Background. Otitis media (OM) or middle ear infection is a common childhoodillness and is most frequent during the crucial first 3 years of life when speech andlanguage categories are being established, which could potentially have a long-termeffect on language and literacy skill development.
Aims. The purpose of the current study was to ascertain the effects of a history ofOM in early childhood on later language and literacy skill development.Sample. Forty-three children from Grade 1 and Grade 2, between 6 and 8 years old with an early history of OM and 43 control children, matched for chronological age,gender and socio-economic status, participated in this study.
Methods. Children were tested on multiple measures of phonological awareness,semantic knowledge, narration and reading ability. The performance of children withand without a history of OM was compared on the different measures.
Results. There was a general tendency for children with a history of OM to achievelower scores on phonological awareness skills of alliteration, rhyme and non-wordreading, semantic skills of expressive vocabulary and word definitions and reading thannon-OM children.
Conclusion. These findings highlight the potential problems an early history ofmiddle ear infection can have on school-aged children’s later language and literacydevelopment.