CAPD in 2nd-Graders of Primary Schools: Which tests Discriminate Normal from Impaired Children?

Abstract

Background: Third- and fourth-graders with (C)APD can be differentiated from non-(C)APD children at best by means of 3 diagnostic tests (Nickisch & Kiese-Himmel, 2009). Now it should be examined which tests discriminate second graders with (C)APD from those without. Material und Methods: 10 audiological and psychometrical tests were used for this purpose. Patients: 33 second-graders of primary schools diagnosed with auditory-specific perceptual deficits (clinical group (C)APD: average age: 7.8; SD 0.7 years) were compared to 48 normally developed children of the same school grade (control group Non-(C)APD: average age: 7.6; SD 0.5 years). Results: With the exception of 3 non-language based tests significant group-differentiations appeared, with the (C)APD-children displaying worse results. The diagnostic classification succeeded in the following test-combination: Word-Understanding in Background Noise (Goettinger Sprachaudiometrie im Freifeld), Dichotic Listening (Uttenweiler Test), Numerical Sequence Memory (Subtest of the German version of the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities), Nonword Repetition (Mottier-Test). 97.5% of all children were assigned to the correct diagnostic group (96.3% after cross-validation). Conclusion: After the exclusion of neurological disorders, peripheral hearing-disorders as well as intelligence-impairments the diagnostic assurance of (C)APD of second-graders succeeded, permitting very small probability of error. Compared to the preliminary study, an additional diagnostic test on second-graders is necessary; classification, as a result, will be more precise.