Is poor frequency modulation detection linked to literacy problems?
Halliday LF; Bishop DV Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3UD, UK. lorna.halliday@psy.ox.ac.uk Specific reading disability (SRD) is now widely recognised as often being caused by phonological processing problems, affecting analysis of spoken as well as written language. According to one theoretical account, these phonological problems are due to low-level problems in auditory perception of dynamic acoustic cues. Evidence for this has come from studies showing poor discrimination of frequency-modulated from unmodulated tones. We measured frequency modulation detection limens (FMDLs) in 16 children with specific reading disability (SRD group), 16 children with mild to moderate hearing loss (SNH group) and 16 age-matched controls (CA group) aged 8-14. To obtain information about possible mechanisms used in frequency modulation detection, FMDLs were measured at modulation rates of 2 and 20 Hz, both in the absence and the presence of a
