The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a 500 Hz and 3,150 Hz one-third octave band augmentation on the speech discrimination ability of listeners with cochlear hearing impairments. The results were analyzed both within the experimental group of subjects included in the present study and in comparison with data collected on a control group of normal hearing subjects reported earlier.

This study examined the effects of bilingualism on speech recognition in noise performance of young normal-hearing Spanish-English bilinguals across several signal-to-noise ratios (SNR). The estimated signal-to-noise ratio needed for 50% correct recognition performance obtained for bilingual listeners was compared to young normal-hearing monolingual listeners of both English and Spanish. The estimated mean SNR needed for 50% correct recognition was significantly higher (i.e., poorer) for the bilingual than for the monolingual English listeners. The Spanish language performance of the bilingual listeners did not significantly differ from that of the monolingual Spanish listeners. The bilinguals were then divided into subgroups based on age of acquisition of the second language. Bilinguals were subdivided into early and later learners of English and further comparisons were made. The average estimated SNR needed for 50% correct recognition for the early bilinguals did not differ statistically from that of monolingual listeners in either the English or the Spanish language testing. The SNR obtained for 50% correct recognition of English words was significantly higher for the late bilinguals than for the monolingual English listeners. For Spanish words, the mean SNRs obtained for 50% correct recognition for the later bilinguals and the monolingual Spanish speakers did not differ statistically from one another. These results suggest that caution should be used when assessing speech-in-noise performance in the second language of bilingual patients because separate norms may be needed for this population. Age of acquisition of the second language should be considered as a confounding factor in speech-in-noise performance of bilingual listeners.

With reductions in the age criterion for cochlear implantation, the need for age-appropriate measures of speech perception skills has increased. One recently developed tool that shows great promise for the clinical assessment of auditory speech perception capacity in young children with cochlear implants is the On-Line Imitative Test of Speech-Pattern Contrast Perception (OlimSpac). The OlimSpac requires a child to imitate nonword utterances by providing a verbal response. The child's perceptual abilities are inferred from the child's productions through having a listener, who is masked to the stimulus select the utterance produced by the child in an eight-alternative force-choice task. Although the OlimSpac has the potential for use in children with cochlear implants, the specific role of measured speech production abilities on performance has yet to be systematically examined. Thus, the main objective of the present study was to examine the influence of speech production abilities on OlimSpac performance in an auditory-visual (A-V) and auditory-only (A-O) condition in young children with cochlear implants relative to an articulation-matched sample of normal hearing peers. A secondary objective was to determine whether the presentation modality affected a child's OlimSpac performance. A matched pair design was used to compare the OlimSpac performance of ten children with cochlear implants (ages 29 to 76 months) to normal hearing peers (ages 27 to 73 months). Each child with cochlear implants was matched to a child with normal hearing from a sampled population of 22 normal hearing participants based on word-level articulation skills, as measured by the GFTA-2, accounting for hearing age and gender. The OlimSpac software generated a score for a single contrast and a single presentation modality (A-V or A-O). The score was based on eight binary trials. Due to the small trial size, individual contrast scores were interpreted as pass/fail, given that only a score of seven or eight is significantly better than chance. Therefore, OlimSpac performance was determined by a composite score reflecting the average across all six contrasts, based on 48 binary trials. Average composite scores for both the A-V and A-O conditions were lower, albeit not significant, for young children with cochlear implants compared to their articulation-matched controls. Examination of individual phonemic contrast scores revealed that the articulation-matched sample of normal hearing participants most often failed the post-alveolar consonant place contrast, whereas children with cochlear implants most often failed the consonant voicing contrast. There were also no significant within group difference in speech perception performance between the A-V and A-O conditions of the OlimSpac. The results of this study demonstrated that children with cochlear implants achieved similar speech perception performance to their articulation-matched normal hearing peers. Although children's speech production abilities partially influenced their OlimSpac performance, knowledge of word-level articulation skills allows clinicians to make appropriate judgments when interpreting composite scores, thus validating the OlimSpac as an indirect measure of a child's speech perception capacity and a direct measure of speech perception skills. Objective scores obtained from a child's OlimSpac performance may be used to assess outcomes of cochlear implant use, guide cochlear implant mapping, and plan habilitative intervention. A greater understanding of the potential effect of speech production performance on estimates of speech perception ability may also assist in highlighting other developmental, linguistic and/or cognitive delays masked by a child's hearing loss.

