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Improved Speech Recognition for Children With Limited Usable Hearing Unilaterally When Using a Remote Microphone in a Simulated Classroom Setting.

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Title: Improved Speech Recognition for Children With Limited Usable Hearing Unilaterally When Using a Remote Microphone in a Simulated Classroom Setting.
Authors: Neumann, Sara1 sara.neumann@heartsforhearing.org, Wolfe, Jace1, Dunn, Andrea2, Towler, William1, Nelson, Johanna2
Source: American Journal of Audiology. Mar2026, Vol. 35 Issue 1, p118-131. 14p.
Subject Terms: *School environment, *Psychology of middle school students, *Data analysis, *Psychology of school children, *Listening, *Simulation methods in education, *Hearing disorders, *Speech perception, *Comparative studies, *Hearing, *Children, Automatic speech recognition, Wireless communications, Research funding, Noise, T-test (Statistics), Sensorineural hearing loss, Fisher exact test, Descriptive statistics, Analysis of variance, Statistics, Quality assurance, Transducers
Abstract: Purpose: Children with limited usable hearing unilaterally (LUHU) often struggle in noisy and reverberant classrooms. They cannot always be positioned near the teacher, and therefore, understanding the effect of distance on their understanding of speech is critical. This study assessed the performance of children using a remote microphone system in a simulated classroom environment located at varying distances from a teacher speaking from a frontal position. Method: Sixteen children with LUHU were fitted with a Phonak Roger Focus II ear-level receiver (Sonova AG) in the normal ear, coupled with the Phonak Roger Touchscreen Mic (Sonova AG). The children repeated AzBio sentences with and without the Roger Focus II in "quiet" and "noisy" (uncorrelated classroom noise) classroom environments, with speech at 65 dBA and noise at 55 dBA and speech at 72 dBA and noise at 65 dBA, respectively, at the various locations. A control group of 10 children with normal hearing (NH) was included. Results: A statistically and clinically significant (p < .004) improvement in speech recognition performance relative to unaided performance was observed with the Roger Focus II in all conditions, except the quiet classroom at 1.5 m, where the difference was statistically significant only. The largest gain (60%) was observed in the noisy classroom at 5 m (-2 dB SNR). Children using the remote microphone outperformed NH children under all conditions, and this was both clinically and statistically significant at all three distances in the noisy classroom (p < .004) . Conclusions: In children with LUHU, the Roger Focus II effectively reduced the impact of background noise and allowed for a greater distance between the teacher in front of the classroom and the listener in a simulated classroom setting. Children with LUHU demonstrated superior speech recognition abilities compared with those with NH in the most challenging conditions when seated farthest from the teacher. Future studies should examine subjective feedback in real-life classrooms across a wide variety of dynamic listening scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Copyright of American Journal of Audiology is the property of American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
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  Data: Improved Speech Recognition for Children With Limited Usable Hearing Unilaterally When Using a Remote Microphone in a Simulated Classroom Setting.
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– Name: Abstract
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  Data: Purpose: Children with limited usable hearing unilaterally (LUHU) often struggle in noisy and reverberant classrooms. They cannot always be positioned near the teacher, and therefore, understanding the effect of distance on their understanding of speech is critical. This study assessed the performance of children using a remote microphone system in a simulated classroom environment located at varying distances from a teacher speaking from a frontal position. Method: Sixteen children with LUHU were fitted with a Phonak Roger Focus II ear-level receiver (Sonova AG) in the normal ear, coupled with the Phonak Roger Touchscreen Mic (Sonova AG). The children repeated AzBio sentences with and without the Roger Focus II in &quot;quiet&quot; and &quot;noisy&quot; (uncorrelated classroom noise) classroom environments, with speech at 65 dBA and noise at 55 dBA and speech at 72 dBA and noise at 65 dBA, respectively, at the various locations. A control group of 10 children with normal hearing (NH) was included. Results: A statistically and clinically significant (p &lt; .004) improvement in speech recognition performance relative to unaided performance was observed with the Roger Focus II in all conditions, except the quiet classroom at 1.5 m, where the difference was statistically significant only. The largest gain (60%) was observed in the noisy classroom at 5 m (-2 dB SNR). Children using the remote microphone outperformed NH children under all conditions, and this was both clinically and statistically significant at all three distances in the noisy classroom (p &lt; .004) . Conclusions: In children with LUHU, the Roger Focus II effectively reduced the impact of background noise and allowed for a greater distance between the teacher in front of the classroom and the listener in a simulated classroom setting. Children with LUHU demonstrated superior speech recognition abilities compared with those with NH in the most challenging conditions when seated farthest from the teacher. Future studies should examine subjective feedback in real-life classrooms across a wide variety of dynamic listening scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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  Data: &lt;i&gt;Copyright of American Journal of Audiology is the property of American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder&#39;s express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.&lt;/i&gt; (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
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RecordInfo BibRecord:
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    Identifiers:
      – Type: doi
        Value: 10.1044/2025_AJA-25-00151
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      – Code: eng
        Text: English
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        StartPage: 118
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      – SubjectFull: School environment
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Psychology of middle school students
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Data analysis
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      – SubjectFull: Psychology of school children
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      – SubjectFull: Listening
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Simulation methods in education
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Hearing disorders
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      – SubjectFull: Speech perception
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      – SubjectFull: Hearing
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      – SubjectFull: Automatic speech recognition
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      – SubjectFull: Research funding
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      – SubjectFull: Noise
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      – SubjectFull: T-test (Statistics)
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      – SubjectFull: Quality assurance
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      – SubjectFull: Transducers
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      – TitleFull: Improved Speech Recognition for Children With Limited Usable Hearing Unilaterally When Using a Remote Microphone in a Simulated Classroom Setting.
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              Text: Mar2026
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