ListenFuture-Listening for their Future: The Complex Associations between Hearing, Cognition, Spoken Language, Literacy and Psychosocial Wellbeing in Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Adolescents

ListenFuture is a nationwide, multidisciplinary project that brings new knowledge on the complex relationships between listening, cognition, spoken language, literacy, and psychosocial wellbeing in deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) adolescents. Participating institutions are Åbo Akademi University, Universities of Oulu and Eastern Finland, and all five university hospitals in Finland (Helsinki, Kuopio, Oulu, Tampere and Turku). Using behavioral methods and questionnaires, we investigate how DHH adolescents manage speech perception in noise, listening, and listening-related fatigue in today’s noisy environments. We also examine cognitive skills, executive functions, spoken language, and literacy to assess the current state of knowledge. Additionally, we study psychosocial wellbeing, school burnout, and related factors. By employing supervised and interpretable machine learning, we aim to identify the performance domains that could best predict outcomes for DHH adolescents. We anticipate that our project will have a significant societal impact on DHH adolescents, healthcare, schools, and other stakeholders. ListenFuture is led by Åbo Akademi University, Speech and Language Pathology and University of Oulu, Research Unit of Logopedics.