The influence of quality of speech perception on verbal memory in children with developmental dysphasia

Abstract

Verbal memory depends on the quality of speech perception and development of linguistic structures depends on verbal memory. These facts point to a closed circuit of cause and effect sufficiently well-developed speech and language in children with language disorders. For the smooth progress of speech perception, good condition and functions of all parts of the auditory system is necessary. Damage or dysfunction in any part of the auditory system can lead to disorders of speech perception, which affects the state of verbal memory, from which follows the occurrence of different disorders in verbal communication. The aim of this research is to investigate the impact of quality of speech perception on verbal memory in children with developmental dysphasia. The study included 20 children with developmental dysphasia (experimental group),aged from 5 to 7 years and 30 children with normal speech and language development of the same age (control group). To evaluate the quality of speech perception in children in the experimental and control groups was used the technique of speech audiometry with the use of specially designed word lists (Plecevic, Djokovic, 1997),and for the evaluation of verbal memory was used test to examine immediate and delayed verbal memory (S. Vladisavljeviæ, 1983). By analyzing the results of our research we found that children with developmental dysphasia showed significantly worse results, or worse ability to retain verbal content compared to children with regular speech and language development. Children with developmental dysphasia need a higher intensity of the speech signal in order to properly reproduce presented words compared to children with normal speech and language development. We determined the influence of quality of speech perception on verbal memory in children with developmental dysphasia, enabling the identification of new regularities and correlations of quality of speech perception and verbal memory.