title: Effect of an auditory training program on reading, phoneme awareness, and language.
abstract: This investigation examined the effect of an auditory training program, Fast ForWord-Language, with 26 children ages 7 to 10 years. As two subgroups based on reading ability, all children received 6 wk. of intervention. Thresholds for three conditions of backward masking were obtained pre- and postintervention, and 6 mo. afterward. Immediately following the intervention period, backward masking thresholds improved for all backward masking conditions. Participants also showed increases in language skills and in phoneme awareness but not in reading skills. Six months after intervention, there were improvements in thresholds for backward masking but no improvements in language or reading skills for either group. This study calls into question the efficacy of an intensive auditory training program to improve reading skills.
authors.affiliation: Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville 37966-0740, USA. dvalentine@utk.edu
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Valentine
authors.forename: Mark S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Hedrick
authors.forename: Lori A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Swanson
mesh_terms: D001364:Awareness; D002648:Child; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D010700:Phonetics; D011601:Psychophysics; D011932:Reading; D013067:Speech Perception; D013663:Teaching; D014706:Verbal Learning