How well preschoolers who are deaf or hard of hearing access spoken language in everyday life
Official title: Assessing Access to Language in the Real-World and Neural Language Processing in Preschoolers who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing
Funded at University of South Florida · NIH-11456543 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This project measures how background noise and caregiver talk shape language access and brain responses in preschoolers who are deaf or hard of hearing compared with children who have typical hearing.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R21 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | University of South Florida NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Tampa, United States) |
| Project start | June 5, 2024 |
| Project end | May 31, 2027 |
| Funding year | 2025 |
| Award (this year) | $187,500 |
| NIH project number | 7R21DC022038-03 |
| Project ID | NIH-11456543 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Ideal candidates are preschool-aged children (about 1–5 years old) who are deaf or hard of hearing and are developing spoken language, with a separate group of age-matched children with typical hearing for comparison.
✕Less likely to help
Children who communicate primarily via sign language, infants outside the preschool age range, or adults are not the intended participants and would be unlikely to receive direct benefit from this project.
What this research studies
You and your child may be invited to join a group of about 40 preschool children who are deaf or hard of hearing and an age-matched group with typical hearing. The team will create a Speech Accessibility Index (SAI) that quantifies how much spoken language a child can access in real-world settings using recordings and related measures. Children will also do brief lab listening tasks while researchers record brain activity (looking at alpha power) to see how the brain copes with sentences in background noise. The study will compare SAI scores, brain measures, and language skills to learn which children face the highest risk for language delays.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could help identify which children are most at risk for language delays and guide earlier, targeted hearing and language supports.
How similar studies have gone: Prior research has linked caregiver talk and environmental noise to language outcomes and used EEG measures of listening effort, but the Speech Accessibility Index is a new tool being tested here.
Where this research is happening
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University of South Florida
Tampa, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Benitez-Barrera, Carlos R — University of South Florida
- Study coordinator: Benitez-Barrera, Carlos R
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.