A CLEARER PICTURE: UNDERSTANDING SPATIAL HEARING IN PORTUGUESE-SPEAKING CHILDREN

• Dr. Marisela T. Fialho

  Department of Audiology and Speech Therapy, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil

  Author

• Prof. João D. Carvalhês

  Center for Pediatric Hearing Research, Instituto Politécnico de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

  Author

Imagine trying to follow a conversation in a bustling café, but every voice sounds like it's coming from the same spot, all jumbled together. This is a common struggle for individuals with Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD), a condition where the brain has trouble making sense of sounds, even when the ears themselves work perfectly. While we have tools to help, there's a real need for tests that truly fit different languages and cultures. This study introduces a brand-new test, the Portuguese Speech Reception in Noise (PROSER) test, designed to give us a clearer picture of how Portuguese-speaking children process sounds in noisy environments, especially when those sounds come from different directions. Our main goals were simple: first, to figure out what's "normal" for healthy Portuguese-speaking children taking this test, and second, to make sure the test gives consistent results every time. Understanding how our brains use spatial cues (like where a sound comes from) is incredibly important for diagnosing and helping with CAPD, because it directly affects how well we can pick out what we want to hear from all the background noise. This article walks you through how we created the PROSER test, how we used it, and what we found. The results are exciting: the PROSER test provides reliable insights into spatial hearing abilities in Portuguese, making it a valuable new tool for audiologists and families.

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