| dc.description.abstract | Listening difficulty (LiD) is defined as developmental difficulty in listening despite the presence of normal hearing; this difficulty is often exacerbated in noisy environments. Listening is a critical skill for everyone, but especially for children, as language development relies on the adequate listening to and processing of quality language input. Studies have shown that children have poorer speech-in-noise recognition skills than adults and thus require a higher speech-to-noise ratio (SNR) to adequately listen to verbal input. Because adequate listening is required to absorb critical language input, listening could also be crucial for proper language development. Established theoretical models conceptualize listening as multifactorial in nature and impacted by a variety of components including auditory processes, attentional processes, and sensory sensitivities. Studies of listening have used a variety of measurement approaches, both objective and subjective, to study listening. In regards to treatment, studies have shown that listening-focused interventions, such as remote microphone (RM) systems improve listening performance in noisy settings as measured by both objective measures and multifactorial caregiver or self-report measures. Listening performance has clinical significance for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) as hallmarks of a diagnosis of ASD include social-communication deficits and atypical language development. Social-communication deficits and atypical language development are two possible outcomes of listening difficulties. The present work seeks to add the emerging literature on LiD in ASD by creating a novel, parent-report measure of listening performance designed for children with ASD, and by evaluation RM systems as a treatment for preschool-aged children with ASD, and children with ASD who are considered minimally verbal. | |
