The effect of Unilateral Ear Occlusion in children with Central Auditory Processing Disorders: speech perception in adverse listening conditions

The ability to perceive speech presented in background noise was measured in children with and without Central Auditory Processing Disorders (CAPD). The performance of the children was compared under two listening conditions: 1) listening with both ears not occluded; 2) listening with less dominant ear occluded with an earplug. It was hypothesized that children with CAPD would perform better on the speech perception task when one ear was occluded with an earplug. It was also hypothesized that a group of non-CAPD children would perform better on the speech perception task when listening with both ears not occluded. The CAPD group did not show a statistically significant difference on speech perception scores under the two conditions. Likewise, the non-CAPD group did not show a statistically significant difference on speech perception scores between the two listening conditions. The results are discussed in terms of evaluating the individual performances of children with CAPD when one ear is occluded with an earplug as opposed to evaluating the average performance of the group.