Class could be indicator of kids’ ability to interpret language, study suggests

A study of auditory processing skills in Maltese children aged between 7 and 9 has found that the children’s socioeconomic status (SES) could give some indication of their ability to process sounds, including language.

Auditory processing is how the brain perceives and interprets sound information.

When spoken to, sound travels through a person’s ear and is converted to mechanical energy. This process is what is tested for in standard hearing tests.  The signal then leaves the ear and makes its way up to the brain, where it is processed.

Among the aspects of auditory processing are one’s ability to distinguish between different sounds and words, the ability to recall and store auditory information, and the processing of sound tones to name a few.

The study, which was carried out by Nadine Tabone, Jamie Said, and Helen Grech at the Department of Communication Therapy at the University of Malta, in collaboration with Doris-Eva Bamiou of the the Ear Institute at University College London, explored the impact of socioeconomic status on auditory processing skills among 41 Maltese children.

Using the child’s mother’s level of education as an indicator of socioeconomic status, the researchers carried out a battery of auditory processing tests.

The authors say past studies established a relationship between class and neurocognitive functions of language and memory, which showed that children from poorer backgrounds were exposed less to linguistic and learning stimuli, and more to environments with increased noise.

In almost all tests by the Maltese academics, scores of children with lower socioeconomic status were lower than those of higher SES kids, faring significantly worse in temporal processing skills which affect one’s ability to identify subtle differences in the formation of speech sounds.

“The difficulty to recognise temporal patterns can reflect a weakness to extract and interpret prosodic characteristics of speech-like rhythm, stress and intonation, which in turn facilitate the interpretation of emphases and sarcasm,” the authors wrote.

In their conclusions, the authors said that while the study was a limited one, and not necessarily representative of the Maltese population due to its small sample size, the findings highlight the “potential risk of speech, language and communication difficulties as a consequence of disadvantaged environments”.

They suggested a larger more widespread investigation that could offer clearer results. In addition to this, they said that more awareness about the importance of a “rich and stimulating” environment not only contributes to the possibility of early intervention, but also increases parental knowledge about child development.