Remote Microphones Support Speech Recognition in Noise and Reverberation for Children With a Language Disorder.

Purpose: Children with typical hearing and various language and cognitive challenges can struggle with processing speech in background noise. Thus, children with a language disorder (LD) are at risk for difficulty with speech recognition in poorer acoustic environments.

Method: The current study compared the effects of background speech-shaped noise (SSN) with and without reverberation on sentence recognition for children with LD ( = 9) and typical language development (TLD; = 9).

Impact of room acoustics and visual cues on speech perception and talker localization by children with mild bilateral or unilateral hearing loss.

Introduction: This study evaluated the ability of children (8-12 years) with mild bilateral or unilateral hearing loss (MBHL/UHL) listening unaided, or normal hearing (NH) to locate and understand talkers in varying auditory/visual acoustic environments. Potential differences across hearing status were examined.

Methods: Participants heard sentences presented by female talkers from five surrounding locations in varying acoustic environments.

Speech Understanding in Complex Environments by School-Age Children with Mild Bilateral or Unilateral Hearing Loss.

Numerous studies have shown that children with mild bilateral (MBHL) or unilateral hearing loss (UHL) experience speech perception difficulties in poor acoustics. Much of the research in this area has been conducted via laboratory studies using speech-recognition tasks with a single talker and presentation via earphones and/or from a loudspeaker located directly in front of the listener. Real-world speech understanding is more complex, however, and these children may need to exert greater effort than their peers with normal hearing to understand speech, potentially impacting progress in a number of developmental areas.

Remote-Microphone Benefit in Noise and Reverberation for Children Who are Hard of Hearing.

Background:  Remote-microphone (RM) systems are designed to reduce the impact of poor acoustics on speech understanding. However, there is limited research examining the effects of adding reverberation to noise on speech understanding when using hearing aids (HAs) and RM systems. Given the significant challenges posed by environments with poor acoustics for children who are hard of hearing, we evaluated the ability of a novel RM system to address the effects of noise and reverberation.

Contralateral Routing of Signal Systems Can Improve Speech Recognition and Comprehension in Dynamic Classrooms.

Objective The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of hearing aid-based rerouting systems (remote microphone [RM] and contralateral routing of signals [CROS]) on speech recognition and comprehension for children with limited usable hearing unilaterally. A secondary purpose was to evaluate students' perceptions of CROS benefits in classrooms. Method Twenty children aged 10-16 years with limited useable hearing in one ear completed tasks of sentence recognition and comprehension in a laboratory.

Applying Virtual Reality to Audiovisual Speech Perception Tasks in Children.

Purpose The primary purpose of this study was to explore the efficacy of using virtual reality (VR) technology in hearing research with children by comparing speech perception abilities in a typical laboratory environment and a simulated VR classroom environment. Method The study included 48 final participants (40 children and eight young adults). The study design utilized a speech perception task in conjunction with a localization demand in auditory-only (AO) and auditory-visual (AV) conditions.

Where Do We Go From Here? Some Messages to Take Forward Regarding Children With Mild Bilateral and Unilateral Hearing Loss.

Purpose This epilogue discusses messages that we can take forward from the articles in the forum. A common theme throughout the forum is the ongoing need for research. The forum begins with evidence of potential progressive hearing loss in infants with mild bilateral hearing loss, who may be missed by current newborn hearing screening protocols, and supports the need for consensus regarding early identification in this population.

Audibility-Based Hearing Aid Fitting Criteria for Children With Mild Bilateral Hearing Loss.

Purpose Because of uncertainty about the level of hearing where hearing aids should be provided to children, the goal of the current study was to develop audibility-based hearing aid candidacy criteria based on the relationship between unaided hearing and language outcomes in a group of children with hearing loss who did not wear hearing aids. Method Unaided hearing and language outcomes were examined for 52 children with mild-to-severe hearing losses. A group of 52 children with typical hearing matched for age, nonverbal intelligence, and socioeconomic status was included as a comparison group representing the range of optimal language outcomes.

