Visual Speech Perception in Children With Language Learning Impairments.
PURPOSE The purpose of the study was to assess the ability of children with developmental language learning impairments (LLIs) to use visual speech cues from the talking face. METHOD In this cross sectional study, 41 typically developing children (mean age: 8 years 0 months, range: 4 years 5 months to 11 years 10 months) and 27 children with diagnosed LLI (mean age: 8 years 10 months, range: 5 years 2 months to 11 years 6 months) completed a silent speechreading task and a speech in noise task with and without visual support from the talking face. The speech in noise task involved the identification of a target word in a carrier sentence with a single competing speaker as a masker. RESULTS Children in the LLI group showed a deficit in speechreading when compared with their typically developing peers. Beyond the single word level, this deficit became more apparent in older children. On the speech in noise task, a substantial benefit of visual cues was found regardless of age or group membership, although the LLI group showed an overall developmental delay in speech perception. CONCLUSION Although children with LLI were less accurate than their peers on the speechreading and speech in noise tasks, both groups were able to make equivalent use of visual cues to boost performance accuracy when listening in noise.
Journal of speech, language, and hearing research JSLHR