Variation in Speech Perception in Noise as a Function of Age in Typically Developing Children

Abstract

Introduction: Speech recognition performance has been observed to vary with the age of the listener. Children having difficulty in understanding speech in noisy situations is found to have an adverse effect on learning. The primary aim of the study was to determine the difference in word and phoneme scores in the presence of noise in three age groups of children studying in primary school. The secondary aim was to check whether there was a gender difference within an age group. Materials and Methods: Three groups of typically developing children (≥7 to <8; ≥8 to <9; and ≥9 to <10 years), who were exposed to Kannada from early childhood, were evaluated to determine their speech perception abilities in the presence of noise. Results: Within each age group, no significant difference was observed between gender for word and phoneme scores in all four lists. The word and phoneme scores were similar across the lists within an age group but differed across age groups for all lists. The older children outperformed the younger children. Conclusion: The study indicated that with increase in age, word and phoneme recognition scores improve. However, within an age group, children obtained similar word and phoneme scores across the four lists, indicating the equivalence of the lists in the presence of noise. Furthermore, there was no significant difference in word and phoneme scores between the males and females for all lists within each age group.