Estudo das habilidades auditivas de crianças com respiração oral

Abstract

This study aimed at comparing verifying the auditory nervous system maturation and analysis of the auditory abilities of temporal resolution (recognition of frequency patterns, temporal order and naming), binaural separation and integration, divided attention, auditory memory and auditory closure. Analyses of the tests, comparing their results have also been carried out, in school age children, with and without mouth breathing from behavioral tests of the Auditory Processing as well as to develop a possible correlation between the groups. The sample was composed by 102 school children, aged between 8 and 12 years old. Group I was composed of 52 children with phonoaudiological diagnosis of mouth breathing and group II was composed of 50 children with nasal breathing. The evaluation of the abilities from the auditory processing was carried out using Filtered Speech tests (FS), Pitch Pattern Sequence (PPS) and alternating Staggered Spondaic Word (SSW). Results from the auditory processing tests were analyzed according to gender (female and male) and age range. In the article I the groups were divide into under 10 years old (groups I-a and II-a) and above 10 years old (groups I-b and II-b). In the article II the auditory processing tests results were analyzed according to the type of altered ability and its occurrence in children with mouth breathing. An analysis on the possible correlation between the FF test, TPF and SSW as well as the occurrence of the most frequent changes between them was performed. The performance on the tests of auditory processing was associated to the type of breathing and may have delayed auditory abilities maturation. The occurrence of auditory processing alterations is higher among the male individuals. This study contributes to highlight the importance of taking maturation into account in obtaining an accurate audiological diagnose in children with mouth breathing.