Early Otitis Media, Auditory Abilities, and Educational Risk

Abstract

Fourteen children whose first-year otitis media (OM) histories were well documented by prospective pneumatic otoscopy were given formal measures of their academic abilities at 6 years of age using the Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Abilities and Tests of Achievement and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale. Parents and teachers of the children completed the appropriate Conners' Rating Scales that queried behavioral and attentional characteristics. In addition, at school age, the children were screened for academic risk using the Screening Instrument for Targeting Educational Risk (SIFTER). At 4 years, these same children's abilities to listen in background competition were assessed using an adaptive competing sentences task. Auditory sensitivity was estimated in the first year of life with the click-ABR. Results suggest that a history of persistent OM and mild conductive hearing loss in the first year of life is associated with poorer academic abilities at school age, particularly in reading skills and those that underlie reading. Teachers' ratings of children's behavior and attention in the academic setting were different between OM groups (first-year OM-free versus OM-positive). Listening in background competition at 4 years of age was associated with teachers' ratings of academic performance at school age. Early OM and mild hearing loss appear detrimental to several auditory-based learning skills.