MedPath

Improving Perception of Speech in Noise in Children With Communication Disorders

Not Applicable
Completed
Conditions
Speech Perception
Interventions
Other: Audiovisual speech training in noise for children
Registration Number
NCT04473729
Lead Sponsor
Smarty Ears
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.

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status
COMPLETED
Sex
All
Target Recruitment
30
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).

Study & Design

Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Study Design
SEQUENTIAL
Arm && Interventions
GroupInterventionDescription
Children with Hearing LossAudiovisual speech training in noise for children-
Children with an autism spectrum disorderAudiovisual speech training in noise for childrenThe intervention as described above with children with an ASD.
Typically developing children with normal hearing acuityAudiovisual speech training in noise for children-
Primary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Daily training performance5 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

Secondary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod

Trial Locations

Locations (2)

Southern Connecticut State University

🇺🇸

New Haven, Connecticut, United States

Hampton University

🇺🇸

Hampton, Virginia, United States

© Copyright 2025. All Rights Reserved by MedPath