Children with spoken-language disabilities may have trouble tuning out background noise, thereby interfering with normal speech and language development.
Researchers say about 7 percent of children suffer from specific language impairment characterized by problems with understanding and producing spoken language despite normal hearing and intelligence.
Although increasing numbers of children are diagnosed with SLI, researchers do not yet fully understand its causes.
Johannes Ziegler of the Laboratory of Cognitive Psychology at the University of Provence in France, and colleagues studied how children with SLI perceive speech under different circumstances, compared with children with normal language skills.
The researchers found children with SLI had only subtle deficits in speech perception in ideal listening situations, but had substantial problems perceiving consonant sounds, such as 'b' and 'p,' when background noise was present. Overall, their speech perception was poor in noisy environments despite having normal hearing.
Copyright 2005 by United Press International