Deficits in working memory, reading comprehension and arithmetic skills in children with mouth breathing syndrome: analytical cross-sectional study

ABSTRACT CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVE: Mouth breathing syndrome is very common among school-age children, and it is possibly related to learning difficulties and low academic achievement. In this study, we investigated working memory, reading comprehension and arithmetic skills in children with nasal and mouth breathing. DESIGN AND SETTING: Analytical cross-sectional study with control group conducted in a public university hospital. METHODS: 42 children (mean age = 8.7 years) who had been identified as mouth breathers were compared with a control group (mean age = 8.4 years) matched for age and schooling. All the participants underwent a clinical interview, tone audiometry, otorhinolaryngological evaluation and cognitive assessment of phonological working memory (numbers and pseudowords), reading comprehension and arithmetic skills. RESULTS: Children with mouth breathing had poorer performance than controls, regarding reading comprehension (P = 0.006), arithmetic (P = 0.025) and working memory for pseudowords (P = 0.002), but not for numbers (P = 0.76). CONCLUSION: Children with mouth breathing have low academic achievement and poorer phonological working memory than controls. Teachers and healthcare professionals should be aware of the association of mouth breathing with children’s physical and cognitive health.

• Publication year

  2014

• Venue

  Sao Paulo medical journal = Revista paulista de medicina

• Publication date

  2014-09-26

• Fields of study

  Medicine

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1590/1516-3180.2013.7630011PMID 25271880PMCID 10496631
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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