More sensitive measures tapping information processing, derived from perceptual-cognitive paradigms, can be used to systematically examine the infant's ability to discriminate, categorize, and abstract information and have been shown to predict to later cognitive delays or deficits and to specific linguistic outcomes. Similarly, studies with language impaired children implicate a specific deficit in rate of sensory and perceptual information processing. Highly significant and persistent deficits have been shown in the ability of children with language disorders, specifically SLI, to process rapidly changing non-verbal auditory stimuli. SLI children have been shown to be selectively impaired in their ability to both perceive and produce those speech sounds which are characterized by brief or rapidly changing temporal cues in their acoustic spectra. The degree of temporal processing deficit has also proved to be highly correlated with the degree of language comprehension deficits over a broad age range of SLI individuals.
Many children go on to have normal hearing and normal language.
However, a higher percentage of children who have repeated episodes of otitis media subsequently are found to have specific language impairment. Conversely, children with LI and dyslexia are more likely to have a history of recurrent otitis media. It may be the case that the alteration of speech sounds caused by such cyclic hearing changes could produce learned deficits in auditory temporal processing. In essence, the fluctuating hearing loss during the early years may present the child with a speech signal that is more diffuse and thus more difficult to process. This may be particularly critical if it occurs in the first year when the infant is establishing speech and language categories.