Association between audiological profile and primary language impairment in children.

OBJECTIVES

The aim of the present study was to characterize the Brazilian Portuguese speaking children seen at the Speech-Language Pathology Service of a Health Center, between 1985 and 2009, diagnosed with primary language impairments (PLI): language development impairment (LDI), phonological disorder (PD) and reading and writing impairment (RWI) regarding demographic and audiological profile; as well as investigate the association between PLI and demographic variables, and the association between PLI and hearing disorders.

METHODS

A survey of medical records was carried out, collecting audiological and language impairment diagnostic data, totaling 2424 individuals in the study group. In addition, audiological evaluation data of 186 children without language disorders complaints were collected so that they constituted the control group.

RESULTS

From the study group,1524 children (62.87%) had PLI. Considering the PLIs, the following occurrences were observed: PD=58.84%, LDI=30.75% and RWI=10.41%, with a predominance of males (64.19%) and age range up to 6 years (67.15%). For the audiological profile, there was a predominance of normal hearing thresholds (81.34%), followed by conductive hearing loss (15.47%). Tympanogram type A was more prevalent (56.24%), followed by B and C types (21.84% and 18.16%). Acoustic reflexes were present in the majority of subjects (51.7%). There was a significant association between belonging to the 7-12 years-old group and presenting with PD, belonging to the group up to 6 years and having LDI, and belonging to the older group and presenting with RWI. There was a significant association between males and presenting with LDI. There was statistically significant association between PLI and abnormal audiological profile. Individuals with abnormal audiological profile were 63% more likely to have PLI than those who had normal audiological profile.

CONCLUSIONS

It is suggested that having an abnormal audiological profile would be a risk factor for PLI. Hence, these findings can serve as a basis for children hearing and speech-language monitoring, and as an important tool for the planning of health promotion and prevention actions, as well as the development and implementation of intervention programs.