Auditory, Cognitive, and Linguistic Factors Predict Speech Recognition in Adverse Listening Conditions for Children With Hearing Loss.

Children with hearing loss listen and learn in environments with noise and reverberation, but perform more poorly in noise and reverberation than children with normal hearing. Even with amplification, individual differences in speech recognition are observed among children with hearing loss. Few studies have examined the factors that support speech understanding in noise and reverberation for this population.

Rerouting Hearing Aid Systems for Overcoming Simulated Unilateral Hearing in Dynamic Listening Situations.

Objectives: Unilateral hearing loss increases the risk of academic and behavioral challenges for school-aged children. Previous research suggests that remote microphone (RM) systems offer the most consistent benefits for children with unilateral hearing loss in classroom environments relative to other nonsurgical interventions. However, generalizability of previous laboratory work is limited because of the specific listening situations evaluated, which often included speech and noise signals originating from the side.

Consensus practice parameter: audiological assessment and management of unilateral hearing loss in children.

Provide recommendations to audiologists for the management of children with unilateral hearing loss (UHL) and for needed research that can lend further insight into important unanswered questions. An international panel of experts on children with UHL was convened following a day and a half of presentations on the same. The evidence reviewed for this parameter was gathered through web-based literature searches specifically designed for academic and health care resources, recent systematic reviews of literature, and new research presented at the conference that underwent peer review for publication by the time of this writing.

Looking Behavior and Audiovisual Speech Understanding in Children With Normal Hearing and Children With Mild Bilateral or Unilateral Hearing Loss.

Objectives: Visual information from talkers facilitates speech intelligibility for listeners when audibility is challenged by environmental noise and hearing loss. Less is known about how listeners actively process and attend to visual information from different talkers in complex multi-talker environments. This study tracked looking behavior in children with normal hearing (NH), mild bilateral hearing loss (MBHL), and unilateral hearing loss (UHL) in a complex multi-talker environment to examine the extent to which children look at talkers and whether looking patterns relate to performance on a speech-understanding task.

Listening Effort and Speech Recognition with Frequency Compression Amplification for Children and Adults with Hearing Loss.

Background: Nonlinear frequency compression (NFC) can improve the audibility of high-frequency sounds by lowering them to a frequency where audibility is better; however, this lowering results in spectral distortion. Consequently, performance is a combination of the effects of increased access to high-frequency sounds and the detrimental effects of spectral distortion. Previous work has demonstrated positive benefits of NFC on speech recognition when NFC is set to improve audibility while minimizing distortion.

Effect of Context and Hearing Loss on Time-Gated Word Recognition in Children.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine word recognition in children who are hard of hearing (CHH) and children with normal hearing (CNH) in response to time-gated words presented in high- versus low-predictability sentences (HP, LP), where semantic cues were manipulated. Findings inform our understanding of how CHH combine cognitive-linguistic and acoustic-phonetic cues to support spoken word recognition. It was hypothesized that both groups of children would be able to make use of linguistic cues provided by HP sentences to support word recognition.

Effects of Noise on Speech Recognition and Listening Effort in Children With Normal Hearing and Children With Mild Bilateral or Unilateral Hearing Loss.

Purpose: This study examined the effects of stimulus type and hearing status on speech recognition and listening effort in children with normal hearing (NH) and children with mild bilateral hearing loss (MBHL) or unilateral hearing loss (UHL).

Method: Children (5-12 years of age) with NH (Experiment 1) and children (8-12 years of age) with MBHL, UHL, or NH (Experiment 2) performed consonant identification and word and sentence recognition in background noise. Percentage correct performance and verbal response time (VRT) were assessed (onset time, total duration).

Masking Release in Children and Adults With Hearing Loss When Using Amplification.

Purpose: This study compared masking release for adults and children with normal hearing and hearing loss. For the participants with hearing loss, masking release using simulated hearing aid amplification with 2 different compression speeds (slow, fast) was compared.

Method: Sentence recognition in unmodulated noise was compared with recognition in modulated noise (masking release).

High-frequency audibility: the effects of audiometric configuration, stimulus type, and device.

