The Effect of Otitis Media with Effusion on Language and Cognitive Skills in School Age Children

Objective: Otitis media with effusion (OME) is a common condition in childhood and can interfere with cognitive development. The fact that it can be easily overlooked causes it to become chronic and has negative consequences in the long term (1). The negative consequences of OME in terms of speech and language disorders include speech sound disorders and developmental language disorders. For this purpose, cases admitted to the speech and language therapy clinic were screened for OME consecutively, and its relationship with language disorders was analyzed. Materials and Methods: 50 children aged 8 to 10 years without mental retardation and hearing impairment were evaluated with audiology, language, repetition (non-word and sentence), and visual perceptual tests. In addition to standard language assessment, narrative samples were obtained and analyzed which is considered a descriptive approach. Results: 26 children were positive for OME. Children with OME scored lower on language and repetition tests. There was no significant difference between the groups with and without OME in terms of syntactic complexity, narrative skills and visual perceptual performance. The Mann-Whitney U test was used for the comparison of parameters between groups (p<0.05). Conclusion: The presence of OME negatively affected language development. However, the structural complexity dimension of storytelling, complex sentence production performance, and visual perceptual skills were not affected negatively by OME. Although OME positivity is not accompanied by mental retardation and developmental delay, language development and verbal working memory may be negatively affected. OME should be routinely screened in childhood and should be addressed more closely in children with speech and language disorders.

Keywords:

