Auditory processing abilities in children with previous middle ear effusion.

The present study was designed to determine whether auditory processing disorders are present in children with documented middle ear effusion (MEE) that required surgical treatment. Children with previous MEE and control subjects, in two age groups, were studied using five tests of auditory processing abilities: low-pass filtered speech, staggered spondaic word test, speech in noise, auditory sequential memory, and sound blending. Results found differences in groups at mean age 7 on the filtered speech tests, but no statistical differences were found on any other test at age 7 or on any test at mean age 9. The results indicate that well-managed MEE appears to have no long-term effects on children acquiring this disease.