Effects of hearing loss and audio-visual cues on children's speech processing speed

Children with hearing loss (HL) can generally achieve functional speech perception with the assistance of hearing aids and/or cochlear implants. However, their speech processing may be less efficient than that of their peers with normal hearing (NH), which may have academic and psychosocial consequences. This study investigated whether providing visual speech cues (movements of the speaker’s face) would allow children with HL to process spoken language faster. Twenty-six primary-school children with HL completed a phoneme monitoring task, as well as several tasks assessing cognitive and language skills. Their performance was compared to existing data from 19 children with NH. Overall, children with HL processed spoken language slower than their NH peers. However, the addition of visual speech cues did improve processing speed for children with HL, to the same extent as for those with NH. This suggests that visual speech information allows children with HL to process speech more rapidly, which may have positive effects on classroom and social interactions. Effects of different hearing device configurations on processing speed are highlighted as a direction for future research.