Masked Speech Recognition by Normal-Hearing 6-13-Year-Olds in Conditions With and Without Interaural Difference Cues.
Tobias Neher, Signe Hjorth Fogh, Shno Koiek
PMID 36452987WHAT IT FOUND
Normal-hearing children aged 6 to 13 struggle more than adults when filtering out competing speech, even though they handle steady noise well.
Adult-like performance in complex listening situations does not emerge until around age 12. Use age-specific norms for diagnostic testing.
Key findings
01Children's ability to understand speech in steady noise improves with age, but they do not reach adult-like performance until around 12 to 13 years of age.
02Unlike adults, children performed worse when trying to understand speech against a background of other people talking compared to steady noise, indicating that the ability to filter competing voices matures late.
03Measuring the benefit a child gets from spatial separation of speech maskers was less reliable than measuring their benefit from phase differences in noise, making the latter a more stable diagnostic indicator.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study only included children with normal hearing and normal cognitive function, so these results do not apply to children with hearing loss or developmental disorders. The spatial separation of sounds was simulated using computer models of a dummy head rather than real speakers, which may not perfectly reflect how children hear in a real classroom. All participants came from families with middle to high incomes, which may limit how well the results represent the general population.
Declared interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest. The work was supported by Interfonden.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that a child's poor performance in a classroom with multiple speakers is due to a hearing loss or attention deficit. This study shows that the ability to separate voices from background speech is a skill that matures late, so a 9-year-old may simply lack the neural maturity to filter competing talkers that an adult takes for granted.