Short-term effects of acoustically controlled auditory training in children with impaired school performance.
Júlia Roja Tavoni, Maria Francisca Colella Dos Santos
PMID 40435098WHAT IT FOUND
Children with central auditory processing disorder and impaired school performance had better auditory test scores after weekly training, and the scores remained better months later.
Untreated children also changed on several tests, so the trial does not isolate the training effect.
Key findings
01The intervention group changed significantly on several central auditory tests across assessments.
02The intervention group's performance was maintained between the immediate post-training and three-month reassessments.
03The control group changed significantly on several auditory tests over three months, but six of the ten children still had altered tests.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Only 20 children were studied, all aged 8 to 13 years with CAPD and impaired school performance, so results may not apply to other ages, diagnoses, or school performance levels. The control group changed significantly on several auditory tests without intervention, so maturation or ordinary sound exposure could explain part of the pattern. The paper does not report how randomisation was done, whether assessors were blinded, or how dropouts were handled. A baseline test differed significantly between groups, and the paper does not report a direct between-group comparison after training. Follow-up was only three months, and the authors call for larger studies with longer monitoring.
Declared interests
The study was funded by CAPES, Financing Code 001, process number 02 P 6716/2022. The paper does not report commercial conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the post-training changes as proof that ACAT is better than no treatment. The control group also changed on several auditory tests over three months without training, and the study had only 20 children.