Age-related benefits of digital noise reduction for short-term word learning in children with hearing loss.

PURPOSE: To determine the rate of word learning for children with hearing loss (HL) in quiet and in noise compared to normal-hearing (NH) peers. The effects of digital noise reduction (DNR) were examined for children with HL.

METHOD: Forty-one children with NH and 26 children with HL were grouped by age (8-9 years and 11-12 years). The children learned novel words associated with novel objects through a process of trial and error. Functions relating performance across trials were calculated for each child in each listening condition and were compared.

RESULTS

Significant effects were observed for age (older > younger) in the children with NH and listening condition (quiet > noise) in the children with HL. Significant effects of hearing status were also observed across groups (NH > HL), indicating that the children with HL required more trials to learn the new words. However, word learning improved significantly in noise with the use of DNR for the older but not for the younger children with HL. Hearing aid history and signal-to-noise ratio did not contribute to performance.

CONCLUSION

Word learning was significantly reduced in younger children, in noise, and in the presence of hearing loss. Age-related benefits of DNR were apparent for children over 10 years of age.