Eyes On Lips? Speechreading Skills and Facial Expression Discrimination in Children With and Without Impaired Hearing

Launched by UNIVERSITY OF OULU · May 2, 2023

Keywords

ClinConnect Summary

This clinical trial, titled "Eyes On Lips? Speechreading Skills and Facial Expression Discrimination in Children With and Without Impaired Hearing," is exploring how children understand spoken language by watching lip movements and facial expressions, especially in those with hearing loss. The researchers want to find out what factors help children do better at speechreading and how their eye movements relate to understanding emotions in spoken messages. They will also test a new speechreading app to see if it can help improve skills in children with hearing impairment.

To participate, children aged 8 to 11 years old can join if they are either normally hearing or have diagnosed bilateral hearing impairment. They must speak Finnish and have normal vision. This study will involve various tests, including speechreading tasks, and some children with hearing impairments will train using the speechreading app. The trial is currently recruiting participants, and it’s important to note that children with certain psychiatric or neurodevelopmental disorders may not be eligible. This research aims to help improve communication skills for both hearing and hearing-impaired children.

Gender

ALL

Eligibility criteria

• Inclusion Criteria:
• Normally hearing children:
• • age 8-11 years
• • being born full-term (on 37. gestational week or later)
• • Finnish speaking (Finnish is the language the child's family uses at home, the child goes to a school where Finnish is used as the language of instruction)
• • normal hearing and vision
• • typically developing, mainstream education curriculum at school
• • for those tested remotely: computer available at home for remote testing
• Children with hearing impairment/loss:
• • age 8-11 years
• • diagnosed bilateral hearing impairment
• • being born full-term (on 37. gestational week or later)
• • Finnish speaking (Finnish is the language the child's family uses at home, the child goes to a school where Finnish is used as the language of instruction)
• • normal vision
• • (mainly) typically developing
• • for those tested remotely: computer available at home for remote testing
• Exclusion Criteria:
• • Normally hearing children: psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders, including ADHD (Attention Deficit and Hyperacitivity Disorder)
• • Children with hearing impairment/loss: psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders (excluding ADHD if medication helps the child to concentrate well during testing)