Abstract
Psychophysical thresholds were measured for 8-16 year-old children with mild-to-moderate sensorineural hearing loss (MMHL; N = 46) on a battery of auditory processing tasks that included measures designed to be dependent upon frequency selectivity and sensitivity to temporal fine structure (TFS) or envelope cues. Children with MMHL who wore hearing aids were tested in both unaided and aided conditions, and all were compared to a group of normally hearing (NH) age-matched controls. Children with MMHL performed more poorly than NH controls on tasks considered to be dependent upon frequency selectivity, sensitivity to TFS, and speech discrimination (/bɑ/-/dɑ/), but not on tasks measuring sensitivity to envelope cues. Auditory processing deficits remained regardless of age, were observed in both unaided and aided conditions, and could not be attributed to differences in nonverbal IQ or attention between groups. However, better auditory processing in children with MMHL was predicted by better audiometric thresholds and, for aided tasks only, higher levels of maternal education. These results suggest that, as for adults with MMHL, children with MMHL may show deficits in frequency selectivity and sensitivity to TFS, but sensitivity to the envelope may remain intact.
Highlights
In addition to causing reduced sensitivity to low-intensity sounds, SNHL leads to changes in the way in which audible sounds are perceived [Moore, 2007; i.e., so-called auditory processing (AP)]
The basic auditory perceptual abilities of children with mild-to-moderate sensorineural hearing loss (MMHL) were assessed with three main goals
We aimed to determine which auditory processes were affected amongst children with MMHL, and whether development of AP was delayed or deviant in this group
Summary
In addition to causing reduced sensitivity to low-intensity sounds, SNHL leads to changes in the way in which audible sounds are perceived [Moore, 2007; i.e., so-called auditory processing (AP)]. Individuals with SNHL tend to have broader auditory filters than those with normal hearing (NH), leading to impaired frequency selectivity (i.e., the ability to resolve the spectral components of a complex sound; for review, see Moore, 2007). Adults with MMHL have been shown to perform more poorly on a range of tasks thought to measure TFS processing, including frequency discrimination (FD) of low-frequency (
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