Abstract

The purpose of this study was to use previously recorded Spanish trisyllabic words tested on adults in the measurement of the speech recognition threshold of Spanish-speaking children in order to (a) determine the words' appropriateness when testing children and (b) compare psychometric functions between adults and children. A selection of 28 frequently used trisyllabic words was chosen from previously recorded samples of male and female adult native speakers of Spanish. These words were then presented to 20 native Spanish-speaking children with normal hearing between the ages of 4 and 8 years. The words were presented starting at -5 dB HL and ascended in 5 dB increments until the presentation level reached 15 dB HL. Using logistic regression, psychometric functions were calculated for each word. Resulting pediatric thresholds were found to be 8.7 dB higher for male talkers and 11.0 dB higher for female talkers than previously reported adult thresholds. These results indicate a clinically significant threshold difference between pediatric and adult populations. Future research should be conducted to measure the speech recognition threshold (SRT) in children of varying ages to determine the age at which the SRT approximates with adult performance.

Degree

MS

College and Department

David O. McKay School of Education; Communication Disorders

Rights

http://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/

Date Submitted

2016-03-01

Document Type

Thesis

Handle

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/etd8498

Keywords

speech audiometry, speech recognition threshold, Spanish, pediatric, SRT

Language

english

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