Evaluation of a sentence test in noise in children with hearing impairment.

Introduction: School-aged children with hearing impairment (HI) listen and learn in noisy environments. On-going monitoring of speech understanding in noise is essential to adjust clinical interventions accordingly.

Methods: The aim of this study was to assess Dantale II in a paediatric population. The secondary aims were identification of differences and similarities between groups of children with HI and normal hearing and between different hearing technologies; investigation of possible associations between Dantale II and verbal working memory. This was a longitudinal, prospective study comparing groups of children (n = 70) using the Dantale II with five-word sentences and verbal working memory with the Clinical Evaluation of Language Functioning-4.

Results: Dantale II seems clinically feasible from the age of six years. Children with NH outperformed children with HI both on completion of the tests and dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) scores. Children with hearing aids outperformed children with cochlear implants on dB SNR scores. A significant and moderately strong association between speech understanding in noise and verbal working memory was identified.

Conclusions: Our study produced knowledge about a new generation of children with HI, who showed potentials not previously described. Future research on cognitive development of paediatric populations with HI is essential, as knowledge from adult populations cannot be transferred directly to paediatric populations.

Funding: The project received funding from the Innovation Foundation, the Oticon Foundation, Decibel and The Capital Region of Denmark.

Trial Registration: not relevant.