USE OF THE VISUAL HABITUATION PARADIGM TO INVESTIGATE SPEECH PERCEPTION IN PREMATURE AND DOWN SYNDROME INFANTS.

Authors

  • Rosana Maria Tristão
  • Fernando Orphao de Carvalho

Abstract

Premature (PR) and Down syndrome (DS) infants are prone to developmental delays andcould present central auditory processing or a language disorders. The origin of thesedisorders can be associated to altered mechanisms of learning and perception of speechstimuli already in the first year of life associated to delay in neural development and toconductive haring loss at early ages. Appropriate psychophysical methodology was generatedby the adaptation of visual habituation and observer based response procedures, toinvestigate speech perception by habituation of attention to nonsense disyllabic words in bothcondition DS and PR, comparing to a control group. Composed the sample: 65 infants withDS, 34 for control group without evidence of developmental delay infants and 11 prematurebabies, matched by age. Both experimental groups did not show significant differences in thedegree of habituation. Differences encountered to control group, in patterns of habituationare discussed.

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