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Widex supports new research project on children’s language development | The hearing aid manufacturer Widex joins forces with the Center for Language Acquisition, University of Southern Denmark, in a research project on the language development of children with normal hearing and with hearing loss. The project runs for 5 years and Widex will donate 3.5 million Danish kroner to the project.
Pioneering spirit and commitment are the key words in a new research project, ”WHISPER” (Widex Hearing Impaired SPEech Research), initiated by Widex in cooperation with the Center for Language Acquisition. It is an international project involving the participation of researchers from the United Kingdom and Brazil. The aim of the project is to gain increased knowledge of the language development of young children in the age group 0-6 years. Over the 5 years the project runs, it will be investigated how children with normal hearing and hearing loss perceive sound and process speech sounds before they learn to say their first word. This knowledge may be valuable, for example, in developing hearing aids to provide optimum speech intelligibility.
Dorthe Bleses, Project Manager and associate professor, PhD, from the Center for Language Acquisition, says about the project:
”WHISPER is a highly needed project – there is a great need for knowledge about the language development of children with normal hearing and with hearing loss." Language is one of the most important building blocks of society – it plays an essential role in our social lives and communication with other people. It is therefore important that children are given the best possible opportunities for learning language. But what happens if a child has hearing loss? How does it affect the language development of that child compared to children with normal hearing? This is the core issue in the joint research project with Widex”, concludes Dorthe Bleses.
Commitment to paediatric audiology | Widex commits significant resources to research on children and hearing loss, and is an important player in the paediatric field. In the spring of 2004, Widex invited the world’s leading researchers and paediatric audiologists to its third international paediatric congress. More than 400 hearing healthcare professionals from all over the world participated in the congress, and new research results were brought to light. The research project launched in cooperation with the Center for Language Acquisition is part of Widex’ broad commitment to paediatric issues.
Tom Westermann, Vice-President at Widex, says: ”Hearing loss can have a large impact on children’s language development and ability to communicate with those around them. We hope that the project will help us to gain more knowledge of the language development of children with hearing loss, so that we can become better at designing hearing aids especially for children. We also hope that the project will produce results that can be used, not only by us, but by hearing healthcare professionals and others who work with hearing impaired children”.
Early screening for hearing loss helps language development | Widex attaches great importance to early screening for hearing loss in children in respect to the WHISPER project. Widex Research Manager Carl Ludvigsen says:
”The WHISPER project is particularly interesting because it focuses on children as young as 0 to 6 years. It fits our paediatric hearing aid philosophy – the importance of implementing rehabilitation programmes as early as possible, to minimise the negative effect of hearing loss on the child’s language development.
There is reason to believe that the latest advancements in hearing aid technology can help hearing impaired children to acquire spoken language earlier. The research results can provide important information on, for example, how our hearing aids should be constructed to ensure the best possible speech understanding for the child. The sooner we can help and support the child in terms of hearing aids and rehabilitation – the easier the child will be able to learn language, thereby improving the child’s development and quality of life”.
 www.humaniora.sdu.dk/sprogtilegnelse/whisper
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