| In recent years,the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a global outbreak,and wearing masks has become a key preventive measure to block virus transmission.However,wearing masks can lead to a decrease in audio-visual speech perception quality for the speaker.In terms of auditory perception,masks attenuate the energy of high-frequency speech signals,while visually,masks obscure the speaker’s lip movement and facial expression.This may severely affect the speech perception of pre-school children with hearing impairment,resulting in a decrease in speech recognition rate,an increase in listening and assistive device use,and difficulties in daily listening and communication.However,there is a lack of empirical research revealing the specific effects of masks on pre-school children with hearing impairment,making it difficult to provide timely help and guidance for this population.This study first surveyed parents’ observations of the actual performance and feelings of pre-school children with hearing impairment when faced with speakers wearing masks through a self-designed questionnaire,and then used experimental simulations in real environment to comprehensively evaluate the impact of masks on the speech recognition rate and listening and assistive device use of this population.1.Investigating the impact of masks on audio-visual speech perception of pre-school children with hearing impairment.A self-designed questionnaire was used to survey 70 parents of pre-school children with hearing impairment.The results showed that masks have a negative impact on the audio-visual speech perception of pre-school children with hearing impairment in their daily life,hindering listening and communication.74.29% of parents believed that masks hindered listening and made it difficult for children to hear others speaking.Half of the parents indicated that masks caused communication difficulties,making it difficult for children to remember conversation information and concentrate.In order to improve communication quality,77.14% of parents adopted strategies of adjusting the volume and speaking speed.In this survey,17.14% of parents had not paid attention to the important role of mask types,and nearly one-third of parents had insufficient awareness of observing children’s listening performance.2.Investigating the impact of masks on the speech recognition rate of pre-school children with hearing impairment.A 3(mask type: no mask,surgical mask,transparent mask)× 2(audio-visual level:pure auditory,audio-visual)two-factor repeated measures experimental design was used to measure the speech recognition rate of 30 pre-school children with hearing impairment using self-made audio-visual speech perception materials,and they were asked to repeat short sentences.The results showed that under the pure auditory condition,the recognition rates of the surgical mask and transparent mask conditions were significantly lower than that of the no mask condition(p < 0.001),and the speech recognition rate of the surgical mask condition was significantly higher than that of the transparent mask condition(p<0.001).Under the audio-visual condition,there was no significant difference in recognition rate between the transparent mask and no mask conditions(p = 0.529),but the recognition rate of the surgical mask condition was significantly lower than that of the other two conditions(p<0.001).This suggests that wearing masks has an impact on children’s speech recognition.Under the pure auditory condition,the surgical mask reduces speech energy less,so its impact is smaller.Under the audio-visual condition,the transparent mask provides visual cues,so its impact is smaller.Based on the results of this study,it is recommended to provide audio-visual speech signals as much as possible when communicating with pre-school children with hearing impairment and to use transparent masks.3.The impact of masks on speech perception and listening effort in pre-school children with hearing impairment.A 3(mask type: no mask,surgical mask,transparent mask)× 2(audio-visual level:pure auditory,audio-visual)two-factor repeated measures experimental design was used to investigate the effects of masks on listening effort in pre-school children with hearing impairment.Working memory capacity was found to be negatively correlated with listening effort,with lower working memory scores resulting in higher listening effort.Therefore,a serial recall task was used to measure the working memory scores of 29 pre-school children with hearing impairment to understand their level of listening effort.The results showed that under the auditory only condition,there was no significant difference in test scores between no mask and surgical mask conditions(p=0.315),but both were significantly higher than the transparent mask condition(p < 0.001),and the surgical mask condition was significantly higher than the transparent mask condition(p = 0.045).Under the audiovisual condition,the test scores for the no mask condition were significantly higher than those for the surgical mask(p< 0.001)and transparent mask(p< 0.001)conditions,and the transparent mask condition was significantly higher than the surgical mask condition(p=0.030).This suggests that masks can lead to increased listening effort in pre-school children with hearing impairment,with less listening effort required for the surgical mask condition under the auditory only condition and the transparent mask condition under the audiovisual condition.Furthermore,combining the results of speech recognition rate tests,the use of surgical masks under the auditory only condition can result in higher speech recognition rates with lower listening effort for pre-school children with hearing impairment,while the use of transparent masks under the audiovisual condition can achieve this effect.Therefore,it is recommended to use the corresponding mask in different audiovisual contexts to help pre-school children with hearing impairment overcome communication barriers.This study comprehensively investigated the impact of different types of masks on speech perception in pre-school children with hearing impairment in different audiovisual contexts from three dimensions: questionnaire survey,explicit speech recognition rate,and implicit listening effort,enriching the empirical evidence in this field.Corresponding recommendations were made for different communication contexts,which could help to facilitate communication with this group of individuals when wearing masks. |
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