Effect of age and cognition on childhood speech in noise perception abilities.

This research on children's speech in noise and cognitive abilities aimed to determine the age-related trends in speech in noise perception abilities and the relationship between speech in noise perception and cognitive abilities. Monosyllabic distinguishable (consonant-vowel-consonant) words was the most recognisable word category, followed by monosyllabic confusable words (consonant-vowel-consonant), disyllabic non-words (/aCa/) and monosyllabic syllables (/Ca/), demonstrating that phoneme distinctiveness and a reduction in word confusability contribute to their recognition. Older children outperformed younger children on all speech in noise tasks, indicating that there are age-related trends in speech in noise abilities. Children with higher cognitive abilities did not outperform children with lower cognitive abilities on speech in noise tasks, indicating that the ability to hear speech in noise may be an intrinsic feature of the auditory system that matures with age. Copyright 2007 S. Karger AG, Basel.