Abstract

While recorded speech audiometry materials have been developed in Spanish for adults, currently there are no speech audiometry materials available in Spanish that are suitable for a pediatric population. Thus, the purposes of this study were (a) to analyze Spanish bisyllabic words previously developed for adults to determine the words' appropriateness when testing word recognition scores in native Spanish-speaking children and (b) to compare the logistic regressions results from the Spanish adult data obtained in a previous study with the logistic regressions from Spanish pediatric data obtained in the present study. Using common-use children's dictionaries in the Spanish language, a subset of child-appropriate words was adapted from a set of materials developed for Spanish adults. A total of 129 frequently used bisyllabic words were chosen; the words were split into five lists; four lists contained 26 words and one list contained 25 words; each was digitally recorded by both male and female Spanish talkers. Twenty native Spanish-speaking children with normal hearing between the ages of four and eight years were selected to listen to words to obtain psychometric functions. Each word was presented to the listener at 5 levels of intensity from -5 to 35 dB HL in increments of 10 dB. Custom software was used to control randomization, timing, and presentation of the words. The participants were not familiarized with the words prior to testing. The words received a ranked order based on performance to create lists and half-lists that were equivalent. Logistic regression was used to calculate psychometric functions for the lists and half-lists. Subsequently, a chi-square analysis was completed. The analysis revealed no statistical differences among the lists and half-lists for either male or female talkers. The mean bisyllabic psychometric function slopes for lists and half-lists were 5.0%/dB for the male-talker words and 5.2%/dB for the female-talker words. The 50% threshold for male and female were 16.2 dB HL and 15.5 dB HL, respectively.

Degree

College and Department

David O. McKay School of Education; Communication Disorders

Rights

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