Department of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, University of Pretoria, South Africa.
Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN.
Am J Audiol. 2021 Jun 14;30(2):309-324. doi: 10.1044/2021_AJA-20-00082. Epub 2021 Apr 22.
Objectives Children with limited hearing unilaterally might experience more listening effort than children with normal hearing, yet previous studies have not confirmed this. This study compared listening effort in school-age children with normal hearing and children with limited hearing unilaterally using behavioral and subjective listening effort measures. Design Two groups of school-age children (aged 7-12 years) participated: 19 with limited hearing unilaterally and 18 with normal hearing bilaterally. Participants completed digit triplet recognition tasks in quiet and in noise (-12 dB SNR) in three loudspeaker conditions: midline, direct, and indirect. Verbal response times during the recognition task were interpreted as behavioral listening effort. Subjective ratings of "task difficulty" and "hard to think" were interpreted as subjective listening effort. Participant age was included as a covariate in analysis of behavioral data. Results Noise negatively affected digit triplet recognition for both groups in the midline loudspeaker condition and for participants with limited hearing unilaterally in the direct and indirect conditions. Relative to their peers with normal hearing, children with limited hearing unilaterally exhibited significantly longer response times and higher ratings of effort only in the noisy, indirect condition. Differences between groups were evident even when age differences were controlled for statistically. Conclusions Using behavioral and subjective indices of listening effort, children with limited unilateral hearing demonstrated significantly more listening effort relative to their peers with normal hearing during the difficult indirect listening condition. Implications include classroom accommodations to limit indirect listening situations for children with limited useable hearing unilaterally and consideration of intervention options.
单侧听力有限的儿童可能比听力正常的儿童经历更多的听力努力，但以前的研究并未证实这一点。本研究使用行为和主观听力努力测量方法比较了单侧听力有限和双侧听力正常的学龄儿童的听力努力。
本研究有两组学龄儿童（7-12 岁）参与：单侧听力有限的儿童 19 名，双侧听力正常的儿童 18 名。参与者在安静和噪声（-12 dB SNR）环境下完成了三扬声器条件（中置、直达、间接）的数字三连识别任务。识别任务中的言语反应时间被解释为行为听力努力。“任务难度”和“难以思考”的主观评分被解释为主观听力努力。在分析行为数据时，参与者的年龄被作为协变量。
噪声对双侧听力正常和单侧听力有限的参与者在中置扬声器条件下以及在直接和间接条件下的数字三连识别都产生了负面影响。与听力正常的同龄人相比，单侧听力有限的儿童仅在嘈杂的间接条件下表现出明显更长的反应时间和更高的努力评级。即使在统计学上控制了年龄差异，两组之间的差异仍然明显。
使用行为和主观听力努力指标，单侧听力有限的儿童在困难的间接听力条件下表现出明显比听力正常的同龄人更多的听力努力。这意味着在单侧听力有限的儿童在课堂上应避免间接听力环境，并考虑干预选项。
