Audio-visual speech comprehension in noise with real and virtual speakers

•A study with 8- to 10-year-old school children (N = 102) investigated how seeing a 3D motion-capture animated ‘virtual speaker’ speaking in babble noise affected speech comprehension in multitalker babble noise, which has an already established negative effect on speech comprehension.•Seeing the virtual speaker improved speech comprehension compared to only listening, and the effect was no smaller compared to a corresponding video of a real speaker.•The positive effect of seeing the virtual speaker required some adaptation.•Participants selected more negative word to describe the virtual speaker, although this did not seem to interfere with audiovisual integration in speech comprehension.