Brain auditory evoked potentials in children with Down syndrome

Hearing loss in children with Down syndrome is more frequent than in healthy children. The average latency values of BAEP established for healthy children should not be used as a reference for children with Down syndrome. The shortening of the latency values in BAEP results of children with Down syndrome under 1 year of age may be connected with accelerated maturation of the nervous system or anatomical and/or functional disturbances of the central nervous system. BAEP is a valuable method that allows for the objective evaluation of the hearing threshold and functional condition of the hearing pathway in subjects who do not cooperate during testing.