Auditory processing abilities in non-retarded adolescents and young adults with developmental receptive language disorder and autism

The short-term auditory memory & rapid acoustic processing skills of adolescents & young adults with developmental receptive language disorder (DRLD) or autism were evaluated. Normal (N = 15), autistic (N = 10), & DRLD (N = 9) adolescents & young adults listened to several sequences of two tones & were instructed to press a button corresponding to either tone. In the next phase, Ss were tested for their ability to respond to increasingly longer sequences of tones. Finally, they were tested for their ability to respond to increasing numbers of tones per sequence with shorter durations between stimuli. All Ss distinguished between the two stimuli & performed the task, & all had greater difficulty as the number of stimuli per sequence increased. Results further indicate that DRLD individuals have auditory processing deficits into adolescence & young adulthood primarily involving short-term memory deficits for tone sequences presented rapidly or relatively slowly. Autistic Ss demonstrated no such deficits. Findings are considered in light of other research. 2 Tables, 2 Figures, 32 References. L. Taub