A student manual of audiological procedures with accompanying laboratory assignments does not presently exist at the University of South Florida (USF). In the first year of the four year Au.D. program at USF, students are enrolled in Audiology Laboratory Clinic I, II, and III, in consecutive semesters. Groups of four to six students meet weekly for a 3-1/2 hour clinical laboratory session to receive training in test instruction, test procedures, test application, and test interpretation. The purpose of the first year Audiology laboratory clinic sessions is to prepare the student for clinical experience in year two of the Au.D program at USF. In preparation for these laboratory sessions, it was discovered that materials related to test procedures are currently scattered throughout a variety of texts, journals, manuals, educational software, videos, and web sites. No one source contains all the needed information on any given test procedure. In addition, specific procedures outlined in documents [American Standards Institute (ANSI) and the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA)] are not consistently used by the different sources. Thus, there is no standard procedural manual containing laboratory assignments that lead to the development of appropriate clinical testing skills by a first year Au.D student. A standard test procedural manual for pure tone audiometry, speech audiometry, and immittance testing, with assignments, was developed to assist in the cultivation of the students testing skills. The manual contains test history, purposes, procedures, scoring guidelines, interpretations, and limitations for each test. Laboratory assignments include practice exercises using a computer simulator, classmates, and volunteers. Each assignment is accompanied by discussion questions to enhance and augment student understanding. A reference list is available to obtain further information on each topic area. This manual will be made available to the first year Au.D student as well as to the advanced Au.D student who would benefit from an all-inclusive, updateable source providing the best possible clinical procedures. The final product will be available for a fee in a notebook type format to allow for the inclusion of additional topics and updates as the standards of practice in Audiology change.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a 500 Hz and 3150 Hz one-third octave band augmentation on the speech discrimination ability of normal hearing listeners and whether such effects vary with signal presentation level. The augmented portion of monosyllabic words was systematically varied from 5-55dB above the intensity level of the unfiltered version of the words and presented simultaneously to one ear.

The use of speech audiometry is essential in audiological testing. One of the most important elements of speech audiometry is speech reception threshold. To provide services for the growing population of non-English speaking people, audiologists need speech audiometry materials in a variety of languages. The purpose of this study was to develop, digitally record, evaluate, and equate Arabic bisyllabic words for use in testing speech reception threshold. Ninety frequently used bisyllabic words were digitally recorded by a male talker of standard Arabic. These words were presented to 20 normally hearing subjects in 2 dB increments at intensity levels ranging from -10 to 22 dB HL. Psychometric functions were then determined for all 90 words using logistic regression. Words with steep psychometric functions were selected for inclusion in the test CD. The intensities of these selected words were adjusted to match the mean subject PTA within 2 dB, and a list of words was developed which was homogenous with respect to slope and audibility. The words are contained on tracks 2 and 3 of the Brigham Young University Arabic Speech Audiometry Materials (Disc 1.0) CD.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of talker and listener dialect on the validity and reliability of word recognition scores from two sets of Mandarin speech audiometry materials. Four lists of bisyllabic words in Mainland Mandarin and Taiwan Mandarin dialects were administered to 16 participants of each dialect with normal hearing across two test sessions. The performance on materials presented in the native dialect was compared to performance on non-native dialect assessment to determine validity and reliability of test materials. Statistical analysis indicated significant differences between word recognition scores across test sessions, talker and listener dialect, and among lists. However it is unclear if such differences constitute clinically significant differences.

Speech recognition threshold (SRT) is an important clinical measure that validates the pure-tone average (PTA), assists in diagnosis and prognosis of hearing and hearing impairment, and helps identify non-organic hearing impairment. Few published, recorded, and standardized materials exist in languages other than English, which results in audiologists testing individuals using materials developed in a non-native language. Research shows that this is problematic, as certain criterion for SRT testing are not met. Thus, performance may reflect test-language deficiency rather than hearing impairment. Currently, there are no known published materials for use in measuring the SRT in individuals whose native language is Tongan. The purpose of this project was to record and develop psychometrically equivalent words in Tongan for measuring the SRT. This study identified 28 trisyllabic words that were relatively homogenous in relation to audibility and psychometric function slope. The intensity of these 28 words was adjusted to equate 50% threshold performance for each word with the mean PTA (5.92 dB HL) for the twenty normally hearing participants. These materials were digitally recorded onto compact disc for distribution and use for SRT testing in Tongan.

Speech audiometry materials are essential for thorough audiological testing. One aspect of speech audiometry is evaluating an individual's speech recognition threshold (SRT). Recorded materials for SRT are available in many languages; however there are no widely published recorded SRT materials available in the Thai language. The goal of this study was to develop relatively psychometrically equivalent SRT materials for evaluating the hearing abilities of native speakers of the Thai language. To accomplish this, 90 commonly used bisyllabic Thai words were digitally recorded by a male and a female talker and evaluated by 20 native Thai listeners. Twenty-eight words with relatively steep and homogeneous psychometric function slopes were selected and adjusted to reduce threshold variability. These 28 selected words were digitally recorded onto compact disc to facilitate SRT testing for native Thai speakers.

The purpose of this study was to develop, digitally record, evaluate, and equate Mongolian monosyllabic and bisyllabic child-appropriate words which can be used in the measurement of word recognition scores and speech-reception threshold (SRT) in children who are native speakers of Mongolian. Based on data collected from a survey of Mongolian child language professionals, a subset of child-appropriate materials was adapted from a set of materials developed for Mongolian adults. Two lists of 50 monosyllabic words and four half-lists of 25 words each were developed for testing the word recognition abilities of Mongolian children. The developed lists and half-lists were found to be statistically equivalent in terms of audibility and psychometric slope, with average psychometric function slopes (at 50% intelligibility) of 6.41 %/dB for the male recordings and 5.84 %/dB for the female recordings. Given the structure and limitations of the study, a valid set of child-appropriate SRT materials could not be developed. It is likely that the inability to obtain a subset of SRT words was due in part to large differences between the mean PTA of the subjects and the threshold for 50% intelligibility, as well as the inability to represent most of the selected words pictographically. However the information gained from this study provides additional insight that may aid the future development of child-appropriate Mongolian SRT materials. Digital recordings of the resulting psychometrically equivalent child- appropriate speech audiometry materials are available on compact disc.