Groenen P, Crul T, Maassen B, van Bon W
University Hospital Nijmegen, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, The Netherlands.
J Speech Hear Res. 1996 Feb;39(1):43-54. doi: 10.1044/jshr.3901.43.
Research on the relationship between early otitis media with effusion (OME), language impairment, and central auditory processing has been equivocal. Identification and discrimination tasks provide us with a sensitive method of assessing speech perception on both an auditory and a phonetic level. The present study examined identification and discrimination of initial bilabial stop consonants differing in voicing by 9-year-old children with a history of severe OME. The groups studied were controlled for language impairment. The ability of these children to perceive major and minor voicing cues was examined using multiple voicing cues. Long-term effects of OME were found for both identification and discrimination performance. Children with OME produced an overall inconsistency in categorization, which suggests poorer phonetic processing. Discrimination was measured by means of "just noticeable differences" (JND). Children with early OME experience demonstrated a greater mean JND than children without early OME experience. Finally, in cases of language impairment with early OME, there was no additional deterioration of auditory or phonetic processing. It appears that either early OME or language impairment can lead to poorer perception.
关于早期中耳积液（OME）、语言障碍和中枢听觉处理之间关系的研究一直存在争议。识别和辨别任务为我们提供了一种在听觉和语音层面评估言语感知的灵敏方法。本研究考察了有严重OME病史的9岁儿童对发音方式不同的双唇塞音的识别和辨别能力。所研究的各组在语言障碍方面进行了对照。使用多种发音方式线索考察了这些儿童感知主要和次要发音方式线索的能力。发现OME对识别和辨别表现均有长期影响。患有OME的儿童在分类上总体表现不一致，这表明语音处理能力较差。辨别通过“恰可察觉差异”（JND）来衡量。有早期OME经历的儿童的平均JND大于没有早期OME经历的儿童。最后，在伴有早期OME的语言障碍病例中，听觉或语音处理能力没有进一步恶化。似乎早期OME或语言障碍都可能导致较差的感知能力。
