Early Otitis Media may adversely impact auditory and language development in children, finds study

The auditory function examined was temporal modulation detection, using games designed to maintain children's attention; two additional measures assessed that attention. Measures of lexical knowledge and phonological sensitivity served as the language measures.Results: Sustained attention was demonstrated equally across groups of children with and without histories of otitis media. Children with histories of otitis media performed more poorly than peers without those histories on the auditory measure and on both sets of language measures, but effects were stronger for phonological sensitivity than lexical knowledge. Deficits in temporal modulation detection accounted for variability in phonological sensitivity, but not in lexical knowledge. When experimental factors are tightly controlled, evidence emerges showing effects of otitis media early in life on both auditory and language development. Mechanism of effects on language acquisition appear to involve both delayed auditory development and diminished access to the ambient language.

Reference:

Susan Nittrouer, Joanna H. Lowenstein. Early otitis media puts children at risk for later auditory and language deficits. International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology,

Volume 176, 2024, 111801, ISSN 0165-5876. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijporl.2023.111801. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165587623003683)