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Assessing speech pattern contrast perception in infants: early results on VRASPAC
Amy Martinez1, Laurie Eisenberg, Arthur Boothroyd
1House Ear Institute, Children's Auditory Research and Evaluation Center, Los Angeles, California 90057, U.S.A. amartinez@hei.org
Summary
This study shows that the Visual Reinforcement Assessment of the Perception of Speech Pattern Contrasts (VRASPAC) effectively evaluates speech perception in infants. Infants with normal hearing and hearing loss demonstrated reliable perception of vowel contrasts.
Area of Science:
- Auditory perception research
- Infant speech development
- Hearing loss diagnostics
Background:
- Assessing speech pattern contrast perception in infants is crucial for understanding auditory development.
- Existing methods may not fully capture the nuances of speech perception in infants with hearing loss.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the efficacy of the Visual Reinforcement Assessment of the Perception of Speech Pattern Contrasts (VRASPAC) in infants.
- To compare speech pattern contrast perception between infants with normal hearing (NH) and sensorineural hearing loss (HL).
Main Methods:
- A prospective longitudinal and cross-sectional study was conducted at a tertiary referral center.
- Nine infants with NH and 11 infants with HL (mild to profound) were assessed using VRASPAC.
- VRASPAC measures discrimination of vowel height/place and consonant voicing/continuance/place via head-turn response.
Main Results:
- Infants with NH showed high confidence in perceiving vowel height and place contrasts.
- Infants with HL performed well on vowel height contrasts, and vowel place contrasts if hearing loss was <60 dB HL.
- Consonant contrast perception was variable; one infant showed significant improvement post-cochlear implantation.
Conclusions:
- VRASPAC reliably assesses speech pattern contrast perception in infants, especially for vowel contrasts.
- Consonant contrast perception is more variable and warrants further investigation.
- VRASPAC is a valuable tool for evaluating auditory processing in infants with and without hearing loss.
