The speed of lexical access contributes to word recognition in noise in children with typical development and in children with autism spectrum disorder

Although speech-in-noise audiometry is widely used in children, the role of lexical access in the effectiveness of speech recognition in children has not yet been investigated. In this study, we investigated the contribution of speed of lexical access (SLA) to word intelligibility in noise in children aged 7–12 years with typical development (TD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). For this purpose, we analyzed the characteristics of 144 individual words (item-level analysis) with early age of acquisition. Relative word intelligibility was assessed based on the proportion of correct repetitions in stationary and amplitude-modulated noise in TD children (n = 73) and children with ASD (n = 94). For the same words, reaction times were measured in a visual lexical decision task in adults (n = 28) and in children aged 9–10 years from an independent sample (n = 44). The profiles of relative word intelligibility in noise in children with ASD and TD children were almost identical for both types of noise (ICC > 0.9). SLA estimates for the same words obtained in adults and children showed a moderate correlation (r = 0.419, p < 0.001), confirming previous findings on the similarity of SLA for early-acquired words in adults and children. Significant negative correlations were found between SLA and intelligibility: words with faster lexical access were better recognized in noise by both TD children and children with ASD (r values ranging from −0.20 to −0.24, p < 0.05). The speed of lexical access is a significant factor influencing speech intelligibility under adverse listening conditions in both TD children and children with ASD.

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