Short-term memory impairment and unilateral dichotic listening extinction in a child with Landau-Kleffner syndrome: Auditory or phonological disorder?

The neuropsychological profile of a child with a Landau-Kleffner syndrome i s presented here, The observed cognitive difficulties included verbal short -term memory and seemed partially compensated For when the experimental ass essments bypassed the auditory channel. This case study is especially chall enging since the child, whose phonological skills were quire efficient and who exhibited a dichotic listening unilateral extinction, had developed ave rage reading and spelling abilities. The fact that B.E.'s performance on me mory tasks was quite poor when the stimuli were presented auditorily and mo re efficient when the stimuli were presented visually, strongly suggests th at the observed memory impairment was due to a deficit at the level of cort ical auditory processing. B.E.'s phonological sh;ills were efficient, sugge sting a neuropsychological dissociation between phonological ability and au ditory processing. The fact that B.E. dramatically recovered language and e asily acquired reading and spelling accounts for the hypothesis that compen satory strategies allowed him to develop phonological skills From predomina ntly visual input. (C) 2001 Academic Press.