith Boswell from Adelaide Hearing Consultants for helping with participant recruitment. This research was funded by a PhD scholarship from the Can:Do 4Kids Foundation to the first author.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Emilie Lam http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5599-8790

Notes

1 As mentioned before, regular words can be read via both non-lexical and lexical reading, depending on the familiarity of the word to the individual reader; hence, regular word reading is considered a less pertinent measure of non-lexical reading.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by Can:Do 4Kids Foundation, Australia.