This thesis is concerned with aids intended for the speech development of children with hearing impairment. The theoretical part summarizes the subject matter of hearing impairment, the possibilities of compensatory aids, speech development, speech therapy intervention and aids helping the speech development of people with hearing impairment. The theoretical part is mostly dedicated to the Speech Viewer aid, which has inspired the development of the new Hlásek application, which originated as a part of the inter-university cooperation of Charles University and ČVUT in Prague within working on two diploma theses. The introduction of the empirical part of the thesis describes the created application and with the use of gathering and analysis of data, interviews and observation, it follows the contribution of the application to the development of basic features of speech of children with hearing impairment. The results of the empirical investigation are processed with the help of graphs and thus they clearly represent the advances of the children in individual parts of the application. The conclusion of the thesis is dedicated to the future development of the application and the establishment of further possible cooperation with Children's Hearing Centre Tamtam. KEYWORDS Hearing impairment, Hlásek...

The work focuses on the problems of hearing impaired pupils, their education, describing teaching methods and editing texts for reading comprehension. The practical part was the presentation of texts in four genres, namely short stories, drama, poetry and scholarly article, verifying understanding of one of the selected modified texts in one classroom at an elementary school in Ječná and based on this experience, further develop the methodological process of creating these texts. Method of work was to analyze the available literature, further observations in the sample lesson of Czech language and literature at the end was to verify understanding through inspection questionnaire with open questions. Based on this verification, it was found that the adjusted texts help pupils better in the text or characters or navigate example to understand complex sentence parts units. But verification must be performed in several ways. Unable to rely on regular testing for pupils with hearing people using open questions. Neither the texts modified are not always definitive and must continue to work with them, as for every pupil must be treated individually. KEYWORDS hearing impairment, reading, education, text editing, testing of pupils

A maioria dos instrumentos formais e objetivos disponíveis para avaliação e diagnóstico da voz, utilizados por fonoaudiólogos no Brasil, é traduzida e adaptada de uma língua estrangeira para o português brasileiro, já que a tradução e adaptação transcultural de instrumentos existentes para uma determinada língua contribui para a compreensão dos quadros de distúrbios da comunicação humana. Além disso, há uma carência de protocolos voltados especificamente para a avaliação e diagnóstico da voz de deficientes auditivos, que apresentam características vocais comprometidas pela falta do monitoramento auditivo durante a comunicação oral. Assim, o presente estudo teve por objetivo realizar a tradução e adaptação transcultural do Protocolo de Avaliação de Voz do Deficiente Auditivo (PAV-DA) para a língua inglesa, com o intuito de proporcionar globalmente a diversas populações uma versão do instrumento em língua inglesa para a prática clínica. Os autores do instrumento original, que foi desenvolvido na Universidade de Brasília-UnB em parceria com a Faculdade de Odontologia de BauruFOB/USP, autorizaram o seu uso para o desenvolvimento deste estudo. Foram submetidos à tradução e adaptação transcultural para a língua inglesa, o protocolo em si e mais quatro seções que foram utilizadas na validação do mesmo na língua portuguesa: Apresentação e Instruções; Definições de Voz, Fala, Problema de Voz e Problema de Fala; Questionário I; Questionário II. Uma banca de especialistas composta por dez fonoaudiólogos, cinco brasileiros e cinco norte-americanos, analisou o material traduzido em relação às equivalências semântica, idiomática, experimental e conceitual. Foram realizadas comparações dos resultados