Waldemar von Suchodoletz’s research while affiliated with Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich and other places

Die Auffassungen zur klinischen Relevanz auditiver Verarbeitungs- und Wahrnehmungsstorungen (AVWS) sind kontrovers. In der vorliegenden Arbeit werden unterschiedliche Konzepte zur AVWS erlautert und ein Uberblick uber empirische Studien zum Zusammenhang zwischen kinder- und jugendpsychiatrischen Storungsbildern und Defiziten in der auditiven Wahrnehmung gegeben. Die Ubersicht zeigt, dass in vielen Studien bei Kindern mit Sprachentwicklungs-, Lese-Rechtschreib- oder Aufmerksamkeitsstorungen in auditiven Tests etwas schlechtere Ergebnisse als bei unauffallig entwickelten Kindern beobachtet wurden. Allerdings konnten bislang kaum Korrelationen zwischen der Schwere der klinischen Symptomatik und auditiven Fahigkeiten nachgewiesen werden. Kausale Beziehungen zwischen auditiven Defiziten und Lern- bzw. Verhaltensstorungen sind eher unwahrscheinlich. Hinsichtlich des Vorgehens in der Diagnostik wird aus der Ubersicht deutlich, dass die verfugbaren Untersuchungsverfahren wenig verlasslich sind, es keine Einigkeit...

Developmental disorders in childhood are generally assumed to have stigmatizing effects. The goal of the present study was to assess whether parents of children with speech-language impairment perceive stigmatization of their child or themselves and which variables influence the degree of negative labeling. The study was based on 362 questionnaires completed by parents of children with speech-language impairment. The questionnaires concerned perceived stigmatization by other children, other adults and family members as a result of the child's developmental problems. In our sample, about 50% of the parents reported negative labeling of their child and about 30% felt they were involved in the stigmatizing process. Parents whose children also had behavioral problems more often reported negative labeling than parents whose children did not. The findings suggest that parents of children with speech-language disorders often perceive stigmatization of their children or themselves. In counseling such families, professionals should therefore address stigmatization and its consequences as a separate and important issue.

Short-term storage of auditory information is thought to be a precondition for cognitive development, and deficits in short-term memory are believed to underlie learning disabilities and specific language disorders. We examined the development of the duration of auditory sensory memory in normally developing children between the ages of 2 and 6 years. To probe the lifetime of auditory sensory memory we elicited the mismatch negativity (MMN), a component of the late auditory evoked potential, with tone stimuli of two different frequencies presented with various interstimulus intervals between 500 and 5,000 ms. Our findings suggest that memory traces for tone characteristics have a duration of 1-2 s in 2- and 3-year-old children, more than 2 s in 4-year-olds and 3-5 s in 6-year-olds. The results provide insights into the maturational processes involved in auditory sensory memory during the sensitive period of cognitive development.

Auditory sensory memory is assumed to play an important role in cognitive development, but little is known about it in young children. The aim of this study was to estimate the duration of auditory sensory memory in 2-year-old children. We recorded the mismatch negativity in response to tone stimuli presented with different interstimulus intervals. Our findings suggest that in 2-year-old children the memory representation of the standard tone remains in the sensory memory store for at least 1 s but for less than 2 s. Recording the mismatch negativity with stimuli presented at various interstimulus intervals seems to be a useful method for studying the relationship between auditory sensory memory and normal and disturbed cognitive development.

The goal of the study was to compare the accuracy and diagnostic power of a parent report measure and direct language assessment for early identification of children with language delay. The parent language report and direct language measures were compared for 47 typically developing toddlers and 70 late-talking toddlers aged 24 to 26 months. One year later, language abilities of 102 of the 117 children were reassessed. The concurrent validity of the parent report was high both for judging language skills and for identifying language delay. No evidence was found of differences in the rating accuracy of mothers with different educational levels. Language abilities 1 year later were predicted better with direct language measurement than with the parent report. However, there were no differences between the accuracy of the parent report and individual language assessment concerning the prediction of language delay at age 3. The results suggest that the parent language report is a valid and efficient tool for assessing productive language abilities and judging expressive language delay in 2-year-old toddlers. The measurement characteristics of the parent report are comparable with those of direct language measures.

In recent years, several language tests and parent questionnaires targeting the early identification of language delay have been developed. The present study compares the results from two such language tests administered to two-year-old children and those from a parent report measure. Thirty-one normally developing or late-talking toddlers (aged 24 to 28 months) were included in the study. Their language skills were assessed by means of a parent report (ELFRA-2, a German version of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories--CDI, Toddler Form) and two language tests (SETK-2, RDLS III). The concordance regarding the level of language skills was high for all three measures. The correlations between subtest measures that assess similar language dimensions varied between rSp = 0.7 and 0.9. Most children who were classified as late talkers based on the parent report measure were also classified as having a language delay on the basis of both language tests. However, the language delay on the part of the late-talking children usually was not recognized during the routine pediatric examination at the age of 24 months. Parent reports and language tests identify late talkers almost equally well. Hence, the parent questionnaire ELFRA-2 is recommended as the primary instrument for the early identification of late talkers at age two. If the results on the parent report are below normal, further assessment of the child's language abilities by means of the SETK-2 is advisable. In contrast to language assessment on the basis of the parent report, assessment based on the SETK-2 provides information on language comprehension and thus enables a more sophisticated assessment of the child's language skills. The SETK-2 consists mainly of pictures, however. For those children who show little interest in the pictures in a clinical setting, use of the RDLS III should be considered.

The auditory event-related potential (ERP) is obtained by averaging electrical impulses recorded from the scalp in response to repeated stimuli. Previous work has shown large differences between children, adolescents and adults in the late auditory ERP, raising the possibility that analysis of waveform shape might be useful as an index of brain maturity. We reanalysed auditory ERPs from samples previously described by Albrecht, von Suchodoletz and Uwer (2000) and Uwer, Albrecht and von Suchodoletz (2002), using the intraclass correlation (ICC) as a global measure of similarity of an individual's waveform to a grand average comparison waveform for each age band. Three developmental periods were clearly distinguished: 5 to 12 years, 13 to 16 years, and adulthood. However, within each of these periods, there was no evidence of any developmental progression with age.

It has been proposed that specific language impairment (SLI) is the consequence of low-level abnormalities in auditory perception. However, studies of long-latency auditory ERPs in children with SLI have generated inconsistent findings. A possible reason for this inconsistency is the heterogeneity of SLI. The intraclass correlation (ICC) has been proposed as a useful statistic for evaluating heterogeneity because it allows one to compare an individual's auditory ERP with the grand average waveform from a typically developing reference group. We used this method to reanalyse auditory ERPs from a sample previously described by Uwer, Albrecht and von Suchodoletz (2002). In a subset of children with receptive SLI, there was less correspondence (i.e. lower ICC) with the normative waveform (based on the control grand average) than for typically developing children. This poorer correspondence was seen in responses to both tone and speech stimuli for the period 100-228 ms post stimulus onset. The effect was lateralized and seen at right- but not left-sided electrodes.