Temporal resolution in children: comparing normal hearing, conductive hearing loss and auditory processing disorder

Temporal resolution is essential to speech acoustic perception. It may be altered in subjects with auditory disorders, thus impairing the development of spoken and written language. Aim: The goal was to compare temporal resolution of children with normal hearing, with those bearing conductive hearing loss and auditory processing disorders. Materials and methods: The sample had 31 children, between 7 and 10 years of age, broken down into three groups: G1: 12 subjects with normal hearing; G2: 7 with conductive hearing loss and G3: 12 subjects with auditory processing disorders. This study was clinical and experimental. Selection procedures were: a questionnaire to be answered by the parents/guardians, audiologic and hearing processing evaluation. The study procedure was the test to detect breaks in silence at 50 dB HL above the mean values of 500, 1000 and 2000 Hz in both ears in 500, 1000, 2000 and 4000 Hz. To analyze the data we used the Wilcoxon Test with a 1% significance level. Results: We noticed a difference between G1 and G2 and between G1 and G3 in all the frequencies. On the other hand, this difference was not seen between G2 and G3. Conclusion: conductive hearing loss and auditory processing disorders can impact break detection thresholds.