Relationship between central auditory processing and reading skills: Preliminary observations in hebrew speaking children

Aim: To assess the relationships between central auditory processing (CAP) of sinusoidally modulated speech-like and non-speech acoustic signals and reading skills in shallow (pointed) and deep (unpointed) Hebrew orthographies. Methods: Twenty unselected fifth-grade Hebrew speakers performed a rate change detection (RCD) task using the aforementioned acoustic signals. They also performed reading and general ability (IQ) tests. Results: After controlling for general ability, RCD tasks contributed a significant unique variance to the decoding skills. In addition, there was a fairly strong correlation between the score on the RCD with the speech-like stimuli and the unpointed text reading score. Conclusions: CAP abilities may affect reading skills, depending on the nature of orthography (deep vs shallow), at least in the Hebrew language.