How early hearing access shapes babies' speech sound learning
Official title: The impact of auditory access on the development of speech perception
Funded at University of Colorado Denver · NIH-11376992 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This project looks at how differences in hearing access affect speech-sound learning in infants who are hard-of-hearing compared with infants who hear normally.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | University of Colorado Denver NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Aurora, UNITED STATES) |
| Project start | March 1, 2023 |
| Project end | February 28, 2028 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $382,045 |
| NIH project number | 5R01DC021068-04 |
| Project ID | NIH-11376992 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Ideal participants are infants and young children diagnosed with hearing loss (especially in the first year) and age-matched infants with normal hearing for comparison.
✕Less likely to help
Older children and adults, or children without any hearing concerns, are unlikely to benefit directly from this infant-focused research.
What this research studies
If your child is hard-of-hearing, researchers will follow infants from the first months of life to measure how well they learn to tell speech sounds apart compared with babies with normal hearing. They will combine listening tests and age-appropriate behavioral measures with noninvasive brain recordings to track how auditory cue access and device use relate to perception over time. Families may be asked to bring children for multiple visits and provide information about hearing-device settings and everyday language exposure. The team will use these longitudinal data to map typical and atypical speech-perception development and lay the groundwork for more personalized intervention plans.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, the findings could help tailor hearing interventions and device settings to each child's early needs to improve speech perception.
How similar studies have gone: Previous studies show that early language exposure shapes speech perception in normally hearing infants, but applying similar longitudinal brain and behavioral mapping to infants who are hard-of-hearing is relatively new.
Where this research is happening
-
University of Colorado Denver
Aurora, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Uhler, Kristin Michelle — University of Colorado Denver
- Study coordinator: Uhler, Kristin Michelle
Related research
Other NIH-funded projects on the same topics.
-
Silent speech interface using a wearable tongue tracker to help people after laryngectomy communicate
A wearable system with tongue sensors and intraoral components aims to let people without a vocal cord use natural-sounding speech in daily life.
-
Overlap between how we speak and how we hold words in memory
A Duke-led project studies how the brain that talks relates to keeping verbal information in working memory, using advanced brain recordings from patients already undergoing medical care.
-
AI-powered system to improve teamwork in cardiac surgery
A research project is testing an AI-driven system that listens to team conversations during heart surgeries to spot teamwork patterns and give real-time feedback to improve patient safety.
-
Caregiver Speech and Infant Brain Development in Siblings of Children with Autism
This project follows babies who have an older sibling with autism to explore how caregiver talk and everyday interactions relate to early brain and behavior development.
-
How speech and swallowing work in people with Down syndrome
Researchers will look at how differences in the mouth, throat, and brain affect speech clarity and safe swallowing in children and adults with Down syndrome.
-
Information and social media use for autism info in young children
A research project looks at how speech-language pathologists and parents of young autistic children use social media for information and what makes that information trustworthy.
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.