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ERIC Number: EJ1281469
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2020-Dec
Pages: 12
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1092-4388
EISSN: N/A
The Clear-Speech Benefit for School-Age Children: Speech-in-Noise and Speech-in-Speech Recognition
Calandruccio, Lauren; Porter, Heather L.; Leibold, Lori J.; Buss, Emily
Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, v63 n12 p4265-4276 Dec 2020
Purpose: Talkers often modify their speech when communicating with individuals who struggle to understand speech, such as listeners with hearing loss. This study evaluated the benefit of clear speech in school-age children and adults with normal hearing for speech-in-noise and speech-in-speech recognition. Method: Masked sentence recognition thresholds were estimated for school-age children and adults using an adaptive procedure. In Experiment 1, the target and masker were summed and presented over a loudspeaker located directly in front of the listener. The masker was either speech-shaped noise or two-talker speech, and target sentences were produced using a clear or conversational speaking style. In Experiment 2, stimuli were presented over headphones. The two-talker speech masker was diotic (M[subscript 0]). Clear and conversational target sentences were presented either in-phase (T[subscript 0]) or out-of-phase (T[subscript [pi]]) between the two ears. The M[subscript 0]T[subscript [pi]] condition introduces a segregation cue that was expected to improve performance. Results: For speech presented over a single loudspeaker (Experiment 1), the clear-speech benefit was independent of age for the noise masker, but it increased with age for the two-talker masker. Similar age effects for the two-talker speech masker were seen under headphones with diotic presentation (M[subscript 0]T[subscript 0]), but comparable clear-speech benefit as a function of age was observed with a binaural cue to facilitate segregation (M[subscript 0]T[subscript [pi]]). Conclusions: Consistent with prior research, children showed a robust clear-speech benefit for speech-in-noise recognition. Immaturity in the ability to segregate target from masker speech may limit young children's ability to benefit from clear-speech modifications for speech-in-speech recognition under some conditions. When provided with a cue that facilitates segregation, children as young as 4-7 years of age derived a clear-speech benefit in a two-talker masker that was similar to the benefit experienced by adults.
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. 2200 Research Blvd #250, Rockville, MD 20850. Tel: 301-296-5700; Fax: 301-296-8580; e-mail: slhr@asha.org; Web site: http://jslhr.pubs.asha.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: R01DC011038