Speech Recognition and Spatial Hearing in Young Adults With Down Syndrome: Relationships With Hearing Thresholds and Auditory Working Memory.
Kumari Anshu, Kayla Kristensen, Shelly P Godar and 3 others
PMID 39090791WHAT IT FOUND
Young adults with Down syndrome localized sound as accurately as typical peers, but struggled to understand speech in noise.
Their speech recognition difficulties were linked to hearing thresholds and auditory working memory, not general intelligence or vocabulary.
Key findings
01Spatial hearing abilities (right vs. left discrimination and sound location identification) were well-developed and comparable to typical children and adults.
02Speech recognition in quiet and noise was significantly worse than in typical adults and older children, performing similarly to younger children in noise.
03Poorer hearing thresholds and lower auditory working memory scores predicted worse speech recognition, whereas vocabulary and non-verbal IQ did not.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Small sample size (19 participants) limits the generalizability of the findings. Comparison data came from previously published studies, not concurrent controls, which may introduce protocol differences. Most participants had normal to mild hearing loss, so findings may not apply to those with severe hearing impairment. The study was cross-sectional, so it cannot determine causal relationships between working memory and speech recognition.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The study was supported by NIH grants.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that poor speech recognition in adults with Down syndrome is due to intellectual disability or limited vocabulary. This study found that auditory working memory and hearing thresholds were the significant predictors, while non-verbal IQ and vocabulary were not.