Employees of the Moscow State Psychological and Pedagogical University (MGPPU) have developed a psychophysical test called “Words in Noise”. With its help, scientists were convinced that children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) perceive speech in noise worse than their typical peers, but this does not depend on the child’s level of intelligence and is not associated with hearing impairment. socialbites.ca was told about this issue in the “Priority 2030” program of the Ministry of Education and Science.
During the test, the child is presented with words that he or she must repeat out loud through headphones. The words were chosen considering their frequency in daily speech and their suitability for the vocabulary of primary school children. The audio recording of the words is superimposed with noise of varying volume levels of two types: continuous, such as waterfalls and highways, and amplitude-modulated noise, with brief intervals of silence, such as several people speaking at the same time. time.
Tests of children with ASD and their neurotypical peers have shown that children with ASD, even with advanced cognitive abilities, may have difficulty in the classroom simply because environmental noise interferes with their ability to understand their teacher’s speech.
FM systems that include a remote microphone (for a teacher or parent, for example) and headphone receivers (for a child) can help children with ASD improve their auditory perception of speech in noisy environments. The headset transmits the teacher’s voice directly into the child’s ear without drowning out surrounding sounds, so the child still hears the world around him, but the teacher’s speech stands out from the general sound background.
“FM systems are used in the education of hearing-impaired children in Russia, but their use to compensate for perception difficulties in children with ASD requires careful study, and this is one of the goals of our project,” said the head of the complex. Research laboratory in Ulyan Mamokhin’s speeches to socialbites.ca.
Previously pediatrician Tatyana Turti saidAt what age can doctors diagnose autism?