Listening challenge: How noise and dysphonic voice may disrupt children‘s spoken language processing

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of speech-shaped noise and impaired speaker’s voice on spoken language processing in children (aged 5-6 years). Fifty-three first-grade primary school children performed two listening tasks: A minimal-pair discrimination task assessing speech perception and a sentence-picture matching task assessing listening comprehension. Speech stimuli were presented in four listening conditions: (1) normal voice / no noise, (2) impaired voice / no noise, (3) normal voice / noise, and (4) impaired voice / noise. Performance was measured in answer accuracy per condition. Results showed that performance was lowest when stimuli were presented in a combination of noise and impaired voice (speech perception: z = -9.36, p < .001; listening comprehension: z = -2.2, p = .028). This effect was more pronounced for speech perception than listening comprehension. The presence of either noise or impaired voice lowered performance in speech perception only. Results suggest that, when processing spoken language, children are highly susceptible to the combined effect of noise and impaired speaker’s voice. Available context cues may promote children’s spoken language processing in adverse listening conditions, but only to a certain extent of disturbance. This study has relevance for the educational setting, where noise and impaired teacher’s voice may negatively influence children’s listening efficacy. Measures should be taken to enhance the quality and transmission of speech signals in classrooms.