Auditory middle latency responses in children with specific language impairment

Auditory-evoked potentials represent the response of the auditory pathway to an auditory stimulus. Specific language impairment (SLI) children have delayed language development with difficulties in both understanding and producing spoken language. Hence, the purpose of this study was to determine whether a group of children with SLI had abnormal changes in the auditory middle latency response (AMLR). AMLR was obtained for 19 SLI children and they were studied and compared to normal. Audiological assessment and speech language tests were done for the study group. The results revealed no significant statistical differences between SLI children and the normal with regard to AMLR (P > 0.05). Our results suggest that children with SLI do not have abnormal auditory system response at the level measured by AMLR casting doubt on affection of the hypnotized origin of AMLR, mainly primary auditory cortex, as a cause for delayed language development in those children.