Effects of age, sex, language ability and second language listening on children's recognition of nonwords and sentences in noise and reverberation.

Objectives: To evaluate children's ability to recognise speech and its relationship to language ability using two newly developed tests: the Listening in Spatialised Noise and Reverberation test (LiSN-R) and the Test of Listening Difficulties - Universal (ToLD-U).

Design: LiSN-R and ToLD-U used nonword and sentence recognition in spatially separated noise and reverberation. Language ability was assessed using the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals (CELF) sentence recall.

Study sample: Normally-hearing children aged 6-11 years, who spoke English either as a Second Language (ESL) or natively. LiSN-R was completed by 134 children and ToLD-U by 171.

Results: Children's speech reception thresholds improved with age (∼1 dB/year) with no sex differences for both tests. Nonword recognition (LiSN-R) was not significantly affected by ESL status or language ability. Sentence recognition (ToLD-U) was significantly affected by ESL status and predicted by language ability (β = 0.75). ToLD-U and LiSN-R performance were significantly correlated (r = 0.49).

Conclusion: This is the first study to demonstrate the complementary value of LiSN-R and ToLD-U for assessing phonological and sentence-level listening, under ecologically valid conditions in children as young as six. Findings clarify the interaction between linguistic proficiency and listening performance, thereby informing the refinement of auditory assessment protocols.