Low level auditory skills in school children attending third and fourth grade

Background: In Germany testing auditory low level skills has gained some popularity. However only few studies have provided norms. Prior to further testing we here aimed at establishing normal values for school children. Methods: Design: prospective study. Sample: School children attending 3rd and 4th grade. Dependent variables: just noticeable differences for intensity and frequency (JNDI, JNDF), gap detection (GD) monaural and binaural temporal order judgement (TOJB and TOJM). Statistics: descriptive and correlational analysis. Results: Data did not follow a normal distribution, i.e. only few children had poor results whereas the majority of children had fair to excellent results. Correlational analysis indicated some dependency among auditory low level skills as tested here. Discussion: These data are consistent with previously described data that auditory low levels maturate during development at least up to age 10. However the significance of poor results for impaired language acquisition remains unclear.