Iranian Rehabilitation Journal

en Task-specific phonological processing deficits in children with unilateral hearing loss: A nonword-based assessment in quiet and noisy conditions گفتار درمانی Speech therapy پژوهشي Original Research Articles Objectives: Unilateral hearing loss (UHL) in children may impair phonological awareness, yet it remains unclear whether all phonological subskills are equally affected. This study examined differential vulnerability of nonword-based phonological manipulation subskills in children with UHL under quiet and noisy conditions. Methods: Twenty-six Persian-speaking first and second grades (13 UHL, 13 normal-hearing) participated. Phonological awareness was assessed using five nonword subtests (blending, segmentation, initial, medial, and final phoneme deletion) in quiet and noise (+5 dB SNR). Working memory was controlled using the backward Digit Span test. Results: Children with UHL showed lower performance than normal-hearing peers across several phonological awareness subtests, particularly under noisy condition (p < 0.05). Differences were more definite in complex tasks such as initial-phoneme deletion. Effect sizes indicated consistent group differences despite variability in statistical significance. No significant improvement across grades was observed  in either the UHL or normal-hearing  group (p > 0.05). Discussion: It seems, phonological awareness deficits in UHL are subskill-specific. Initial phoneme deletion is most vulnerable, whereas final phoneme deletion is relatively robust. These findings highlight the need for targeted interventions focusing on complex phoneme manipulation and optimized classroom listening environments for children with unilateral hearing loss. Unilateral hearing loss, Phonological awareness, Noise, Child, Auditory perception 0 0 http://irj.uswr.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-2775-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Akbar Darouie ak.darouie@uswr.ac.ir 0000-0003-2137-2228 Yes Pediatric Neurorehabilitation Research Center, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Taraneh Kazemi fat.kazemi@uswr.ac.ir 0009-0008-0785-6617 No Department of Speech Therapy, Faculty of Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Talieh Zarifian ta.zarifian@uswr.ac.ir 0000-0002-6067-829x No Pediatric Neurorehabilitation Research Center, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Mohsen Vahedi moh.vahedi@uswr.ac.ir 0000-0002-4645-6770 No Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Substance Abuse and Dependence Research Center, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Mohsen Ahadi ahadi.m@iums.ac.ir 0000-0002-8591-2361 No Rehabilitation Research Center, Department of Audiology, School of Rehabilitation Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.