Description
Listening 2 Faces (L2F) is a groundbreaking app developed by Smarty Ears with the funding provided by the National Institute of Health (NIDCD R43DC017405) to serve as a listening training protocol for improving listening skills in children with difficulty understanding speech in the presence of varying levels of background noise.
Children with typical development appear to perceive speech in noise seamlessly, however, children with developmental disabilities such as autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and hearing loss (HL) exhibit significant difficulty comprehending speech in noise. This inability to perceive noisy speech will exacerbate existing communication deficits and negatively impact social communication and academic outcomes.
Listening 2 Faces includes several innovative technologies to screens and train children to improve their speech perception in background noise skills. The app is designed to be used under the supervision of speech-language-pathologists and caregivers. L2F includes an initial Auditory Noise Assessment screening to assess the child's ability to perceive speech sound in the presence of a classroom background noise.
A video technology with adaptive noise levels has been developed and it is the central part of Listening 2 Faces. Children with Autism demonstrate measurable gains in comprehension of speech in noise following audiovisual speech training, which extends to new, untrained speakers (Irwin et al, 2014).
This app, called Listening 2 Faces (L2F ) is designed to enable clinicians and caregivers to improve the communication skills of children with developmental disabilities by strengthening a crucial, yet often overlooked skill, identification of speech in noise.
Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute On Deafness And Other Communication Disorders of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R43DC017405. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health