Auditory Temporal Processing Impairment

Neither Necessary nor Sufficient for Causing Language Impairment in Children

dorothy.bishop{at}psy.ox.ac.uk

Fourteen twin pairs, aged 8 to 10 years, were tested 3 times over 12 months; they included 11 children with language impairment (LI), 11 control children matched on nonverbal ability and age, and 6 co-twins who did not meet criteria for LI or control status. Thresholds were estimated for detecting a brief backward-masked tone (BM), detection of frequency modulation (FM), and pitch discrimination using temporal cues (f₀). Both BM and FM thresholds improved with training, and by the 2nd test session, FM thresholds were in the adult range. There were marked individual differences on BM and f₀, and, for both tasks, performance correlated with Tallal's Auditory Repetition Task administered 2 years previously. However, no auditory measure gave significant differences between LI and control groups; performance was influenced more by nonverbal than language ability. Some children did have a stable pattern of poor performance on certain auditory tasks, but their good FM detection raised questions about whether processing of auditory temporal information is abnormal. We found no evidence that auditory deficits are a necessary or sufficient cause of language impairments.

KEY WORDS: specific language impairment, auditory, backward masking, frequency modulation

Submitted on December 4, 1998
Accepted on May 12, 1999

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