Study of the brainstem auditory evoked potential with speech stimulus in the pediatric population with and without oral language disorders: a systematic review()

INTRODUCTION: The brainstem auditory evoked potential with speech stimulus, BAEP-speech, has been applied to observe how speech sounds are manifested in the brainstem. This tool can be used in children to assess central auditory processing, allowing preventive and early interventions. OBJECTIVE: To assess the results found in the brainstem auditory evoked potential with speech stimulus in the pediatric population with and without oral language disorders, through a systematic literature review. METHODS: The search was carried out in the scientific databases Portal BVS, Pubmed, Lilacs, Medline, Scielo and Web of Science, OpenGrey.eu, DissOnline, OpenDoar, OAIster and The New York Academy of Medicine. A systematic literature review was performed using the descriptors: auditory evoked potentials, children and their synonyms, combined by the Boolean operators AND and OR. The search filter “age: child” was used. The studies were independently read by peers and, in case of disagreement regarding the inclusion of studies, a third researcher was consulted. Original case-control articles that performed BAEP-speech without competitive noise, carried out in the pediatric population without and with oral language disorders, were included. RESULT: 14 articles published between 2008 and 2019 were included in this review. Methodological variability was observed in the exam, with the syllable / da / being the most frequently used as the stimulus. When performing the average of the groups, it was observed that the population with specific language disorders showed greater latency delays in the sustained portion, lower amplitude values and VA complex slope. The group with phonological disorders had higher values in the transient portion of the responses. CONCLUSION: Children with language disorders of different etiologies have different patterns of BAEP-speech responses when compared to children with typical development.