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maltatoday, SUNDAY, 6 AUGUST 2017 7 News The Gzira project, proposed by ADMG Estates, was the first high-rise development to be ap- proved under the PA's high-rise policy in 2015. Subsequently, the developers applied to add eight new storeys to an already ap- proved 16-storey tower. But the application was later amended to reduce the additional storeys to five. ADMG Estates is owned by various shareholders, including Sonnet Investments, JPK Invest- ments, Marius Cordina and Paul Darmanin. The directors of the company are Ian Decesare and Marius Cordina. The tower is being built on a triangular-shaped plot of land fronting Gzira road, Sliema road, and Triq ir-Rebħa, which housed the former United Garage build- ing, 150 metres away from the Gzira parish church. YANNICK PACE A study of auditory processing skills in Mal- tese children aged between 7 and 9 has found that the children's socioeconomic status (SES) could give some indication of their ability to process sounds, including language. Auditory processing is how the brain per- ceives and interprets sound information. When spoken to, sound travels through a person's ear and is converted to mechani- cal energy. This process is what is tested for in standard hearing tests. The signal then leaves the ear and makes its way up to the brain, where it is processed. Among the aspects of auditory processing are one's ability to distinguish between dif- ferent sounds and words, the ability to recall and store auditory information, and the pro- cessing of sound tones to name a few. The study, which was carried out by the Department of Communication Therapy at the University of Malta in collaboration with the Ear Institute at University College Lon- don, explored the impact of socioeconomic status on auditory processing skills among 41 Maltese children. Using the child's mother's level of educa- tion as an indicator of socioeconomic status, the researchers carried out a battery of audi- tory processing tests. The authors say past studies established a relationship between class and neurocog- nitive functions of language and memory, which showed that children from poorer backgrounds were exposed less to linguistic and learning stimuli, and more to environ- ments with increased noise. In almost all tests by the Maltese academ- ics, scores of children with lower socioeco- nomic status were lower than those of higher SES kids, faring significantly worse in tempo- ral processing skills which affect one's ability to identify subtle differences in the forma- tion of speech sounds. "The difficulty to recognise temporal pat- terns can reflect a weakness to extract and interpret prosodic characteristics of speech- like rhythm, stress and intonation, which in turn facilitate the interpretation of emphases and sarcasm," the authors wrote. In their conclusions, the authors said that while the study was a limited one, and not necessarily representative of the Maltese population due to its small sample size, the findings highlight the "potential risk of speech, language and communication dif- ficulties as a consequence of disadvantaged environments". They suggested a larger more widespread investigation that could offer clearer re- sults. In addition to this, they said that more awareness about the importance of a "rich and stimulating" environment not only con- tributes to the possibility of early interven- tion, but also increases parental knowledge about child development. ypace@mediatoday.com.mt extra five tower Class could be indicator of kids' ability to interpret language The authors found a "potential risk of speech, language and communication difficulties as a consequence of disadvantaged environments" 1937's 'Toffs and Toughs', a photo that captured Eton pupils all packed and ready