The effects of an early history of otitis media on children's language and literacy skill development.
BACKGROUND
Otitis media (OM) or middle ear infection is a common childhood illness and is most frequent during the crucial first 3 years of life when speech and language categories are being established, which could potentially have a long-term effect on language and literacy skill development.


OBJECTIVE
The purpose of the current study was to ascertain the effects of a history of OM in early childhood on later language and literacy skill development.


METHODS
Forty-three children from Grade 1 and Grade 2, between 6 and 8 years old with an early history of OM and 43 control children, matched for chronological age, gender and socio-economic status, participated in this study.


METHODS
Children were tested on multiple measures of phonological awareness, semantic knowledge, narration and reading ability. The performance of children with and without a history of OM was compared on the different measures.


RESULTS
There was a general tendency for children with a history of OM to achieve lower scores on phonological awareness skills of alliteration, rhyme and non-word reading, semantic skills of expressive vocabulary and word definitions and reading than non-OM children.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings highlight the potential problems an early history of middle ear infection can have on school-aged children's later language and literacy development.
Winskel
Heather
H
MARCS Auditory Laboratories, University of Western Sydney, Milperra, NSW, Australia. h.winskel@uws.edu.au
D001364:Awareness; D002648:Child; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007805:Language Development Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008297:Male; D010033:Otitis Media / Q000453:epidemiology*; D010700:Phonetics; D011932:Reading; D013067:Speech Perception; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014706:Verbal Learning