Severity of hyperacusis predicts individual differences in speech perception in Williams Syndrome.

Amore et al. (2011) asked if noise hurts speech understanding in Williams syndrome. They tested how bad hyperacusis was and how well each person heard words in noise.

The team did not try to fix the problem. They only measured the link between ear pain and speech scores.

The worse the hyperacusis, the worse the speech-in-noise scores. Loud sounds blocked word understanding for these learners.

Hippolyte et al. (2025) extends this idea. They show that Williams learners keep good phonics but lose semantic links. Together the papers say: ears hurt, so sounds blur, and meaning suffers next.

Hsu (2014) seems to disagree. That study found cross-modal AV beats sound-only. Yet M et al. say sound-only fails when hyperacusis is high. The gap is method: Ching-Fen used quiet rooms, M et al. added noise. Reduce noise or add visuals and the conflict fades.

Greiner de Magalhães et al. (2022) add spelling data. Systematic phonics helps Williams kids spell. M et al. warn that if the room is noisy, those same phonics lessons may not reach the ear.

Screen for hyperacusis before you teach language. A quick noise-sensitivity checklist takes two minutes. If the learner scores high, cut room noise or give written cues while you speak. Small acoustic changes can save an entire language lesson.