Lawrence F. Molt

Comorbidity of Central Auditory Processing Disorder and Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

UNLABELLED Research has indicated that children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) demonstrate significant difficulty on tasks used to assess central auditory processing skills. These findings have raised the question of whether ADHD and central auditory processing disorder (CAPD) represent a singular disorder. OBJECTIVE The current study explored the incidence of ADHD in a group of 30 children who met diagnostic criteria for CAPD. METHOD Consecutive referrals specifically for this project were assessed on a variety of measures. In addition, rating scales were completed by teachers and structured interviews were completed with parents. RESULTS Results indicate that although the incidence rate of ADHD (50%) in this sample significantly exceeds that found in the normative population (p < .001), not all children with CAPD demonstrated behaviors consistent with diagnostic criteria for ADHD. Furthermore, there was a low incidence of any other behavioral disorder in this sample. In contrast, it was found that the sample as a whole demonstrated impaired language abilities. No significant differences emerged across cognitive, auditory, or language measures. CONCLUSION This study further supports the need for increased collaboration of those professionals who work with these children given the extent of overlap of language and behavioral difficulties in this sample.

The Staggered Spondaic Word TestPerformance of Children With Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Various auditory and language tasks are considered to reflect childrens auditory processing abilities. It has been suggested that these measures may be assessing language, rather than auditory, pr...

Auditory processing and anxiety in stutterers

This study utilized the Synthetic Sentence Identification/Ipsilateral and Contralateral Competing Message subtests and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory to examine auditory processing deficits, anxiety levels, and the interaction of these two components in 15 adult stutterers and 15 nonstutterers. Results support brainstem auditory processing deficits in stutterers and equalization of cortical functioning between groups. Group differences were not found in anxiety levels. Nonsignificant correlations between anxiety levels and auditory processing were revealed.

An examination of various aspects of auditory processing in clutterers

This study examined auditory processing ability in three school-aged male clutterers who presented concomitant diagnoses of attention deficit disorder (ADD) and three age- and sex-matched normal-speaking control subjects. Subjects underwent a brief central auditory processing (CAP) and auditory event-related potential (AEP) battery. All three clutterers performed below normal test-established performance criteria on at least two of the four CAP measures and exhibited abnormal AEP waveform morphology. All control subjects performed within normal test-established performance criteria on all measures.

Acquired Velopharyngeal Dysfunction: Survey, Literature Review, and Clinical Recommendations

Purpose The aim of this study was to describe the clinical assessment recommendations for acquired velopharyngeal dysfunction (AVPD) and, through a literature review and online survey, summarize current practice patterns for evaluation and treatment pathway determination for this target population. Method An online survey to query current assessment procedures and treatment pathway recommendations for AVPD was developed. Following survey results, a literature review was completed to determine evidence-based recommendations for assessment procedures and intervention recommendations based on assessment findings. Literature search terms included the following: acquired velopharyngeal dysfunction, hypernasality, non-cleft velopharyngeal dysfunction, velopharyngeal dysfunction, velopharyngeal dysfunction AND iatrogenic, velopharyngeal dysfunction AND neurogenic, velopharyngeal dysfunction AND assessment OR evaluation, velopharyngeal dysfunction AND treatment OR intervention, velopharyngeal dysfunction AND practice patterns OR clinical guidelines, velopharyngeal insufficiency. Inclusion criteria were limited to practice patterns/recommendations for assessment and/or treatment recommendations for AVPD, English language articles published between 2000 and 2017, and peer-reviewed journals. Studies regarding solely congenital or cleft palate velopharyngeal dysfunction and intervention outcome studies were excluded. Forty articles met inclusionary criteria. Results The online survey results indicated lack of consensus for AVPD assessment and treatment recommendation protocols, with 93% of respondents indicating the need for a clinical guide for developing treatment recommendations. The majority of recommendations were filtered into an algorithm for clinical decision making. Conclusions Clinical uncertainty among speech-language pathologists surveyed and the paucity of published clinical guidelines for assessing individuals with AVPD indicate the need for additional clinical research for this disorder, one that is heterogeneous and distinct from those with congenital velopharyngeal dysfunction. The proposed evidence-based clinical worksheet may assist in determining management for patients with AVPD and may serve as a starting place for validation of a clinical guideline.

Efficacy of long latency auditory evoked/event‐related potentials (AEP) in phonetic perception tasks.

Latency functions for the auditory evoked potentials N100, P200, and the auditory event‐related potential P300 were explored to determine their efficacy as indicators of neurologic processing time for the recognition of differences in three divergent levels of acoustic phonetic patterns. Stimuli consisted of digitally reproduced and altered pairs of spoken numbers with either acoustically identical (four, five with identical /f/), acoustically similar (four, five with natural /f/), or acoustically dissimilar initial phonemes (eight, two). Each stimuli pair was presented in a traditional 80%/20% AEP ‘‘oddball’’ paradigm. For the experimental group of 20 normal‐hearing adult subjects, no statistically significant differences were observed in N100 or P200 waveform latency among the three levels of acoustic divergence. P300 latency exhibited significantly greater intersubject variability as phonetic acoustic divergence increased. Suggestions of possible brainstem or subcortical processing aspects, as well as ...

The P300 response to verbally presented digits

Latency and amplitude functions for the P300 component of the slow auditory evoked potential were measured for 20 normal hearing adults. Stimuli consisted of digitized numbers, 1–10 (excluding 7), of 480‐ms duration. The method of presentation for stimuli pairs was in an oddball paradigm in which the frequently occurring digit was presented 80% of the time and the rarely occurring digit 20% of the time. Pairs consisted of acoustically similar or acoustically divergent waveforms (e.g., 4‐5 vs 8‐2, respectively). Evoked potentials were recorded from Fz, Cz, and Pz sites. While both mean latency and mean amplitude values differed among the three sites, with the greatest amplitude and shortest latency recorded from site Cz, differences were not statistically significant. Similarly, mean amplitude and latency value differences did not reach statistical significance for acoustically similar versus acoustically divergent digit pairs at any of the three sites.