[Peripheral, central and psychic deafness: diagnosis difficulties in case of autism child].

The population ofchildren seen in the Georges Vacola day hospital, opened 20 years, suffer from serious personality disorders and from, hearing deficit. Speech and language disorders were present in every case. However. autism seems to be less prominent. The dtlfficulties in communicate are associated with problems of memory comprehension and hearing deficit. Many of the autistic children have associated deafness. The importance of central and functional deafness is highlighted. Deficits of mechanisms indispensable to the recognition, discrimination, structuralization, memorization of auditory stimuli are discussed. Another study including 500 autistic children showed that 15% of these children aged 11 to 13 years presented with auditory disorders.