[Central auditory processes evaluated with psychoacoustic tests in normal children]

Abstract

Objective: To identify the natural tendencies of hits and calculate the cutoff for a test group of central auditory processes (CAP): binaural fusion, filtered words, dichotic digits, frequency patterns and duration patterns and ambient sounds in normal 5-, 7-, 9- and 11-year-old children.

Material and methods: We studied 369 children (738 ears) who attend public schools in Puebla City, administering 6 CAP tests (two binaural and four monaural); we used an audiometer at 50dB SL re-threshold at 1 kHz, from a CD recorded at the CCECADET-UNAM-INR (Centre for Applied Science and Technological Development at the National Autonomous University of Mexico and the National Institute for Rehabilitation).

Results: We determined the cutoff points for the six tests.

Conclusion: This information represents an advance in the normative standards in the field of psychoacoustic tests for CAP in Spanish and in the socio-educational context prevalent in Mexico. It is important to evaluate these results against CAP disorders.