- This event has passed.
Prosem Lecture: Sound Localization and Speech Intelligibility in Young Adults with Down Syndrome
March 20 @ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Kumari Anshu, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Binaural Hearing and Speech Lab (Litovsky lab)
Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Topic: Speech Intelligibility and Spatial Hearing in Young Adults with Down Syndrome
Down syndrome is a developmental disorder affecting multiple systems in the body. Individuals with Down syndrome show a significantly higher prevalence of hearing loss than typically developing individuals. Hearing loss can range from mild to severe and can sometimes be present at birth. Among typically developing children, chronic hearing loss is known to have adverse consequences on auditory perceptual skills such as sound localization and speech intelligibility in the presence of noise. However, little is known about the associations between hearing loss and functional hearing abilities in individuals with Down Syndrome. Understanding these associations will enable us to determine strategies to support and include them in the mainstream.
In my talk, I will present findings from a recent study in the lab in which we evaluated sound localization and speech intelligibility skills in young adults with Down syndrome. I will also discuss how their performance on these auditory tasks is associated with hearing loss and cognitive ability.
