Auditory temporal processing thresholds, habituation, and recognition memory over the 1st year

Selective impairments have been found in the ability of language impaired (LI) children to process the rapidly changing temporal cues critical to language comprehension and production. Performance on temporal perception and production tasks alone enable correct identification of 98% of LI from normal children. These findings suggest that auditory temporal processing (ATP) deficits might serve as a behavioral ''marker'' of language impairment and could be useful in early identification. Measures of perceptual-cognitive abilities in infancy such as habituation and recognition memory have been shown to be particularly sensitive to language delays. Specific links have been demonstrated between these measures and language comprehension. We hypothesize that a critical mechanism contributing to ''speed of processing,'' as measured by rate and amount of habituation and novelty preference on recognition memory tests, may be temporal processing efficiency in infancy. Auditory temporal processing thresholds were examined in two groups of infants from 6 to 10 months of age: infants from families with no known history of LI and infants from families with a positive history of LI. Infants from families with a positive history of LI had significantly lower mean thresholds than control infants. Habituation, ATP thresholds, and recognition memory were found to be significantly associated suggesting that they may be tapping similar processes.