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Abstract
Objective: We investigated the factors influencing speech perception in babble for 5-year-old children with hearing loss who were using hearing aids (HAs) or cochlear implants (CIs). Design: Speech reception thresholds (SRTs) for 50% correct identification were measured in two conditions – speech collocated with babble, and speech with spatially separated babble. The difference in SRTs between the two conditions give a measure of binaural unmasking, commonly known as spatial release from masking (SRM). Multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to examine the influence of a range of demographic factors on outcomes. Study sample: Participants were 252 children enrolled in the Longitudinal Outcomes of Children with Hearing Impairment (LOCHI) study. Results: Children using HAs or CIs required a better signal-to-noise ratio to achieve the same level of performance as their normal-hearing peers but demonstrated SRM of a similar magnitude. For children using HAs, speech perception was significantly influenced by cognitive and language abilities. For children using CIs, age at CI activation and language ability were significant predictors of speech perception outcomes. Conclusions: Speech perception in children with hearing loss can be enhanced by improving their language abilities. Early age at cochlear implantation was also associated with better outcomes.
Acknowledgements
We gratefully thank all the children, their families and their teachers for participation in this study. We are also indebted to the many persons who served as clinicians for the study participants or assisted in other clinical or administrative capacities at Australian Hearing, Catherine Sullivan Centre, Hear and Say Centre, National Acoustic Laboratories, Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children, Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital Cochlear Implant Centre, the Shepherd Centre, and the Sydney Cochlear Implant Centre. We also thank Mark Seeto for his support in statistical analysis, and Kirsty Gardner-Berry for her input to this paper. We also thank Angela Wong for input and assistance with data collection.
Declaration of interest
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
This work was partly supported by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (Award Number R01DC008080). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders or the National Institutes of Health.
The project was also partly supported by the Commonwealth of Australia through the Office of Hearing Services. We acknowledge the financial support of the HEARing CRC, established and supported under the Cooperative Research Centres Program of the Australian Government. We also acknowledge the support provided by New South Wales Department of Health, Australia; Phonak Ltd; and the Oticon Foundation.
Supplementary material available online