MM203 - A Child’s Normal Developing Central Auditory System: Do We Expect Too Much?

Abstract:
A lack of understanding of the neurologic/linguistic processing capacity and limitations of young children's central nervous system (CNS) by audiologists, speech-language pathologists, pediatricians, teachers, and parents can result in an “off-the-cuff” diagnosis of central auditory processing difficulties when, in fact, the CNS may be developing normally and on schedule. However, the child's central auditory system may be expected to perform beyond what a normally developing CNS auditory system can process with accuracy.

Summary:
Our research (Hull and Zogleman, 2016; Hull and Muelebach, 2017) has shown that a young child’s CNS during the third to fourth year (36-48 months) of life can function with a fair degree of accuracy in the processing of the phonemic/linguistic elements of adult spoken speech when it is uttered at a rate of approximately 124 words per minute (WPM). Even children 6 years to 8 years old remain within the 124-128 WPM range for optimal processing of the phonemic/linguistic elements of adult speech. The CNS of a normally developing child age 9 to 10 years old can process adult spoken speech up to around 128-130 WPM with accuracy, while children in the upper elementary to intermediate grades are able to process typical adult speech at that same rate when all other aspects of the listening environment are favorable.

On the other hand, the speed of elementary classroom teachers' speech has been measured by this author as averaging between 160 to180 WPM, and higher. It should be neurologically impossible for children ages 3 to 4 years and older to process what those teachers are saying to them. Perhaps that is a reason that young children have over the years been so fascinated with and attentive to Fred Rogers on "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood." Rogers rehearsed speaking on his television program at a rate of around 124 WPM. He may have been one of the only adults those young children could understand well. And, by the way, he can still be seen on public television.

Our research has also shown that as one reduces the speed of speech utterances, precision of articulation and voicing are generally enhanced, and an additional benefit to speech comprehension in children of all ages is realized. Of course, those same enhancements of speech production will also benefit adults of all ages.

This presentation will focus on research on the normally developing auditory CNS and the speed of processing of auditory/linguistic information in the early years. Our research on the speech characteristics of adults will also be addressed in terms of what we can expect a child’s CNS to process, interpret, and store over time. A comparison of adult speed of utterance and clarity, and the expected speed of accurate auditory/linguistic comprehension of typical adult spoken speech by normally developing children, will be made.