Effects of otitis media with effusion on speech perception and production in preschoolers

Otitis Media with Effusion (OME) is one of the most common pediatric infections, affecting as many as 80 - 90% of children at least once before they enter primary school. During OME, a fluid build-up, or effusion, in the middle ear cavity often leads to a mild-to-moderate, conductive hearing loss, which can last for a few days to over three months. Children who periodically experience OME have inconsistent access to the acoustic signal, which potentially disturbs language acquisition. This dissertation investigates the effects of OME and the associated hearing loss on speech perception and production in preschoolers from 3 to 5 years of age, combining clinical and psycholinguistic methods to gain a deeper understanding of the relationship between OME and linguistic development. 

The study described in Chapter 3 focuses on speech production in children with OME by comparing phonological impairments in 3- to 5-year-old children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) with and without concomitant OME. The probability of productive phonological errors was higher in children with only DLD compared to children with DLD and concomitant OME, suggesting different etiologies of DLD between groups. The results converge in the notion that restrictions in accessing the language input in children with OME potentially act as a trigger for DLD, hereby highlighting the relevance of OME as a risk factor for linguistic development.