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Auditory Pathologies in Infancy

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Auditory Development in Infancy

Part of the book series: Advances in the Study of Communication and Affect ((ASCA,volume 10))

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Abstract

Auditory pathologies are generally grouped into two categories, hearing loss and central auditory dysfunction. Tennyson was certainly correct, however, in pointing out that the only language of the infant is the cry. Therefore, central auditory deficits involving auditory discrimination (ability to differentiate contrasting vowels and consonants), auditory association (ability to relate meaning to sound), auditory closure (ability to fill in missing sounds), auditory memory (ability to recall an auditory sequence), auditory localization (spatial orientation), and auditory figure—ground perception (the ability to isolate related sounds from their background) do not really appear as problems until the infant has become the toddler and language, mobility, personality, and potty training become the bane of mother’s existence. Therefore, the focus of this chapter is on pathologies resulting in hearing loss. That is not to say that central auditory dysfunction does not occur, or is any less important a topic for discussion. It does say, however, that our diagnostic procedures (binaural fusion, filtered speech, alternating speech, and competing messages) require a far more sophisticated approach than can be utilized with the infant. Perhaps even more important, although it is nice to know the locus of a lesion, that knowledge will have little effect on the treatment the child and the family would receive during those early months of life, regardless of the type of auditory pathology present.

But what am I?

An infant crying in the night. An infant crying for the light, And with no language but a cry.

—Alfred Lord Tennyson

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nova Scotia Hearing and Speech Clinic, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

    George T. Mencher

  2. Nova Scotia Hearing and Speech Clinic, Co-ordinator Hearing Screening Program, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

    Lenore S. Mencher

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  1. George T. Mencher
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  2. Lenore S. Mencher
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Research in Human Development, Erindale College, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada

    Sandra E. Trehub  & Bruce A. Schneider  & 

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Mencher, G.T., Mencher, L.S. (1985). Auditory Pathologies in Infancy. In: Trehub, S.E., Schneider, B.A. (eds) Auditory Development in Infancy. Advances in the Study of Communication and Affect, vol 10. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9340-6_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9340-6_7

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