Effect of hearing training on hearing and speech skills in children with speech sound disorders.
Cristiane Dellinghausen Valim, Márcia Keske-Soares, Eliara Pinto Vieira Biaggio
PMID 40052997WHAT IT FOUND
Six sessions of computerized auditory training improved how children with speech sound disorders hear speech in noise.
Parents saw no change in daily listening, and the training alone did not fix speech errors; it only helped when combined with regular speech therapy.
Key findings
01After six sessions of computerized auditory training, the number of children scoring normally on the sequential memory test rose from 8 to 13, and those scoring normally on the dichotic digit test rose from 2 to 7 and 1 to 7 for the right and left ears respectively.
02Parents did not notice any improvement in their children's everyday listening behaviour after the training, with a p-value of 0.99.
03Children who received the training alongside regular speech therapy had significantly fewer absent sounds (1.16 vs 6.54) and more acquired sounds (16.46 vs 10.73) than those on the waiting list.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study was a pilot with a very small sample of 14 children, limiting the generalizability of the findings. There was no control group that received no training or a sham intervention, making it difficult to separate the effect of the training from natural development or the placebo effect. The training was brief (six sessions), which the authors note may be insufficient to produce changes in all auditory skills or to generalize to everyday listening behaviours. The parent-reported questionnaire did not show changes, which may indicate a lack of functional improvement or that the tool was not sensitive enough to detect subtle changes.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The study was conducted in a university speech therapy teaching clinic.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that auditory training alone will improve a child's speech production. The study found that speech outcomes only improved significantly in children who were already receiving regular speech therapy, not in those on the waiting list who received only the training.