Introduction: One of the main characteristic of auditory neuropathy (AN) is a significantly impaired temporal processing ability with subsequent difficulty in speech understanding particularly in noise. Temporal modification of speech by enhancing temporal properties in clear speech can be beneficial in enhancing speech intelligibility in AN patients. Clear speech was developed in English language and many studies showed it is more intelligible to patients with sensory neural hearing loss and auditory neuropathy.
Objective: To develop and standardize Arabic clear speech materials and to evaluate the performance of patients with auditory neuropathy (AN) and sensory neural hearing loss on Arabic clear speech
Method: The present study was conducted in three phases, Phase one included development and recording of clear and conversational Arabic speech materials. Phase two included establishing norms on the developed materials by evaluation of 30 adult normal subjects. Phase three comprised evaluation of performance of 30 adult sensory neural hearing loss patients and 40 adult patients with AN. Patients were tested in quiet as well as in noisy listening conditions.
Results: A significant clear speech advantage was observed in intelligibility for all listening conditions for all participants. Clear speech advantage in AN patients was 16.7 % over conversational speech, while it was 5 % in patients with SNHL. All patients with AN performed more poorly in noise at all signal to noise ratios (SNRs).
Conclusions: The advantage of clear speech over conversational speech was more evident in AN patient than sensory neural hearing loss group. This reflects that patients with AN most likely derive the advantage from enhanced temporal properties in clear speech. This study suggests the use of clear speech in remediation of patients with auditory neuropathy in order to improve their ability to communicate.