das avaliações da banca. Para tal, foi utilizada a análise de variância (ANOVA) como critério para medidas repetidas e o teste de Tukey como pós-teste, sendo adotado nível de significância de 5% (p<0,05). Primeiramente, o material foi traduzido do português brasileiro para o inglês por um profissional da área de Tradução. Em seguida, foi retrotraduzido, ou seja, traduzido do inglês para o português, por um segundo tradutor. Posteriormente, um terceiro profissional realizou a versão consenso, por meio de comparação entre as duas versões anteriores do instrumento. Por fim, a versão consenso foi enviada à banca de especialistas, que atribuíram notas de zero a dez, analisaram e sugeriram alterações para a versão consenso. Em relação às notas atribuídas, o protocolo em si foi a seção melhor avaliada (média 8,7). Houve diferença de notas entre as seções avaliadas pelos brasileiros (p=0,003), sendo que a nota da seção de apresentação foi menor do que as demais. Após a avaliação pelos especialistas, as devidas alterações foram realizadas. Após todo esse processo, foi possível traduzir e adaptar transculturalmente o Protocolo de Avaliação de Voz do Deficiente Auditivo (PAV-DA) para a língua inglesa, cuja versão final foi intitulada Protocol for the Evaluation of Voice in Subjects with Hearing Impairment (PEV-SHI). / Most objective and formal instruments available for voice assessment and diagnosis used by speech-language pathologists and audiologists in Brazil are translated and adapted from a foreign language into Brazilian Portuguese, since the translation and cross-cultural adaptation of existent instruments promote a better understanding of human communication disorders. In addition, there is a paucity of instruments specifically focused on the evaluation of voice in subjects with hearing impairment who have compromised vocal characteristics due to the lack of auditory monitoring during oral communication. Thus, this study aimed at translating and cross-culturally adapting the Protocolo de Avaliação de Voz do Deficiente Auditivo (PAV-DA) into English, providing different populations with an English language version of the protocol for clinical practice in global contexts. The authors of the original instrument, which was developed by the University of Brasilia- UnB, in partnership with the Bauru School of Dentistry University of São Paulo, have authorized the use of it in this study. The protocol itself and four auxiliary sections (Presentation and Instructions; Definitions of Voice, Speech, Voice Problem, Speech Problem; Questionnaire I; Questionnaire II) used for the validation in the Brazilian Portuguese were translated and cross-culturally adapted into English. A committee composed of ten expert speech-language pathologists and audiologists, five Brazilians and five North Americans, analyzed the translated material based on semantic, idiomatic, experimental and conceptual equivalences. The scores given by the committee were compared by using the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) as a criterion for repeated measures and the Tukey test as a post-test, with 5% level of significance (p<0.05). First, the material was translated from Brazilian Portuguese into English by a professional of the Translation field. After that, it was back-translated, that is, translated again, from English into Brazilian Portuguese, by a second translator. Subsequently, a third professional created the consensus version, by means of comparison between the previous versions of the material. Finally, the consensus version was sent to the committee of experts, who rated it from zero to ten, analyzed it and suggested alterations for the consensus version. In relation to the obtained scores, the protocol itself was the best rated section (average 8.7). There was a difference among the sections rated by the Brazilians (p=0.003). The ratings for the Presentation and Instructions section was lower than the others. After the experts rated the material, the appropriate alterations were made. At the end of this entire process, it was possible to translate and cross-culturally adapt the material, whose final version is entitled Protocol for the Evaluation of Voice in Subjects with Hearing Impairment (PEV-SHI).

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T18:12:20Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 TALITA SUNAITIS DONINI.pdf: 559650 bytes, checksum: 953e8e48e9b5f5b3b8408d2a27a85b2a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-02-22 / The implementation of Universal Newborn hearing screening aims at earlier diagnosis and intervention for hearing impaired children. The use of hearing aids is one of the most important elements of the intervention process focused on the development of oral language. Brainstem evoked auditory response - ABR using click or frequency specific tone bursts have limitations in terms of presenting the stimulus in free field. The use of Auditory Steady State Response- ASSR in early diagnosis and hearing aid evaluation has been referred in the literature and appears to be promising for obtaining minimal levels of response for children that are not able to give behavioral auditory responses, particularly aided responses in free field. The goal of the study was to discuss the responses of hearing impaired children obtained with ASSR in free field, within the different audiological procedures for verification and validation of the prescribed eletroacoustic characteristics of the hearing aids. Results on the ASSR of six children with severe hearing loss were analyzed . These children were enrolled at the Educational Audiology Program of at The Center for Hearing in Children at DERDIC- PUCSP, and were regular hearing aid users. All subjects had: pure tone audiometry and ASSR with phones and in free field aided and unaided. Correlations were obtained between different conditions in order to discuss the possible contributions of the ASSR in the evaluation of hearing aids benefit. There was a strong correlation between the response levels obtained in the aided free field audiometry and aided free field ASSR. The correlation was weaker under the earphone condition probably due to the degree of hearing loss of the subjects that participated in the study. There seems to be a good potential for the use of free field aided responses using SSR in clinical conditions as an additional information on hearing aid benefit / A implantação dos programas de Triagem Auditiva Neonatal Universal têm o objetivo de promover ao diagnóstico da deficiência e a intervenção terapêutica fonoaudiológica o mais cedo possível. A seleção e adaptação de aparelhos de amplificação sonora (AASI) constituem parte importante do processo de intervenção dentro de uma perspectiva de desenvolvimento da linguagem oral. Os dados obtidos por meio dos registros do potencial evocado auditivo de tronco encefálico com utilização dos estímulos clique e freqüência específica possuem algumas limitações na obtenção do registro. Desta forma, destaca-se o uso do Potencial Evocado Auditivo de Estado Estável (PEAEEst) como um procedimento que possibilita obter limiares eletrofisiológicos em diferentes freqüências, de forma simultânea, o que reduz o tempo de teste e provê informações essenciais para a seleção e adaptação de AASI. Assim, o objetivo deste estudo foi discutir a utilização do registro do potencial evocado auditivo de estado estável em campo livre no processo de indicação de aparelhos de amplificação sonora para crianças com deficiência auditiva, como parte do conjunto dos procedimentos de verificação e validação das características prescritas.. Foram analisados os registros do PEAEEst de crianças e adolescentes usuárias de AASI atendidas pelo Serviço de Audiologia Educacional e pelo Centro Audição na Criança - DERDIC, portadores de deficiência auditiva de grau severo. Foram avaliados os resultados da audiometria tonal e potencial evocado auditivo de estado estável obtidos com fones e em campo livre com uso de amplificação. Os dados obtidos foram analisados estatisticamente a fim de discutir as contribuições do uso do PEAEEst no processo de indicação de AASI de sujeitos com deficiência auditiva. Observamos que há correlação entre os achados da audiometria tonal em campo livre e o PEAEEst obtido em campo livre com AASI. Na comparação entre os registros obtidos na audiometria tonal e PEAEEst realizados com fones observamos menor correlação. Algumas características como grau e configuração da perda auditiva pareceram interferir no registro do potencial. A utilização clínica deste procedimento pode promover informações importantes sobre as respostas da criança com uso dos aparelhos de maneira objetiva

