Listening, learning and literacy: auditory processing (immediate recall of digit span and sentence length) in children in Year 7 and its relation to literacy and behaviour

Master of EducationChildren who exhibit inattentive or disruptive behaviour in the classroom are at high risk of poor achievement progress, particularly in literacy. However, rather than being dealt with as an educational problem many of these children are referred to outside specialists such as paediatricians and psychologists to assess whether a learning difficulty or attention deficit is a contributing factor to the behavioural difficulties demonstrated at school. Similarly, many of these children are referred to audiologists to assess whether there is a hearing impairment yet typically deliver normal audiograms indicating that they do not a have a problem with hearing. However, if treated at a tertiary referral centre, children are generally screened for their auditory processing (AP) ability - The ability to hold, sequence and process accurately what is heard - and it is found that most experience functional AP difficulties. Following from an earlier study that gained normative data for over 10,000 primary school children(5-12) year olds, this study applied a standardised screening protocol using a recorded voice to measure digit span and recall of sentences of increasing length (3- 25 words). It was administered to 705 Year 7 children in a stratified, cross sectional "probability in proportion to size" (pps) cluster sample drawn from 30 classes in 30 schools across Government, Catholic and Independent sectors. The results of the auditory processing assessment were linked with literacy and behavioural indicators to gain normative data. Preliminary findings from this research indicate that AP ability (digit span and sentence length) is associated with externalising behaviours, in particular inattentiveness and also literacy ability in writing, spelling and comprehension