Otitis media with effusion, language development speech sound disorder,

PDF

___

1. Mills R, Hathorn I. Aetiology and pathology of otitis media with effusion in adult life. J Laryngol Otol 2016; 130(5): 418-24. google scholar
2. Marchisio P, Nazzari E, Torretta S, Esposito S, Principi N. Medical prevention of recurrent acute otitis media: an updated overview. Expert Rev Anti Infect Ther 2014; 12(5): 611-20. google scholar
3. Vanneste P, Page C. Otitis media with effusion in children: Pathophysiology, diagnosis, and treatment. A review. J Otol 2019; 14(2): 33-39. google scholar
4. Klausen O, M0ller P, Holmefjord A, Reisaeter S, Asbj0rnsen A. Lasting effects of otitis media with effusion on language skills and listening performance. Acta Otolaryngol Suppl 2000; 543: 73-6. google scholar
5. Rach GH, Zielhuis GA, van den Broek P. The influence of chronic persistent otitis media with effusion on language development of 2- to 4-year-olds. Int J Pediatr Otorhinolaryngol 1988; 15(3): 253-61. google scholar
6. Roberts J, Hunter L. Otitis media and children’s language and learning. The ASHA Leader. 2002; 7(18): 6-19. google scholar
7. Sezgin Z. Efüzyonlu otitis media: tanı ve tedavi yaklaşımlarına genel bakış [Otitis media with effusion: overview of diagnosis and treatment approaches]. Pediatr Pract Res 2016; 4(1): 1-11. google scholar
8. Petinou KC, Schwartz RG, Gravel JS, Raphael LJ. A preliminary account of phonological and morphophonological perception in young children with and without otitis media. Int J Lang Commun Disord 2001; 36(1): 21-42. google scholar
9. Coates WA. The description of language use. Word 1966; 22(1-3): 243-258. google scholar
10. Georgakopoulos T, Polis S. The semantic map model: State of the art and future avenues for linguistic research. Lang Linguist Compass 2018; 12(2): e12270. google scholar
11. Martin I, McDonald S. Weak coherence, no theory of mind, or executive dysfunction? Solving the puzzle of pragmatic language disorders. Brain Lang 2003; 85(3): 451-66. google scholar
12. Kaushanskaya M, Park JS, Gangopadhyay I, Davidson MM, Weismer SE. The relationship between executive functions and language abilities in children: A latent variables approach. J Speech Lang Hear Res 2017; 60(4): 912-23. google scholar
13. Güven S, Friedmann N. Developmental letter position dyslexia in Turkish, a morphologically rich and orthographically transparent language. Front Psychol 2019; 10: 2401. google scholar
14. Finley S. Cognitive and linguistic biases in morphology learning. Wiley Interdiscip Rev Cogn Sci 2018; 9(5): e1467. google scholar
15. Dowell SF, Marcy SM, Phillips WR, Gerber MA, Schwartz B. Otitis media—principles of judicious use of antimicrobial agents. Pediatrics 1998; 101(suppl): 165-71. google scholar
16. Hacımustafaoğlu MK. Çocuklarda akut otitis media. Güncel Pediatri 2003; 1(1): 29-34. google scholar
17. Anwar K, Khan S, Rehman HU, Javaid M, Shahabi I. Otitis media with effusion: Accuracy of tympanometry in detecting fluid in the middle ears of children at myringotomies. Pak J Med Sci 2016; 32(2): 466-70. google scholar
18. Kırkım G. Immitansmetric evaluation methods. In: Basic Audiology. Ankara: Güneş Tıp Kitabevleri; 2015. pp. 105-12. google scholar
19. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Degree of hearing loss. [Accessed on April 1, 2023]. Available from: https:// www.asha.org/public/hearing/Degree-of-Hearing-Loss/ google scholar
20. Topbaş S, Güven OS. Turkish School Age Language Development Test-TODIL, Test Battery. Detay Publishing; 2013. google scholar
21. Topbaş S, Kaçar-Kütükçü D, Kopkalli-Yavuz H. Performance of children on the Turkish Nonword Repetition Test: Effect of word similarity, word length, and scoring. Clin Linguist Phon 2014; 28(7-8): 602-16. google scholar
22. Savaş M, Tunçer AM, Çokar AÖ, Demirbilek AV, Tüzün E. Impact of epilepsy on language and discourse: Two self-limited focal epileptic syndromes of childhood. Epilepsy Behav 2020; 102: 106671. google scholar
23. Savaş M, Tunçer AM, Çelik İ, Yaşgüçlükal MA, Demirbilek AV, Çokar AÖ. Does electrical status epilepticus in sleep adversely affect language in self-limiting focal epilepsies of childhood? Noro Psikiyatr Ars 2023; 60(1): 62-7. google scholar
24. Taha J, Stojanovik V, Pagnamenta E. Sentence repetition as a clinical marker of developmental language disorder: Evidence from Arabic. J Speech Lang Hear Res 2021; 64(12): 4876-99. google scholar
25. Stokes SF, Wong AM, Fletcher P, Leonard LB. Nonword repetition and sentence repetition as clinical markers of specific language impairment: the case of Cantonese. J Speech Lang Hear Res 2006; 49(2): 219-36. google scholar
26. Topbas S. Turkish Pronunciation-Phonology Test: Validity-reliability and standardisation study. Turk J Psychol 2006; 21(58): 39-56. google scholar
27. Bohnacker UTE. Tell me a story in English or Swedish: Narrative production and comprehension in bilingual preschoolers and first graders. Appl Psycholinguist 2016; 37(1): 19-48. google scholar
28. Ozer S. Turkish children’s Bender-Gestalt Test performance: a pilot study and preliminary norms. Percept Mot Skills 2007; 105(3 Pt 1): 872-82. google scholar
29. Jose MR, Mondelli MF, Feniman MR, Lopes-Herrera SA. Language disorders in children with unilateral hearing loss: a systematic review. Int Arch Otorhinolaryngol 2014; 18(2): 198-203. google scholar
30. Ucles P, Alonso MF, Aznar E, Lapresta C. The importance of right otitis media in childhood language disorders. Int J Otolaryngol 2012; 2012: 818927. google scholar
31. Shriberg LD, Kent RD, Karlsson HB, McSweeny JL, Nadler CJ, Brown RL. A diagnostic marker for speech delay associated with otitis media with effusion: backing of obstruents. Clin Linguist Phon 2003; 17(7): 529-47. google scholar
32. Hitchcock ER, Harel D, Byun TM. Social, emotional, and academic impact of residual speech errors in school-aged children: A survey study. Semin Speech Lang. 2015; 36(4): 283-94. google scholar
33. Keppeke Lde F, Cintra Ide P, Schoen TH. Bender Visual-Motor Gestalt Test in adolescents: relationship between visual-motor development and the Tanner Stages. Percept Mot Skills 2013; 117(1): 1299-317. google scholar
34. Acarlar F. Türkçe ediniminde gelisimsel özelliklerin dil örnegi ölçümleri açisindan incelenmesi. Türk Psikoloji Dergisi 2005; 20(56), 61. google scholar
35. Nippold MA, Mansfield TC, Billow JL. Peer conflict explanations in children, adolescents, and adults: Examining the development of complex syntax. Am J Speech Lang Pathol 2007; 16: 179-188. google scholar
36. Nippold MA. School-age children talk about chess: does knowledge drive syntactic complexity? J Speech Lang Hear Res 2009; 52(4): 856-71. google scholar
37. Nippold MA. School-age children talk about chess: does knowledge drive syntactic complexity? J Speech Lang Hear Res 2009; 52(4): 856-71. google scholar
38. Gagarina N, Bohnacker U, Lindgren J. Macrostructural organisation of adults’ oral narrative texts. ZAS Papers in Linguistics 2019; 62: 190-208. google scholar
39. Marinis T. On the nature and cause of specific language impairment: A view from sentence processing and infant research. Lingua 2011; 121(3): 463-75. google scholar
40. Topbaş SS. Litmus Türkçe cümle tekrarı testinin geçerlik güvenirlik çalışması [dissertation]. [Order No. 29071890]. [Place of Publication]: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global; 2021. (2665129516) google scholar
41. Topbaş SS. Litmus Türkçe cümle tekrarı testinin geçerlik güvenirlik çalışması [dissertation]. [Order No. 29071890]. [Place of Publication]: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global; 2021. (2665129516) google scholar
42. Coady JA, Evans JL. Uses and interpretations of non-word repetition tasks in children with and without specific language impairments (SLI). Int J Lang Commun Disord 2008; 43(1): 1-40. google scholar
43. Machado MS, Teixeira AR, da Costa SS. Correlation between cognitive functions and central auditory processing in adolescents with non-cholesteatomatous chronic otitis media. Dement Neuropsychol 2018; 12(3): 314-20. google scholar
44. Mody M, Schwartz RG, Gravel JS, Ruben RJ. Speech perception and verbal memory in children with and without histories of otitis media. J Speech Lang Hear Res 1999; 42(5): 1069-79. google scholar