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T18:22:36Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Lilian Cristina Kuhn Pereira.pdf: 4205297 bytes, checksum: a0524987e32bd100e253217474abad56 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-11-13 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The link between speech perception and production is poorly considered in studies of hearing impairment in Brazil. This study follows a line of investigation that considers the relationship between speech production and perception in different contexts of speech in the same say as other studies previoulsly performed, which have investigated consonant and vowel sounds of Brazilian Portuguese (BP) based on the theoretical assumptions of Acoustic Theory of Speech Production (Fant, 1960) and the Articulatory Phonology (Browman & Goldstein, 1986, 1990, 1992). This particular research aims to investigate the main acoustic parameters involved in identifying the voicing of plosives (/p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/e /g/) of Brazilian Portuguese, and the consequences of hearing impairment for speech production and perception of this class of sounds. For that purpose, this study involves an acoustic analysis of speech production, from one subject with no hearing impairment (reference S1) and two hearing-impaired subjects (S2 e S3) with moderate and profound hearing loss. The corpus consists in of six paroxytone disyllable words, to which the stressed consonant is represented by one of the PB plosives: [p], [b], [t]. [d], [k] and [g], within the words "pata", "gata", "tata", "data", "cata" and "gata", inserted in the sentence-vehicle "say _________ (keyword) softly ". The parameters analyzed are: duration measures of (1) sentence, key-words, vowel-vowel units (or GIPC); (2) vowels [A1], [a2] and [A3]; (3) plosive consonants in accent position and non-accent position; (4) consonant elements: voiced bar (MBS), silence (IBS) e burst (plosão: is burst.). And also, (5) fundamental frequency (f0) and (6) F1, F2 e F3 of vowels [A1], [a2] and [A3], formants transition of F1, F2 e F3 of [a2]. The speech perception experiment was constituted by two perception tests from S2 and S3 speech productions with thirty normal hearing judges with no hearing impairment. The S1 speech production was submitted to four types of manipulation for the duration parameter. And then, it was submitted to a perception test for the same group of judges. The results showed that there is a close connection between the altered parameters and progression of hearing loss. The subject S2 - moderate degree showed very similar patterns with S1. It was noted that the Subject 3 (profound degree) had all the analyzed parameters altered. The speech perception tests results had the same behavior: most of answers of S4 samples were different form the words asked to be produced. Otherwise, for S2, most of responses were correct. The pilot study of manipulation speech could prove the relevance of the duration parameter for identification of both points of articulation and/or voicing parameter. With this study, it was concluded that the instances of production and speech perception are intrinsically linked / O vínculo entre a produção e a percepção de fala é ainda pouco investigado nos estudos sobre deficiência auditiva no Brasil. Dentre os trabalhos de pesquisa existentes, os realizados no Laboratório Integrado de Análise Acústica e Cognição (LIAAC) da PUCSP enfocaram sons vocálicos e consonantais do Português Brasileiro (PB), com base nos pressupostos teóricos da Teoria Acústica de Produção de Fala e da Fonologia Articulatória. O presente estudo segue essa mesma orientação e tem como objetivos investigar a produção das consoantes plosivas do PB por dois sujeitos portadores de deficiência auditiva (DA) de graus moderado e profundo (S2 e S3, respectivamente), confrontando-as com as de um sujeito sem alteração de fala (S1), e pesquisar os efeitos dessas produções em ouvintes. Para concretizar esses objetivos foram empregados métodos de análise fonético-acústica, testes de avaliação perceptiva e técnicas de manipulação do sinal acústico da fala. O corpus foi composto por seis palavras dissílabas paroxítonas, em que a consoante tônica era representada por uma das plosivas do PB: [p], [b], [t]. [d], [k] e [g], originando as palavras pata , bata , tata , data , cata e gata , inseridas na frase-veículo diga palavra-chave baixinho . Utilizou-se o software Praat para se analisar dois parâmetros acústicos: duração e frequencia. Foram medidas as durações em ms de: (1) Sentenças-veículo, palavras-chave, unidades vogal-vogal; (2) Vogais [A1], [a2] e [A3]; (3) Consoantes plosivas em posição tônica [C1] e pós-tônica [t] na palavra-chave; (4) Elementos da consoante plosiva relacionados ao VOT: manutenção da barra de sonoridade (MBS), interrupção da barra de sonoridade (IBS) e plosão. Também, foram extraídas as medidas de (5) frequência fundamental (f0) e de (6) frequência dos