Face Masks Impact Auditory and Audiovisual Consonant Recognition in Children With and Without Hearing Loss.

ABSTRACT: Teachers and students are wearing face masks in many classrooms to limit the spread of the coronavirus. Face masks disrupt speech understanding by concealing lip-reading cues and reducing transmission of high-frequency acoustic speech content. Transparent masks provide greater access to visual speech cues than opaque masks but tend to cause greater acoustic attenuation. This study examined the effects of four types of face masks on auditory-only and audiovisual speech recognition in 18 children with bilateral hearing loss, 16 children with normal hearing, and 38 adults with normal hearing tested in their homes, as well as 15 adults with normal hearing tested in the laboratory. Stimuli simulated the acoustic attenuation and visual obstruction caused by four different face masks: hospital, f

SUBMITTER: Lalonde K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9137424 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature