PURPOSE

Infant-directed speech (IDS) facilitates language learning in infants with normal hearing, compared to adult-directed speech (ADS). It is well established that infants with normal hearing prefer to listen to IDS over ADS. The purpose of this study was to determine whether infants with hearing impairment (HI), like their NH peers, show a listening preference for IDS over ADS.

METHOD

A total of 36 infants-9 HI infants (mean chronological age of 19.1 with mean listening age of 7.7 months), 9 NH infants with similar average listening age (7.8 months), and 9 NH infants with similar average chronological age (18.6 months)-were tested on their listening preference for IDS compared with ADS using the central fixation preference procedure.

RESULTS

Infants with HI significantly preferred listening to IDS over ADS. The preference for IDS was also seen in the younger NH infants, but not older NH controls. Additionally, HI infants showed shorter overall looking times as compared to either NH group.

CONCLUSION

Although infants with hearing loss displayed a shorter looking time to speech compared to NH controls, HI infants nonetheless appear to have sufficient access to the speech signal to display a developmentally appropriate preference for IDS over ADS.