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 <div style="text-align: justify;">Objectives: Unilateral hearing loss (UHL) in children may affect phonological awareness, but it remains unclear whether different phonological subskills are affected similarly. This study compared nonword-based phonological manipulation skills in children with UHL and normal-hearing peers across quiet and noise conditions. Methods: Twenty-six Persian-speaking first- and second-grade children participated, including 13 children with UHL and 13 children with normal hearing. Phonological awareness was assessed using five nonword-based subtests: blending, segmentation, and initial-, medial-, and final-phoneme deletion. Each subtest was administered under quiet and noise conditions at a +5 dB signal-to-noise ratio. Backward Digit Span was assessed as a working-memory and eligibility measure. Multiple comparisons were adjusted using the Holm procedure. Results: In first-grade children, the normal-hearing group obtained higher mean scores across all subtests, but no subtest-level between-group difference remained statistically significant after Holm correction. In second-grade children, the normal-hearing group performed significantly better in blending in noise, segmentation in both quiet and noise, and initial- and medial-phoneme deletion in noise. Significant quiet–noise differences remained for three subtests in first-grade children with UHL and four subtests in second-grade children with UHL, compared with one subtest in first-grade children with normal hearing and none in second-grade children with normal hearing. No subtest-level grade differences remained significant after correction; however, total nonword scores were higher in second-grade children with normal hearing under both listening conditions. Backward Digit Span scores did not differ significantly between the groups. Discussion: Phonological-awareness performance was task- and grade-specific rather than uniformly impaired in children with UHL. Subtest-level between-group differences were most evident among second-grade children, particularly for tasks presented in noise. Although quiet–noise differences occurred across more subtests within the UHL groups, these findings should be interpreted cautiously because the listening-condition order was fixed and a direct group-by-condition interaction was not tested. Assessment should include multiple phonological tasks under both quiet and noise conditions.</div> Unilateral hearing loss, Phonological awareness, Noise, Children, Auditory perception 0 0 http://irj.uswr.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-2775-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1 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. 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. Talieh Zarifian ta.zarifian@uswr.ac.ir 0000-0002-6067-829x No Department of Speech Therapy, Faculty of Rehabilitation Sciences, 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.