Aspects of Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) in children
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Aspects of Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) in children
IRAS ID
233449
Contact name
Stuart Rosen
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University College London
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Z6364106/2017/03/117, Data Protection Registration number
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
Children assessed with auditory processing disorder (APD) have hearing problems, which cannot be explained by their peripheral hearing. They have major difficulties understanding a speaker in a noisy environment and especially in the presence of other talkers. Therefore, they often struggle understanding and following the teacher at school, which might lead to learning difficulties in language and literacy and to poor performance at school in general.
Recent studies found that about 20% of the children diagnosed with APD show a deficit in spatial speech intelligibility tests and therefore have a Spatial Processing Disorder. They are unable to exploit any spatial separation between a target speaker and background noise, e.g. competing speakers, to improve speech
perception. We will examine this effect for different conditions of background noise and under real-life conditions with loudspeakers and virtually using headphones.
Moreover, different studies suggest the need for integration of information across the ears and frequency regions as well as the involvement of higher-order cognitive functions such as attention in the process of speech perception. Another type of task we will use involves interrupted speech, which alternates between the ears, and seems to reveal subtle problems in the way the central auditory system processes sound. Preliminary results suggested that the performance in this task is highly affected by aging and thus may be useful in the assessment of APD.
Using these paradigms, we will examine the performance of children suspected of having APD, and a typically developing normal-hearing control group for different speech and non-speech maskers. The studies will take place in the testing facilities of the Department of Speech, Hearing and Phonetic Science at UCL.REC name
London - Queen Square Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/LO/0250
Date of REC Opinion
11 Apr 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion