Research
Distortion Product Otoacoustic Emissions in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
Introduction: To study the hearing of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is often a challenge due to the difficulty of interaction, attention, perception and memory that make it difficult to perform subjective tests, such as conventional audiometry. It is believed that objective exams such as Otoacoustic Emissions ensure greater reliability on the results. Objective: To evaluate otoacoustic emissions in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Method: This is a cross-sectional descriptive study, in which the participants were children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, aged between 4 and 11 years. The audiological evaluation was performed using distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAE) to assess cochlear functioning, more specifically functioning of the outer hair cells. Results: When evaluating the function of outer hair cells in children with ASD, the findings reveal that 55.6% of the children presented alterations in the functioning of the outer hair cells of the cochlea. Conclusion: The DPOAE test proved to be efficient for evaluating children with ASD, but the need to use other tests to determine a safe diagnosis is recognized.
