Issues in Human Auditory Development

Overview

Journal J Commun Disord

Specialty Otorhinolaryngology

Date 2007 Apr 11

PMID 17420028

Citations 21

Authors

Lynne A Werner

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Unlabelled: The human auditory system is often portrayed as precocious in its development. In fact, many aspects of basic auditory processing appear to be adult-like by the middle of the first year of postnatal life. However, processes such as attention and sound source determination take much longer to develop. Immaturity of higher-level processes limits the processing of both simple and complex sounds by infants and children. Young listeners with impaired hearing may be at a particular disadvantage, in that they must make sense of sounds on the basis of a degraded representation using immature perceptual strategies.

Learning Outcomes: (1) Readers will be able to describe three stages of human auditory development. (2) Readers will be able to describe how experience with sound is important in auditory development. (3) Readers will be able to describe the role of attention and other higher-level processes in early audition.

Citing Articles

The Neural Development of Chinese Lexical Tone Perception: A Mismatch Negativity Study Across Childhood, Adolescence, and Adulthood.

Wu H, Zhang Y, Liu Y, Zhang S, Zhang L, Shu H Brain Sci. 2025; 15(1).

PMID: 39851460 PMC: 11763461. DOI: 10.3390/brainsci15010093.

The Importance of Hearing Screening and Central Auditory Processing in School-Aged Children.

Skarzynski P, Czajka N, Bukato E, Zdanowicz R, Kolodziejak A, Skarzynski H Children (Basel). 2025; 11(12.

PMID: 39767879 PMC: 11674852. DOI: 10.3390/children11121450.

Foreign Language Acquisition in Adolescent Cochlear Implant Users.

Everhardt M, Jung D, Stiensma B, Lowie W, Baskent D, Sarampalis A Ear Hear. 2023; 45(1):174-185.

PMID: 37747307 PMC: 10718217. DOI: 10.1097/AUD.0000000000001410.

Auditory and visual category learning in children and adults.

Roark C, Lescht E, Hampton Wray A, Chandrasekaran B Dev Psychol. 2023; 59(5):963-975.

PMID: 36862449 PMC: 10164074. DOI: 10.1037/dev0001525.

The development of auditory temporal processing during the first year of life.

Cabrera L, Lau B Hearing Balance Commun. 2022; 20(3):155-165.

PMID: 36111124 PMC: 9473293. DOI: 10.1080/21695717.2022.2029092.

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