Investigating the Auditory Differentiation Skill in Normal 7-8 Year Old Persian Children in Shiraz

Abstract

Background: Development of auditory differentiation skill plays an imperativerole in the development of speech and language skills of children as well as centralauditory processing. One of the instruments employed in the investigation ofthis skill is auditory differentiation test. The present study was conducted withthe aim of investigating the auditory differentiation skill in normal 7-8 year oldchildren.Methods: The present cross-sectional descriptive study was performed on 200normal girls and boys within the age bracket of 7-8 years with equal numbers ofgenders (100 girls and 100 boys). In order to examine the auditory differentiationskill, the Persian version of Wepman auditory differentiation test was employed.The significance level in this research was considered as P=0.05.Results: The auditory differentiation score according to percentiles of 5 and 95was 38 and 40 among the seven year old group, respectively, while it was 38.05and 40 in the eight year old group, respectively. The mean auditory differentiationscore of the seven year old children was significantly lower than that of the eightyear old children (P=0.04). No significant difference was observed between thetwo genders (P=0.19).Conclusion: According to the results obtained in this research, the auditorydifferentiation score was significantly different between the seven and eight yearold groups, but no significant difference was observed between boys and girls.