Olivier TW, et al. - Intellectual and academic declines have been linked to sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) with in children treated for embryonal brain tumors, so researchers sought the core neurocognitive processes that could cause reading difficulties in children with treatment-related ototoxicity. Using linear mixed models, they analyzed prospectively gathered, serial, neuropsychological, and audiology data of 260 children and young adults 3 to 21 years of age (mean: 9.15 years) enrolled in a multisite research and treatment protocol, which included surgery, risk-adapted craniospinal irradiation (average risk, n=186; high risk, n=74), and chemotherapy. They evaluated participants at baseline and up to 5 years after diagnosis and grouped them according to degree of SNHL. Findings revealed greater reading difficulties over time among children with severe SNHL. Explicitly, the struggle was most evident regarding phonological skills and processing speed, which influenced higher level skills such as reading comprehension.