Clear speech perception in patients with auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder

Introduction: One of the main characteristic of auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder (ANSD) is a significantly impaired temporal processing ability with subsequent difficulty in speech understanding particularly in noise. Enhancing temporal properties in clear speech can be beneficial in enhancing speech intelligibility in ANSD patients. Clear speech was developed in English language. Objective: To develop and standardize Arabic clear speech materials and to evaluate performance of patients with ANSD and sensory neural hearing loss (SNHL) in developed Arabic clear speech. Patients and Methods: The present study was conducted in three phases. Phase one; developing and recording of clear and conversational Arabic speech materials. Phase two; establishing norms in the developed materials by evaluation of 30 adult normal subjects. Phase three; comprised evaluation of performance of 30 adult SNHL patients and 40 adult patients with ANSD. Patients were tested in quiet as well as in noisy listening conditions. Results: Clear speech advantage in ANSD patients was 16.7% over conversational speech, while it was 5% in patients with SNHL. All patients with ANSD performed more poorly in noise at all signal to noise ratios (SNRs). Conclusion: The advantage of clear speech over conversational speech was more evident in ANSD patients than SNHL group. ANSD patients derive this advantage from enhancement of temporal properties in clear speech most likely. This study suggested using clear speech in remediation of patients with ANSD in order to improve their ability to communicate.