Is hearing speech in noise linked to story comprehension in children with developmental language disorder?

Details

Researchers examined how auditory processing abilities—tone perception and speech perception in noise—related to narrative language comprehension in children with developmental language disorder, after accounting for short-term memory capacity and vocabulary.

The study administered multiple measures to 216 children with developmental language disorder, aged 6 to 9 years (mean age 7 years, 6 months). The outcome was their score on the narrative comprehension scale of the Test of Narrative Language. Predictors included auditory processing abilities, phonological short-term memory capacity, and language (vocabulary) factors; age, speech perception in quiet, and non-verbal IQ were covariates.

Narrative comprehension was positively correlated with most predictors. Regression analysis suggested that speech perception in noise contributed uniquely to narrative comprehension beyond all the other predictors, whereas tone perception tasks did not explain unique variance.

The authors concluded that the greater relative importance of speech perception in noise than tone-perception measures reinforces the need to assess and manage listening-in-noise deficits. They also said the findings make a compelling case for the functional implications of complex listening situations for children with developmental language disorder.