The Effects Of Auditory Integration Training On Autism Spectrum Disorder Children With Or Without Brainstem Auditory Evoked Potential Abnormalities

Objective To explore the effects of auditory integration training for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders,trying to detect the influence of abnonnal brainstem auditory evoked potentials on auditory integration training effects,and to provide a choice and references for clinical rehabilitation training of Autism Spectrum Disorders.Methods 80 cases of first clinically diagnosed Autism Spectrum Disorders children were randomly divided into test group(40 cases)and control group(40 cases).Children in the test group accepted auditory integration training for 1 month,while children in the control group accepted comprehensive training(Applied Behavior Analysis Training combined with Sensory Integration Training),children in both groups were evaluated by childhood autism rating scale(CARS)and autism treatment evaluation checklist(ATEC)respectively before and after the trainings.All children were inspected with Brainstem auditory evoked potential(BAEP),according to the inspection results children in both groups were respectively incorporated into the"normal BAEP group" and "abnormal BAEP group" two subgroups.Between the test group and the control group,changes of the scale scores before and after the training,and the effect of the normal and abnormal brainstem auditory evoked potentials on the training effect,were compared.Results(1)Of the 80 children,51 were examined for BAEP abnormalities,accounting for 63.8%.BAEP abnormality rate of test group was 67.5%,BAEP abnormality rate of control group was 60.0%,chi square test showed that,the difference between the two groups showed no significance(?2=0.487,P>0.05).(2)Paired t test showed that,for the test group,after accepting auditory integration training,scores of CARS and four factors of ATEC were decreased compared with those before training,the difference was statistically significant(P<0.05);while for the control group,after accepting comprehensive training,only language factor of ATEC score decreased compared with that before training,the difference is statistically significant(P<0.05).(3)Using "groups"(test group and control group)and "subgroups"(normal BAEP/abnormal BAEP)as fixed factors,the score changes of CARS and four factors of ATEC of the 80 cases of children before and after receiving trainings("before" minus"after")were analyzed by two-ways analysis of variance.The results showed that:The main effect of "groups"(different treatments in test group and control group)on the scores of CARS and language factor,social factor and sensitive factor from ATEC showed statistically significance(P<0.05);while the main effect of "BAEP"(normal and abnormal)on the scores of CARS and language factor and social factor from ATEC showed statistically significance(P<0.05).(4)The differences of scores of the checklists between subgroups were analyzed furtherly,the results of independent-sample t-test showed that:for the children in test group,the differences of scores of language factor and social factor from ATEC between normal BAEP subgroup and abnormal BAEP subgroup were statistically significant after training(P<0.05),and the scores of abnormal BAEP subgroup changed more;for the children in control group,the differences of scores of all checklists between normal BAEP subgroup and abnormal BAEP subgroup showed no statistical significance(P>0.05).(5)During the 2 courses of auditory integration training process,of the 40 cases of children with autism spectrum disorders in test group,1 case had hyperexcitability,3 cases had irritability,2 cases had sleep loss,in addition to the children with hyperexcitability recovered to the state before training one week after the training ended,the remaining children recovered to the state before training when the second course of training began.Conclusion(1)Auditory integration training can improve the language communication dysfunction of part of the children with Autism Spectrum Disorders in short tern.(2)Auditory integration training can improve the social interaction dysfunction of part of the children with Autism Spectrum Disorders in short term,making them more interested in social.(3)Also,auditory integration training can improve the behavior problems and emotional problems of part of the children with Autism Spectrum Disorders in short term,decreasing the inappropriate behaviors,and increasing the control abilities of emotions.(4)Compared with the traditional comprehensive training,the effects of auditory integration training in the short term seem more significant.(5)In order to avoid the adverse effects of auditory integration training,the auditory integration training should be carried out independently,with no other interventions,according to the training requirements of the children with autism spectrum disorder.(6)More than half of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders have Brainstem auditory pathway dysfunction,it should be concerned about in researches of clinical rehabilitation training of Autism Spectrum Disorders.(7)Whether BAEP is normal have influences on the effects of auditory integration training,Improvement effects of auditory integration training on children with abnormal BAEP seem more significant than those on children with normal BAEPR(8)Auditory integration training has no adverse effect which can influence on the bodies and life of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders a lot,and has good safety and compliance.