Auditory Perceptual Disorders: Speech and Language Considerations

Abstract

Among the many developments in speech-language pathology there have evolved more specific methods and materials for assessing behaviors exhibited by children. Speech-language pathologists have become sophisticated enough to recognize a constellation of behaviors that allow them to diagnose a child as having an auditory perceptual disorder. "Auditory perceptual disorder" is a term applied to children with learning disabilities, which is reflected in poor performance on auditory tasks involving attention, discrimination, figure-ground discrimination, memory, closure, temporal sequencing, and generalizing according to Rampp and Plummer (1977), and Witkin (1971). Stark (1975) reported that these difficulties are often manifested in poorer than normal reading and writing ability and in slower than normal language development. Interest in auditory processing as a component of the understanding and treatment of communication disorders has increased in tandem with the development of the concept of learning disabilities. Evidences that implicate auditory processing dysfunction as a major etiologic factor in impaired learning have been documented from clinical experience and research studies. Research by Friedlander (1970) indicated that approximately 25 per cent of kindergarten children have auditory processing deficits. Males with this disorder out-number females by about eight to one. Johnson and Myklebust (1967) provided a general description of a child with auditory processing deficits: "The child with a generalized deficit in auditory learning hears, but he does not interpret what he hears. He is unable to structure his auditory world, to sort out and associate sounds with particular objects or experiences." In terms of prevalence, learning disabilities are among the most handicapping of all childhood disorders. It is estimated that approximately 8 million individuals in the United States are learning-disabled. However, a much larger number of persons function ineffectively throughout their lives because of learning disabilities. The Department of Health, Education and Welfare's National Advisory Committee on Dyslexia and Related Reading Disorders (Templeton, 1969) estimated that 15 per cent of children in public schools experience difficulty in learning to read. The majority of children identified as being learning disabled are so diagnosed because of difficulties in mastering the process of reading. The relationship between the components of auditory perception and reading ability is a very intimate one. Kaluger and Kolsen (1969) reviewed aspects of auditory perception, including auditory comprehension, auditory discrimination, auditory memory, auditory tem-