The use of auditory evoked responses recorded from newborn infants to predict later language skills.

Abstract

Over the past two decades, an increasing number of investigations reported that various behavioral and medical measures are useful in characterizing the development of normal infants as well as those infants who may be at risk for a variety of learning disabilities (see V. Molfese, 1989, for a review and evaluation of the effectiveness of these measures). Although such research reports appear promising, the correlations reported and the percentage of variance accounted for are typically low. At best, 50% of the variance has been accounted for in predictive studies utilizing birth measures as predictors of outcomes in the preschool period (Molfese & Molfese, 1985). In an effort to predict more accurately later developmental outcomes, researchers have been turning toward other measures such as the brain stem evoked response and the long latency evoked potential response that might converge with these traditional behavioral assessment measures in order to build better predictive models. Studies utilizing such evoked brain responses have for some time been viewed as providing new information concerning the structural integrity of the brain, insights into brain functioning, and the development of hemispheric involvement in cognitive and language abilities (Callaway, Tueting, & Koslow, 1978).