Listening to a Dysphonic Speaker in Noise May Impede Children's Spoken Language Processing in a Realistic Classroom Setting

Purpose The aim of this study was to investigate children's processing dysphonic speech in a realistic classroom setting, under the influence added noise. Method Typically developing 6-year-old primary school children performed two listening tasks their regular classrooms: phoneme discrimination task assess perception and sentence–picture matching comprehension. Speech stimuli were played back either typical or an impaired voice quality. Children presence induced noise at signal-to-noise ratios between +2 +9 dB. Results Children's performance decreased significantly when speaker's impaired. effect quality on depended demands: Easy sentences processed more accurately impaired-voice condition than typical-voice condition. Signal-to-noise ratio effects are discussed light methodological constraints. Conclusions Listening teacher noisy may impede speech, particularly phonological is needed disambiguate input. Future research regarding interaction demands necessary.