Speech perception in quiet and in different types of noise in children with learning disability

Abstract

Introduction: Studies suggest that children with learning disability (LD) have poor phonological representation. Furthermore, in individuals with LD, it has been reported that in spite of having normal intelligence, they have poor speech perception in quiet and in the presence of noise. As per the literature, there was no published report which highlights pattern perception in quiet and in the presence of different types of noise in children with LD. Thus, the present study aimed to assess pattern perception in quiet and in the presence of noise in typically developing children and in children with LD. Methods: A total of forty children including twenty typically developing children and twenty children with LD in the age range of 5–10 years were included in the study. Word identification scores were calculated in quiet and in the presence of different types of noise at 0 dB signal-to-noise ratio. The words used as stimuli contained a different number of syllables (monosyllable, bisyllables, and trisyllables). Results: Children with LD had poor performance in quiet, in the presence of speech babble, and speech noise compared to typically developing children. The response was best in quiet condition followed by in presence of noise (speech babble and speech noise). Compared across noise conditions, the responses obtained in the presence of speech noise did not differ significantly compared to response obtained in the presence of speech babble. Compared across syllables, trisyllables yielded the best result followed by bisyllables and the least perceived was monosyllables. Conclusion: The present study highlights the poor phonological processing of speech in children with LD and also represents the effect of noise on the speech perception. This study also highlights the poor pattern perception seen in children with LD.