Effects of age, sex, language ability and second language listening on children's recognition of nonwords and sentences in noise and reverberation.

OBJECTIVES

To evaluate children's ability to recognise speech and its relationship to language ability using two newly developed tests: the Listening in Spatialised Noise and Reverberation test (LiSN-R) and the Test of Listening Difficulties - Universal (ToLD-U).

DESIGN

LiSN-R and ToLD-U used nonword and sentence recognition in spatially separated noise and reverberation. Language ability was assessed using the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals (CELF) sentence recall.

STUDY SAMPLE: Normally-hearing children aged 6-11 years, who spoke English either as a Second Language (ESL) or natively. LiSN-R was completed by 134 children and ToLD-U by 171.

RESULTS

Children's speech reception thresholds improved with age (∼1 dB/year) with no sex differences for both tests. Nonword recognition (LiSN-R) was not significantly affected by ESL status or language ability. Sentence recognition (ToLD-U) was significantly affected by ESL status and predicted by language ability (β = 0.75). ToLD-U and LiSN-R performance were significantly correlated (r = 0.49).

CONCLUSION

This is the first study to demonstrate the complementary value of LiSN-R and ToLD-U for assessing phonological and sentence-level listening, under ecologically valid conditions in children as young as six. Findings clarify the interaction between linguistic proficiency and listening performance, thereby informing the refinement of auditory assessment protocols.