Possible link between hearing disorder and dyslexia or learning disability

Deafness Research UK awarded a grant to researcher Dr Caroline Witton in the hope of improving treatment for children with auditory processing disorder (APD), thought to affect around 10 per cent of all UK children.

[2005-2007]

APD is sometimes diagnosed in children who have difficulty in listening but have normal hearing when tested by an audiologist. The children will often mishear or forget spoken instructions and have particular trouble listening in noisy environments.

Previous research by Dr Witton, based in Birmingham's Aston University, showed a possible connection between APD and literacy problems such as dyslexia.

Dr Witton's team conducted a three-year study of children from Birmingham and the West Midlands area with diagnoses of APD or dyslexia, to try and understand any link between the two conditions and also to develop a standardised test for diagnosing APD.

Results from the study have found that some children, referred to a developmental disorders clinic for dyslexia, can also be diagnosed as having APD. This suggests that there is some overlap between the conditions; ideally audiologists should know about this overlap when testing for APD, and psychologists would also benefit from being able to test for APD.

The team also began the process of developing a new test for APD, with the aim of telling the difference between children whose problems originate in the ear from those that originate in the brain. This is a difficult task, however and the team have just begun to investigate whether EEG recordings of the electrical activity generated by brain cell activity can do the job.