Otoneurologic evaluation in children with school difficulties: vestibular function investigation.

UNLABELLED: According to the literature, child vestibular dysfunctions can considerably affect their ability of communication and school performance.

AIM: to study the vestibular function in children with school difficulties and associated symptoms.

CASE STUDY: Clinical study with transversal cohort.

METHOD: Research subjects were 50 school children between 7 and 12 years old, from a public school of Piracicaba city, during the years 2004 and 2005. The procedure was based on: anamnesis; otorrinolaryngologic evaluation; audiologic evaluation and vestibular evaluation.

RESULTS

All children assessed, 62.0% did not have school difficulties and 38.0% had school difficulties. Dizziness was the most common general complaint (36.0%). Migraine was the most common symptom regarding the school environment (50.0%). We found a high rate of normal vestibular condition (74.2%) in children without school difficulties and low normality rate in those with school difficulties (31.6%). All found vestibular alterations, both unilateral and bilateral, had been of peripheral irritative origin, accounting for 68.4% of cases for children with school difficulties and 25.8% for children without school difficulties.

CONCLUSION

Dizziness, nausea, reading and copying difficulties presented a statistically significant relationship between the studied variables. All found vestibular alterations had been of peripheral irritative origin. Data showed a statistically significant relationship among variables.