engleski

Auditory processing in people with chronic aphasia whose mother tongue is Croatian

Objectives: Auditory processing is a necessary factor of normal language, speech and writing development during childhood. In adulthood, it enables normal speech and language communication. Auditory processing disorder (APD) has not yet been explored in Croatia regarding the processing of people with aphasia. Results from other languages confirm a negative impact of weaker auditory processing on the receptive and expressive language components. Also, poor processing extends the duration of rehabilitation of people with aphasia. Methods: Research was conducted on a sample of 25 people with chronic aphasia and a control group. Inclusion criteria for people with aphasia were: poor language abilities due to CVI, which occurred at least six months prior to the study, regardless of type of aphasia, with normal hearing. People with aphasia who were not able to repeat a sentence of a minimum of six elements due to receptive or expressive difficulties and people with severe receptive problems (who could not understand the instructions needed to carry out the test) were not included in the study. The examination was conducted individually. The administration of the Test for Auditory Processing Disorders (TAPD) standardized for Croatian language lasted approximately 30 min. Results: Results from this study showed statistically significant lower achievement on all subtests (filtered words, speech in noise, dichotic words test, and dichotic sentence test) in people with aphasia compared to the control group. Results from the “better ear” in people with aphasia showed statistically significant differences in a favour of better results in the left ear compared to the control group. In the control group, results from both ears were equal. Conclusions: Auditory processing disorder is a factor important for the incidence of speech and language difficulties after CVI and demands extra therapeutic procedures aimed to reduce existing language difficulties.

aphasia

nije evidentirano