Dr. Klein’s research uses eye-tracking to assess how different background sounds, like white noise or competing speech, impact listeners’ ability to process speech on a millisecond-by-millisecond level. The first phase of this study, presented at the AAS conference, showed that young adults with normal hearing are slower to process speech when there are competing background sounds. The next steps of this research will examine these effects in children with normal hearing and children with hearing aids. The findings will help us understand why children often struggle to listen and learn in noisy environments, like the classroom. It is expected that this research will inform recommendations for how classroom accommodations can be used to support optimal listening experiences for all children.

Sean Lang also presented a poster describing preliminary findings on communication outcomes among children with hearing loss, including amount of hearing device use, vocabulary, listening fatigue, and speech recognition. Of particular interest was whether outcomes would differ based on child and family language status, such as whether the child has an English-speaking caregiver or whether the child is bilingual. In contrast to previous research, there were no differences in outcomes based on child or family language status. It is likely that the high-quality clinical care provided by the House Children’s Hearing Center in both Spanish and English is a key factor that supports positive outcomes among children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.