Exploring the impact hearing differences have on the development of speech perception during infancy

Abstract

Early periods of perceptual skill development are driven by the dynamic interplay between language experiences and maturation of auditory sensory pathways. Among infants with normal hearing (INH), the first year of life is a seminal period for refining speech perception abilities shaped by exposure to language. Research suggests that refinement of speech discrimination abilities depends on an infant’s exposure to speech sounds, thus infants who are hard-of-hearing (IHH) are susceptible to atypical development during this period. Currently, the impact of inconsistent auditory cue access on development of speech perception is unknown among IHH. To investigate this, our lab has employed both electroencephalography (EEG) and a conditioned head turn (CHT) paradigm to examine auditory cue access and speech perception abilities, respectively, over the first year of life. We will provide a broad overview of our recent and continuing work among IHH and INH using EEG and CHT findings which suggest: (1) early EEG measures of cue access predict later behavioral speech perception abilities, (2) hearing age (duration of time between hearing aid fitting and testing) is related to speech perception abilities measured by CHT, and (3) a significant relationship between infant speech perception and both spoken expressive and receptive language abilities.