Middle ear conditions in local children with speech and language difficulties

Abstract

“Middle ear conditions” (MEC) is an umbrella term for several diseases including Otitis Media (OM) which is the most common childhood infectious disease. MEC might cause conductive hearing loss and speech and language difficulties in children. There are yet no current studies on the impact of MEC on hearing acuity and speech and language on children in the Maltese Islands. The aim for this study was to explore the presence of MEC and hearing loss in local children aged 2;00 – 4;11 years with speech and language difficulties. Children attending speech and language therapy in public or private clinics without other biomedical comorbidities such as autism spectrum disorder and cleft lip and/or palate were included in this study. Children whose caregivers did not give their consent and children with biomedical disorders were excluded from this study. This study adopted a mixed quantitative and qualitative research design. A total of 10 participant’s caregivers were asked to fill in a Parental Questionnaire (Formosa, 2019) and score the Intelligibility in Context Scale (McLeod, Harrison, & McCormack, 2012) during the appointment. An audiological assessment including otoscopy, tympanometry and sound field play audiometry was conducted by a professional audiologist. The participants’ speech and language skills were screened using the Speech and Language Screen (Formosa, 2019) during the appointment. There was no statistical significance between the caregivers’ perception on their child’s speech and language skills when compared to the child’s speech and language screen score respectively. Various error patterns were noted in both participants with and without MEC and with and without hearing loss. A similar study on a larger scale and/or longitudinal study would aid to provide further information on the correlation between speech and language skills and middle ear conditions in local children. This will help to increase awareness about the complications and sequlae that MEC may bring about.