Increased rate of listening difficulties in autistic children

Philippa James; Erin Schafer; Jace Wolfe; Lauren Matthews; Stephanie Browning; Jacob Oleson; Eldon Sorensen; Gary Rance; Lucy Shiels; Andrea Dunn

doi:10.1016/j.jcomdis.2022.106252

Increased rate of listening difficulties in autistic children

J Commun Disord. 2022 Sep-Oct:99:106252. doi: 10.1016/j.jcomdis.2022.106252. Epub 2022 Aug 10.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology, The University of Melbourne, Carlton, VIC 3053, Australia; Phonak, Sonova AG, Stäfa, Switzerland. Electronic address: philippa.james@unimelb.edu.au.
² Department of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology, University of North Texas, Denton, TX 76201, United States.
³ Hearts for Hearing, Oklahoma City, OK 73120, United States.
⁴ Department of Biostatistics, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, 52242, United States.
⁵ Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology, The University of Melbourne, Carlton, VIC 3053, Australia.
⁶ Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology, The University of Melbourne, Carlton, VIC 3053, Australia; Phonak, Sonova AG, Stäfa, Switzerland.
⁷ Phonak, Sonova AG, Stäfa, Switzerland.

PMID: 36007485
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcomdis.2022.106252

Abstract

Introduction: Auditory challenges are both common and disruptive for autistic children and evidence suggests that listening difficulties may be linked to academic underachievement (Ashburner, Ziviani & Rodger, 2008). Such deficits may also contribute to issues with attention, behavior, and communication (Ashburner et al., 2008; Riccio, Cohen, Garrison & Smith, 2005). The present study aims to summarize the auditory challenges of autistic children with normal pure-tone hearing thresholds, and perceived listening difficulties, seen at auditory-ASD clinics in the US and Australia.

Methods: Data were compiled on a comprehensive, auditory-focused test battery in a large clinical sample of school-age autistic children with normal pure-tone hearing to date (N = 71, 6-14 years). Measures included a parent-reported auditory sensory processing questionnaire and tests of speech recognition in noise, binaural integration, attention, auditory memory and listening comprehension. Individual test performance was compared to normative data from children with no listening difficulties.

Results: Over 40% of patients exhibited significantly reduced speech recognition in noise and abnormal dichotic integration that were not attributed to deficits in attention. The majority of patients (86%) performed abnormally on at least one auditory measure, suggesting that functional auditory issues can exist in autistic patients despite normal pure-tone sensitivity.

Conclusion: Including functional listening measures during audiological evaluations may improve clinicians' ability to detect and manage the auditory challenges impacting this population. Learner Outcomes: 1) Readers will be able to describe the auditory difficulties experienced by some autistic patients (ASD). 2) Readers will be able to describe clinical measures potentially useful for detecting listening difficulties in high-functioning autistic children.

Keywords: Auditory filtering; Autism spectrum disorder (ASD); Dichotic listening (DL); Listening difficulties; Speech-in-noise.

MeSH terms

Attention
Auditory Perception
Autistic Disorder*
Child
Hearing Tests
Humans
Noise
Speech Perception*