Remote Microphones Support Speech Recognition in Noise and Reverberation for Children With a Language Disorder.

PURPOSE: Children with typical hearing and various language and cognitive challenges can struggle with processing speech in background noise. Thus, children with a language disorder (LD) are at risk for difficulty with speech recognition in poorer acoustic environments.

METHOD: The current study compared the effects of background speech-shaped noise (SSN) with and without reverberation on sentence recognition for children with LD (n = 9) and typical language development (TLD; n = 9). We also investigated whether the use of a remote microphone (RM) improved speech recognition for children with LD.

RESULTS

Children with LD demonstrated poorer sentence recognition than peers with TLD in SSN. Both groups had poorer sentence recognition with SSN + reverberation than SSN alone. Notably, using an RM improved speech recognition for children with LD in SSN and SSN + reverberation.

CONCLUSION

We discuss educational implications and future research questions to identify how to optimally support speech recognition in noisy environments for children with LD.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.28037984.