My PhD focused on speech perception in noise in dyslexic children. Poorer sound perception might jeopardise the acquisition of phoneme to grapheme conversion, hence likely leading to reading difficulties. Given the high levels of noise reported in classrooms, a higher susceptibility to noise could potentially affect reading acquisition in school-age children. Therefore, the aim of my PhD was to investigate the influence of various types of background noise on speech perception and reading acquisition in children. Altogether, my research suggests that peripheral hearing is preserved, but points towards a deficit in central auditory processing in dyslexic children. Subsequently, my research has then focused on developing paradigms that would allow to investigate the neural mechanisms of auditory perception in noise using electroencephalography (EEG).

My current project aims at investigating neural auditory processing abilities in children with mild to moderate hearing loss, and its relationship with language and reading outcome. Expected outcome of this project is to improve diagnosis and the hearing aid technologies for children with hearing impairment.