How auditory development affects language acquisition: Influences of socioeconomic status and gestational age at birth

Technological advances in recent decades have intensified the need for strong language and literacy skills, such that deficits in these skills can significantly reduce occupational opportunities and social richness. Nonetheless, the causes of language and literacy deficits remain scarcely understood, so treatment consists mostly of drill on the very skills affected individuals struggle to perform. The purpose of this study was to test two related hypotheses. Hypothesis 1 was that delays in the development of the central auditory pathways greatly constrain acquisition of language skills dependent upon auditory development; these skills primarily involve those that are late emerging, namely phonological sensitivity. A corollary is that language skills that begin emergence early in life are less affected by delays in auditory development; this largely encompasses lexicosyntactic knowledge. Hypothesis 2 was that some conditions heretofore recognized as impacting language acquisition (poverty and premature birth, for the purpose of this study) take their toll at least in part by constraining the timely development of the central auditory pathways. To test these hypotheses, 104 children (5–6 years old) spanning continua of socioeconomic status and gestational age at birth were tested on (1) three measures of suprathreshold auditory functions associated with development of the central auditory pathways, (2) two measures of lexicosyntactic knowledge, and (3) two measures of phonological sensitivity. Results largely supported both hypotheses: Strong relationships were found between suprathreshold auditory functions and language measures, especially phonological sensitivity, and both socioeconomic status and gestational age appeared to exert their influence on language acquisition completely or partly through an effect on auditory function. These results should serve to refocus the search for causes of language and literacy deficits from purely environmental shortcomings to biological determinants, with newly inspired directions for interventional approaches.