CAA Webinar: Speech Understanding in Complex Environments by Children Who Are Hard of Hearing

DATE: September 25th, 2019 – 1pm – 2pm ET (Eastern Time)

SPEAKER: Dawna Lewis, PhD, Senior Research Associate, Boys Town National Research Hospital

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Non Members fee – $50.00

ABSTRACT: There is a substantial body of research demonstrating that speech perception by children who are hard of hearing is negatively impacted by poor acoustics. Much of the previous research in this area has been conducted via laboratory studies using speech-recognition tasks with a single talker and presentation via earphones and/or from a loudspeaker located directly in front of the listener. Real-world speech understanding, however, is affected by interdependent factors including characteristics of the listener, the target speech and background sounds, the acoustic environment, and the message/task. This presentation will address timely issues relative to speech understanding in complex environments, focusing on children who are hard of hearing. We will review relevant research and discuss results in terms of implications for real-world listening and understanding. This discussion will be of interest to clinicians who work with children who are hard of hearing and their families and will provide information that can enhance service provision.

Key Learning Points:

  • Have knowledge of the effects of room acoustics on speech understanding.
  • Have knowledge of auditory and visual factors that impact speech understanding.
  • Have knowledge of the effects of task complexity on speech understanding.

SPEAKER: Dawna Lewis, PhD, Senior Research Associate, Boys Town National Research Hospital

Dawna Lewis, PhD, is a Sr. Research Associate at Boys Town National Research Hospital in Omaha, Nebraska. She has presented and published on topics involving pediatric audiology/amplification and hearing assistance technologies. Dr. Lewis is involved in research addressing issues related to amplification and speech perception in children. Recent work has examined the impact of mild bilateral and unilateral hearing loss on children’s speech understanding in complex environments by manipulating acoustic and visual characteristics of the environments and tasks.