Purpose
To characterize and compare the performance of malnourished children and normal children in auditory processing.
Methods
The sample comprised 30 children from five to ten years old, both genders, being 15 malnourished children (G1) and 15 children with adequate nutritional status, as a control group (G2). The groups were paired according to gender, age and grade level. Both groups underwent peripheral and central auditory assessment, noting that malnourished children had higher changes in the skill of sequencing score for verbal and nonverbal when compared to normal children, and the same occurred in closing skills and background figure.
Results
Regarding the degree of auditory processing disorder, it was more severe in malnourished children.
Conclusion
Children with malnutrition have higher frequency alterations in auditory abilities when compared to normal children, being the temporal ordering skills, auditory memory, selective attention, figure-ground and closing the most affected skills.
Malnutrition; Hearing; Auditory perception; Auditory perceptual disorders; Hearing disorders
