Pediatric central auditory dysfunction. Comparison of children with confirmed lesions versus suspected processing disorders.

This study compared and contrasted results on pure tone audiometry, acoustic reflexes, and the Pediatric Speech Intelligibility Test in children with either documented or suspected central auditory dysfunction. Ages ranged from 3 years, 2 months, to 8 years, 4 months. In children with confirmed CNS lesions, results were consistently normal for children with lesions in nonauditory areas of the brain and consistently abnormal for children with lesions in areas of the brain important for auditory perceptual function. The patterns of abnormality were consistent with previous findings in adults. In children with suspected central auditory processing disorders (CAPDs), audiometric findings typically showed normal hearing sensitivity, abnormal (rising) audiometric contours, normal acoustic reflexes, normal degraded monotic speech perception, and abnormal dichotic speech perception. This pattern of results was similar to findings in children with confirmed temporal lobe lesions. Overall, results supported an auditory perceptual, rather than a linguistic, basis for CAPDs.