Ear infections in kids could lead to delayed speech, study shows

Chronic ear infections can slow language development in children, new research suggests.

Researchers at the University of Florida have begun studying how a common childhood infectious disease can affect language.

A study published in November 2023 in the International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology found that early ear infections (otitis media) can cause hearing loss due to fluid building up behind the eardrum.

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Researchers examined auditory processing and language development in 117 children between the ages of 5 and 10, including children with and without a history of chronic ear infections.

Children who experienced multiple ear infections before age 3 had smaller vocabularies and found it difficult to match similar-sounding words.

These children also had trouble detecting changes in sound that could indicate problems with the brain's auditory processing centers.

Study co-author and University of California professor Dr. Susan Knightlower discussed the findings in a statement to Fox News Digital.

“Language development seems to come so easily for most children that it's easy to lose sight of how amazing this is,” she says.

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“Ear infections are also so common among infants and young children that they are often thought to be completely benign,” she added.

The study revealed “two somewhat novel findings,” Nitroer said.

The study's lead researcher (not pictured) said it was important for parents to pay attention to their child's history of ear infections. (St. Petersburg)

The first finding is the association between ear infections and a decreased ability to recognize patterns in the acoustic signals present in speech.

“The central auditory pathway develops after birth,” the researchers said.

“When a child does not have access to sufficient auditory input, which occurs in the case of temporary hearing loss due to an ear infection, the development of the auditory pathway is delayed and listening abilities do not develop properly.”

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The second finding suggests that children's ability to identify specific sounds containing elements such as syllables is impaired due to poor recognition of acoustic patterns.

“As children grow older, the language they encounter, especially in school, becomes more complex and dependent on language structure at that level.”

“This is an important discovery,” Nitroer said. “At the early stages of language acquisition, children do not have, nor do they need, a keen sensitivity to phonological structure, or individual sounds.”

She goes on to say, “However, as children grow older, the language they encounter, especially in school, becomes more complex, and their level of language structure and the child's ability to accurately and quickly recognize individual sounds within words becomes more complex.'' You become dependent on it,” he added.

One of the study's “key findings” is that ear infections can make it difficult to identify sounds, the lead researcher said. (St. Petersburg)

This means that children with language delays and challenges “experience greater challenges” as they get older, Nitluer said.

“Contrary to the idea that children “get over'' or “outgrow'' early influences, [ear infections]these effects may actually be enhanced,” she said.

“We have to take all ear infections seriously.”

Nitroer encouraged parents and guardians to monitor their children for “language learning, academic and attentional difficulties” as they age, including reading and writing difficulties.

“It also means any ear infection must be taken seriously,” she added.

Knitlauer said other early health histories can delay a child's language development as well. This means children's language development needs to be monitored “well past school age.”

She also said that “problems arising from such situations may only emerge as language demands in schools increase.”

Ear infections can delay the development of the auditory pathway in early childhood, a study has found. (St. Petersburg)

Dr. Abita Reddy, a pediatric otolaryngologist at Cedars-Sinai Guerin who was not involved in the study, told Fox News Digital that she felt the study was “underpowered” in her opinion.

“This experiment had very few subjects, but it gave us some general conclusions,” the Los Angeles-based doctor said in an email. “When a study has very few experimental subjects, confounding variables can often easily skew the conclusions.”

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Reddy also noted that the patient population chosen for the study was “concerning” because the study looked at children who were reported to have fewer ear infections as defined by their parents. did.

”[This] “There can be great concern about the type of otitis media a child has, as there are two types, acute otitis media and chronic otitis media, which can have very different effects on a patient's language development,” she said. said.

Researchers found that the effects of early ear infections can “intensify” as children grow older. (St. Petersburg)

The definition of patients who experienced an ear infection is “even more concerning” because the authors studied patients who had apparently never had a Eustachian tube inserted, Reddy said.

“They didn't say whether the patient had a Eustachian tube at the time. [the] We looked at experiments, how many sets they had, or what their Eustachian tube signs were,” she said.

The expert said he was of the opinion that parents should not draw any conclusions from this study, and that he did not believe the study would influence the future of otorhinolaryngology medicine.

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“We know that recurrent acute otitis media in certain patients can be caused by dysfunction of the Eustachian tube, the tube in the body that connects the middle ear space to the back of the nose… [which]If not treated early, it can lead to lifelong hearing problems in the form of conductive hearing loss (the ability of sound to travel to the auditory nerve),” Reddy added.

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