Speech Perception
Conditions
Keywords
ASD, speech in noise, Hearing Loss, speech-to-noise ratio
Brief summary
Smarty Ears has developed a prototype of an innovative therapeutic training system to improve speech perception in noise by training children on interrupted noise (which has silent intervals that allow for fragments of the target to be heard). The study will attempt to validate the technology and gather initial design feedback from clinicians and caregivers and from children with ASD and HL.
Detailed description
Recent evidence indicates that listening in interrupted noise can provide perceptual benefits, such as remapping the auditory environment and learning to use acoustic cues. The developed technology, uses adaptive listening training that automatically increases noise level difficulty as performance improves, and includes age appropriate rewards to maintain interest. The mobile app includes an initial and final screening, a training system that administers training via the child's own mobile device, and detailed performance dashboard. The study will attempt to validate the technology by gathering feedback from clinicians and caregivers and from children with ASD and HL.
Interventions
OTHERAudiovisual speech training in noise for children
Children will participate in listening training in the form of an iPad app
Sponsors
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Southern Connecticut State University
Haskins Laboratories
Smarty Ears
Study design
Allocation
NON_RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
SEQUENTIAL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Intervention model description
The model is ABA design, that is participants get an initial, pre-treatment noise assessment, then get individualized training, then get a post-noise assessment. This is designed to look for change from baseline after training.
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
8 Years to 12 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* For all children: normal or corrected to normal vision. * For children with typical development normal or corrected to normal vision + normal hearing. * For children with HL Children must have at least one year experience with amplification (i.e Hearing aids) and no threshold\> 70 dB.
Exclusion criteria
* To participate, all children must be able to comply with directions and engage in tasks that require some expressive language response on the language and cognitive measures (i.e. children who are considered to be in the word combinations or sentences expressive language phase; Tager-Flusberg et al., 2009).
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Daily training performance | 5 days a week for 4 weeks (30 minutes/day) | Daily performance level based on words correct as a function of SNR and the average SNR over the course of training for 4 weeks |
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed