Hearing and communicative skills in the first years of life in children with congenital Zika syndrome

INTRODUCTION: Microcephaly is recognized as one of the main consequences of congenital Zika syndrome, but other serious problems such as global hypertonia, irritability, excessive crying, swallowing disorders, seizures, visual impairment and sensorineural hearing loss have been identified as associated with the syndrome. OBJECTIVE: Describe the developmental characteristics of hearing and language skills in the first year of life of children with normal hearing thresholds’ and congenital Zika syndrome. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study that evaluated hearing and language skills in the first year of life of 88 children with normal peripheral hearing and confirmed congenital Zika syndrome. All children were submitted to a behavioral auditory test and a validated questionnaire addressed to parents or caregivers, which was used as an instrument for assessing hearing and communicative skills. RESULTS: The delay in communicative skills was present in 87.5% of the children, while 44.3% of them demonstrated a delay in hearing acuity. Only the alteration of cervical motor control presented as a statistically significant association with delays in both skills (p-value = 0.006 and <0.001 for hearing and communicative skills, respectively), while the presence of microcephaly and the degree of its severity were only associated with delayed development of communicative skills. CONCLUSION: Despite a normal peripheral auditory system, children with congenital Zika syndrome may demonstrate delayed language development by having neurological damage at the center of auditory processing, requiring more specific studies to clarify language acquisition in this population.