Hearing abilities stimulation program for schools.
Ana Flávia de Oliveira Nalom Baruchi, Eliane Schochat
PMID 40172374WHAT IT FOUND
Preschoolers who did 10-15 minutes of classroom auditory games scored higher on rhyme and word production than those doing visual activities.
Both groups improved reading skills, so the auditory program added specific gains in phonological awareness rather than general literacy.
Key findings
01The auditory stimulation group performed significantly better than the placebo group on rhyme production, rhyme identification, word production, and working memory.
02Both groups improved on central auditory processing tests, but the interaction between time and group was significant, indicating the auditory program drove greater change than the placebo activities.
03The auditory group showed significant pre-to-post improvements in dichotic listening and random gap detection, while the placebo group did not improve on random gap detection.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Formal audiometric screening was not possible for all children due to the pandemic; only behavioral tests were used, so mild hearing losses in participants cannot be ruled out. The placebo group received visual/psychomotor activities, which may have provided cognitive stimulation that confounds the specific effect of auditory training. Phonemic synthesis was at zero for all children, limiting the interpretation of advanced phonological skills. The study was conducted in a single school in Brazil, limiting generalizability to other educational contexts.
Declared interests
No conflicts of interest or funding sources are reported in the provided text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the improvement in both groups as evidence that the auditory program is ineffective or that no intervention is needed. The placebo group improved due to normal development, but the auditory group showed specific, significant advantages in phonological awareness tasks that the placebo group did not match.