Effects of digital noise reduction on speech perception for children with hearing loss

Objective While numerous studies have investigated the effects of single-microphone digital noise reduction algorithms for adults with hearing loss, similar studies have not been conducted with young hearing-impaired children. The goal of this study was to examine the effects of a commonly-used digital noise reduction scheme (spectral subtraction) in children with mild-moderately severe sensorineural hearing losses. It was hypothesized that the process of spectral subtraction may alter or degrade speech signals in some way. Such degradation may have little influence on the perception of speech by hearing-impaired adults who are likely to use contextual information under such circumstances. For young children who are still developing various language skills, however, signal degradation may have a more detrimental effect on the perception of speech.