The Development of Sound Localization Latency in Infants and Young Children with Normal Hearing.
Martin Eklöf, Filip Asp, Erik Berninger
PMID 35505627WHAT IT FOUND
Sound localization latency decreases significantly with age, dropping from about 1 second at 6 months to 500 ms by 3 years.
This objective measure works in infants and young children, offering a way to assess binaural processing without requiring verbal responses or extensive training.
Key findings
01Sound localization latency (SLL) shows a distinct age dependence, decreasing from approximately 1 second at 6 months to about 500 ms by 3 years of age.
02The decrease in latency is most pronounced before 1.5 years of age, after which it slows down.
03There is no significant relationship between sound localization latency and localization accuracy when controlling for age, suggesting they reflect different aspects of development.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study only included children with normal hearing, so it does not show how latency differs in children with hearing loss or auditory processing disorders. Latency measurements were difficult to obtain in children under 1 year of age due to lower trial inclusion rates. The sample size was small (22 participants). Head movements were not recorded, so the measure relies on eye gaze relative to the room, which may not fully capture the child's orienting response if head movement is dominant.
Declared interests
Funded by Stiftelsen Tysta Skolan, STAF (Swedish Technical Audiological Society), and Karolinska Institutet. No commercial conflicts of interest reported.
The easy way to misread this
Do not use these latency values as clinical cut-offs for hearing loss or processing disorders. The data comes exclusively from children with normal hearing, and the authors state that the relationship between latency and accuracy in clinical cohorts remains to be studied.