LAUSR

ABSTRACT Our aim was to investigate the breathing patterns of children aged 5–9 years with asthma as they read aloud stories of increasingly difficulty. Eleven children with asthma were recruited from an outpatient clinic and 11 controls of similar age and sex were recruited from local schools. Non-contact respiratory monitoring methods were employed to yield acoustic recordings during baseline tasks and reading aloud from books which increased in difficulty. Measurements included breathing rate, pause time, and time ratio between inspiration and expiration (I/E ratio). The analysis showed that children with asthma breathed more slowly when reading books that were the most difficult for them and paused for longer compared to children without asthma. Among children with asthma those with severe asthma were more notably affected. The current research is the first of its kind and provides a base for future studies to investigate the relationship between breathing and the reading of children with asthma, which may be related to reported low reading achievement.