Association between the auditory profile and speech-language-hearing diagnosis in children and adolescents

Abstract

ABSTRACT Purpose: to verify the association between the auditory assessment result and the speech-language-hearing diagnosis in children and adolescents. Methods: an observational, cross-sectional study based on the analysis of medical records of children and adolescents that received care at a speech-language-hearing assessment outpatient center between 2010 and 2014. Data on sociodemographic characteristics, speech-language-hearing diagnosis, auditory examination results, and Auditory Processing Simplified Assessment results were collected. Descriptive and association analyses were conducted with either the chi-squared or Fisher’s exact test, considering the 5% statistical significance level. Results: the sample comprised 122 participants, most of them males (67.2%), mean age 8.78 years. A statistically significant association was verified between the audiometry result and the diagnostic hypothesis of change in written language (p = 0.011); between the results of both the sequential memory test for nonverbal sounds and sound localization and the diagnostic hypotheses of change in the cognitive aspects of language (p = 0.019 and p = 0.033, respectively) and of speech (p = 0.003 and p = 0.020, respectively); and between the result of the sequential memory test for verbal sounds and the diagnostic hypothesis of change in speech (p = 0.005). Conclusion: given the associations found, it is proposed that children and adolescents with changes in speech undergo the Auditory Processing Simplified Assessment to verify the possibility of changed aspects, favoring directed therapeutic interventions.