Speech Perception in Noise among Children with Learning Disabilities.

Background: Learning disability is thought to interfere in speech recognition in a large number of individuals. These intelligibility deficits are enhanced in the presence of background noise.The objective of the present study is to compare the Word Recognition Scores of children with Learning Disability (LD) and age matched typical children in the age range of 9 to 12 years, in quiet and in presence of noise (four-talker babble).Material and Method:Study group includes 30 children who have been diagnosed with LD and control group has 45 typical children. After otoscopic examination, Pure Tone Audiometry (PTA) and Impedance audiometry, Word Recognition Scores (WRS) were obtained in quiet, +15 dB, +8 dB and 0 dB Signal to Noise Ratios (SNR). Nonparametric tests like Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test, Mann-Whitney Test, and Kruskal-Wallis Test were used to analyse statistical significance.Results: Children with LD have poorer WRS as compared to controls, statistically significant differences (p<0.05) are found at +8 dB SNR and 0 dB SNR. Both groups showed reduction of scores with decreasing SNR. Conclusions: Children with LD show increased speech recognition deficits in the presence of noise. Moderate amount of background noise can interfere with speech perception and can impair educational outcomes in children, with more effect on younger children. Modifications should be implemented in classrooms and during intervention process of children with LD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]