Hearing abilities in children with dyslexia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Background: auditory processing and co-occurrence of pathologies.

Aim: to investigate the performance of children with Dyslexia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in behavioral and auditory processing tests, comparing the results to a control group.

Method: participants of the study were 30 children, with ages between 7 and 12 years, divided into three groups: a control group of 10 children, a study group of 10 children with dyslexia and a study group of 10 children with ADHD. All participants were submitted to the following auditory processing tests: Speech in Noise, Dichotic of Digits and Frequency Pattern.

Results: concerning the Speech in Noise Test, there was an interactive effect between the control group and the ADHD group (p < 0.001), with the ADHD group presenting a significantly lower performance; for the Dichotic of Digits test, there was an interactive effect between the three groups (p < 0.001), with the ADHD group presenting a lower performance, followed by the dyslexic and control groups; for the Frequency Pattern, there was a marginal effect (p = 0.056) with the ADHA group presenting a lower performance, followed by the dyslexic and control groups.

Conclusion: the ADHD group presented a poorer performance in all tests when compared to the dyslexic and control groups. This result suggests a relationship between attention and hearing abilities.