Speech Understanding in Complex Environments by School-Age Children with Mild Bilateral or Unilateral Hearing Loss

Abstract

Numerous studies have shown that children with mild bilateral (MBHL) or unilateral hearing loss (UHL) experience speech perception difficulties in poor acoustics. Much of the research in this area has been conducted via laboratory studies using speech-recognition tasks with a single talker and presentation via earphones and/or from a loudspeaker located directly in front of the listener. Real-world speech understanding is more complex, however, and these children may need to exert greater effort than their peers with normal hearing to understand speech, potentially impacting progress in a number of developmental areas. This article discusses issues and research relative to speech understanding in complex environments for children with MBHL or UHL and implications for real-world listening and understanding.

Language and health-related quality of life outcomes of children early-detected with unilateral and mild bilateral hearing loss

“…It is important to note that children with these hearing loss types are actually heterogenous groups that instead share some common challenges of hearing loss, such as uncertainties in early clinical management and possibly inconsistent early hearing device use ( 17 ), and low access to/engagement in early intervention services as demonstrated by our data (less than 50% ever accessed early intervention services). It is possible that the reasons for these challenges may differ between mild bilateral and unilateral losses ( 39 ), and it would be preferable to uniformly report their outcomes as discrete groups.…”