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Directional effects between rapid auditory processing and phonological awareness in children
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Directional effects between rapid auditory processing and phonological awareness in children

Erin Phinney Johnson, Bruce F. Pennington, Nancy Raitano Lee and Richard Boada
Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, v 50(8), pp 902-910
01 Aug 2009
PMID: 19298469

Abstract

Life Sciences & Biomedicine Psychiatry Psychology Psychology, Developmental Science & Technology Social Sciences
Background: Deficient rapid auditory processing (RAP) has been associated with early language impairment and dyslexia. Using an auditory masking paradigm, children with language disabilities perform selectively worse than controls at detecting a tone in a backward masking (BM) condition (tone followed by white noise) compared to a forward masking (FM) condition (tone preceded by white noise). Tallal's (1980) auditory processing hypothesis posits that abnormal RAP leads to reduced (or impaired) phonological awareness (PA), resulting in reading and language difficulties. Alternative theories suggest that impaired PA may have more of a top-down effect on auditory processing. Methods: The current study examines RAP in children tested at two time points, average age 5.6 and average age 8.3, in order to test causal relations between RAP and PA in a path analysis. Additional hierarchical regressions examine how well RAP predicts reading ability when accounting for PA and vocabulary. Results: The path analysis indicates a top-down effect, such that PA has a larger impact on BM over time than the reverse. Regressions indicate no direct impact of RAP on reading ability. Discussion: The path analysis provides evidence against the auditory processing hypothesis and instead suggests that between the ages of 5 and 8 it is variability in early phonological representations that predicts subsequent lower-level rapid auditory processing.

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Psychiatry
Psychology
Psychology, Developmental
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