Background: For the last decade, the importance of providing amplification up to 9-10 kHz has been supported by multiple studies involving children and adults. The extent to which a listener with hearing loss can benefit from bandwidth expansion is dependent on the audibility of high-frequency cues. The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) devised a standard method for measuring and reporting hearing aid bandwidth for quality-control purposes.

Paired comparisons of nonlinear frequency compression, extended bandwidth, and restricted bandwidth hearing aid processing for children and adults with hearing loss.

Background: Preference for speech and music processed with nonlinear frequency compression (NFC) and two controls (restricted bandwidth [RBW] and extended bandwidth [EBW] hearing aid processing) was examined in adults and children with hearing loss.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine if stimulus type (music, sentences), age (children, adults), and degree of hearing loss influence listener preference for NFC, RBW, and EBW.

Research Design: Design was a within-participant, quasi-experimental study.

Effect of minimal/mild hearing loss on children's speech understanding in a simulated classroom.

Objectives: While classroom acoustics can affect educational performance for all students, the impact for children with minimal/mild hearing loss (MMHL) may be greater than for children with normal hearing (NH). The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of MMHL on children's speech recognition comprehension and looking behavior in a simulated classroom environment. It was hypothesized that children with MMHL would perform similarly to their peers with NH on the speech recognition task but would perform more poorly on the comprehension task.

Children's understanding of instructions presented in noise and reverberation.

Purpose: This study examined children's ability to follow audio-visual instructions presented in noise and reverberation.

Method: Children (8-12 years of age) with normal hearing followed instructions in noise or noise plus reverberation. Performance was compared for a single talker (ST), multiple talkers speaking one at a time (MT), and multiple talkers with competing comments from other talkers (MTC).

Effects of Looking Behavior on Listening and Understanding in a Simulated Classroom.

Audiovisual cues can improve speech perception in adverse acoustical environments when compared to auditory cues alone. In classrooms, where acoustics often are less than ideal, the availability of visual cues has the potential to benefit children during learning activities. The current study evaluated the effects of looking behavior on speech understanding of children (8-11 years) and adults during comprehension and sentence repetition tasks in a simulated classroom environment.

Effects of reverberation on speech recognition in stationary and modulated noise by school-aged children and young adults.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to determine how combinations of reverberation and noise, typical of environments in many elementary school classrooms, affect normal-hearing school-aged children's speech recognition in stationary and amplitude-modulated noise, and to compare their performance with that of normal-hearing young adults. In addition, the magnitude of release from masking in the modulated noise relative to that in stationary noise was compared across age groups in nonreverberant and reverberant listening conditions. Last, for all noise and reverberation combinations the degree of change in predicted performance at 70% correct was obtained for all age groups using a best-fit cubic polynomial.

Experimental investigation of the effects of the acoustical conditions in a simulated classroom on speech recognition and learning in children.

The potential effects of acoustical environment on speech understanding are especially important as children enter school where students' ability to hear and understand complex verbal information is critical to learning. However, this ability is compromised because of widely varied and unfavorable classroom acoustics. The extent to which unfavorable classroom acoustics affect children's performance on longer learning tasks is largely unknown as most research has focused on testing children using words, syllables, or sentences as stimuli.

Children's recognition of American English consonants in noise.

In contrast to the availability of consonant confusion studies with adults, to date, no investigators have compared children's consonant confusion patterns in noise to those of adults in a single study. To examine whether children's error patterns are similar to those of adults, three groups of children (24 each in 4-5, 6-7, and 8-9 yrs. old) and 24 adult native speakers of American English (AE) performed a recognition task for 15 AE consonants in /ɑ/-consonant-/ɑ/ nonsense syllables presented in a background of speech-shaped noise.

Relationship between speech perception in noise and phonological awareness skills for children with normal hearing.

Objectives: Speech perception difficulties experienced by children in adverse listening environments have been well documented. It has been suggested that phonological awareness may be related to children's ability to understand speech in noise. The goal of this study was to provide data that will allow a clearer characterization of this potential relation in typically developing children.