Language Skills, but Not Frequency Discrimination, Predict Reading Skills in Children at Risk of Dyslexia
对245名有阅读障碍家族风险或语言障碍的儿童进行纵向追踪，发现频率辨别能力不能预测阅读或语言技能，而执行功能可预测频率辨别，挑战了听觉加工缺陷导致阅读障碍的假说。
This study evaluated the claim that auditory processing deficits are a cause of reading and language difficulties. We report a longitudinal study of 245 children at family risk of dyslexia, children with preschool language impairments, and control children. Children with language impairments had poorer frequency-discrimination thresholds than controls at 5.5 years, but children at family risk of dyslexia did not. A model assessing longitudinal relationships among frequency discrimination, reading, language, and executive function skills showed that frequency discrimination was predicted by executive skills but was not a longitudinal predictor of reading or language skills. Our findings contradict the hypothesis that frequency discrimination is causally related to dyslexia or language impairment and suggest that individuals at risk for dyslexia or who have language impairments may perform poorly on auditory processing tasks because of comorbid attentional difficulties.