title: Auditory processing, speech perception and phonological ability in pre-school children at high-risk for dyslexia: a longitudinal study of the auditory temporal processing theory.
abstract: This study investigates whether the core bottleneck of literacy-impairment should be situated at the phonological level or at a more basic sensory level, as postulated by supporters of the auditory temporal processing theory. Phonological ability, speech perception and low-level auditory processing were assessed in a group of 5-year-old pre-school children at high-family risk for dyslexia, compared to a group of well-matched low-risk control children. Based on family risk status and first grade literacy achievement children were categorized in groups and pre-school data were retrospectively reanalyzed. On average, children showing both increased family risk and literacy-impairment at the end of first grade, presented significant pre-school deficits in phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming, speech-in-noise perception and frequency modulation detection. The concurrent presence of these deficits before receiving any formal reading instruction, might suggest a causal relation with problematic literacy development. However, a closer inspection of the individual data indicates that the core of the literacy problem is situated at the level of higher-order phonological processing. Although auditory and speech perception problems are relatively over-represented in literacy-impaired subjects and might possibly aggravate the phonological and literacy problem, it is unlikely that they would be at the basis of these problems. At a neurobiological level, results are interpreted as evidence for dysfunctional processing along the auditory-to-articulation stream that is implied in phonological processing, in combination with a relatively intact or inconsistently impaired functioning of the auditory-to-meaning stream that subserves auditory processing and speech perception.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Disability, Special Needs Education and Child Care, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. bart.boets@ped.kuleuven.be
authors.forename: Bart
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Boets
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wouters
authors.forename: Astrid
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: van Wieringen
authors.forename: Pol
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ghesquière
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D001309:Auditory Threshold / Q000502:physiology*; D002648:Child; D002663:Child Language; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004410:Dyslexia / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D010700:Phonetics; D011601:Psychophysics / Q000379:methods; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D013068:Speech Production Measurement / Q000379:methods; D013998:Time Perception; D014705:Verbal Behavior / Q000502:physiology