primeiro, segundo e terceiro formantes (F1, F2 e F3) no onset das vogais [A1], [a2] e [A3] e de (7) transição de formantes F1, F2 e F3 na vogal [a2]. Para um aprofundamento no estudo do parâmetro de duração, realizou-se nas produções de fala do sujeito S1, quatro tipos de manipulação na consoante em posição tônica [C1]: M1 retirada de metade do intervalo de duração da consoante anterior à plosão, M2- retirada total do intervalo de duração da consoante anterior à plosão, envolvendo, portanto a retirada de [MBS] ou [IBS], M3 retirada total do intervalo anterior ao onset da vogal subsequente à plosiva, e M4- aplicação do comando set selection to zero , eliminando a barra de sonoridade, mas conservando o intervalo de duração do silêncio correspondente ao período de obstrução na produção da consoante plosiva. Para a avaliação perceptiva das produções de fala dos sujeitos com deficiência, S2 e S3, e dos estímulos manipulados (M1, M2, M3 e M4), foram aplicados testes de percepção em um grupo de 30 juízes ouvintes. Os resultados dos testes de percepção foram comparados aos resultados da análise acústica das produções de fala. Para S3, a maioria dos julgamentos foi distinta da produção pretendida/solicitada pelo/ao sujeito. Em relação às produções de S2, constataram-se altos índices de julgamentos corretos sobre o ponto de articulação e vozeamento das consoantes. Observou- xxv se, portanto, que há uma relação entre os parâmetros alterados e a progressão do grau da perda auditiva, em que o sujeito S2 DA moderada apresentou padrão de fala muito semelhante ao do sujeito S1 e distinto de S3. Os resultados dos testes de percepção manipulados mostraram que a identificação da consoante [b] foi afetada por dois tipos de manipulação (M3 e M4), em oposição a não-modificação de [d] e [g] frente às quatro manipulações. Os resultados indicam que as pistas acústicas de duração do pré-vozeamento (duração do VOT negativo) foram relevantes para a percepção das consoantes plosivas bilabiais vozeadas, e que, para as plosivas alveolares e velares vozeadas o intervalo de vozeamento entre a plosão e o onset da vogal subsequente à consoante plosiva foi suficiente para a percepção do vozeamento. De modo geral, verificou-se ainda que as variáveis de duração total da palavra-chave, da duração barra de sonoridade (MBS e IBS) e da plosão foram relevantes para a identificação correta de vozeamento e/ou ponto de articulação. Os resultados obtidos neste estudo trazem evidências sobre relações que se estabelecem entre os domínios da produção e percepção da fala, contribuindo para a construção de conhecimento sobre a fala dos portadores de deficiência auditiva e para a consideração de como o déficit em um dos domínios traz prejuízos para o outro

Hana Jurásková, Žák se sluchovým postižením na druhém stupni ZŠ ABSTRACT In my thesis, I will deal with hearing disabilities and his difficulties in the education and education of an integrated second-degree pupil of an ordinary elementary school. Next, I will deal with the compensatory aids for the pupil with hearing impairment and the possibilities of his education. The research survey is oriented qualitatively. The research survey evaluates the methods and the forms of teaching at secondary school the pupils with hearing impairment from their subjective point of view as well as from the point of view of their class teachers and compares them with the results of teaching these pupils. My thesis proposes the methods and the forms of teaching based on in-depth analysis which are appropriate of the case studies. KEYWORDS hearing impairment, integration, methods, case history, secondary school, pupil

This study examined the effects of extending high-frequency bandwidth, for both a speech signal and a background noise, on the acceptable signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of listeners with mild sensorineural hearing loss through utilization of the Acceptable Noise Level (ANL) procedure. In addition to extending high-frequency bandwidth, the effects of reverberation time and background noise type and shape were also examined. The study results showed a significant increase in the mean ANL (i.e. participants requested a better SNR for an acceptable listening situation) when high-frequency bandwidth was extended from 3 to 9 kHz and from 6 to 9 kHz. No change in the ANL of study participants was observed as a result of isolated modification to reverberation time or background noise stimulus. An interaction effect, however, of reverberation time and background noise stimulus was demonstrated. These findings may have implications for future design of hearing aid memory programs for listening to speech in the presence of broadband background noise.

The two objectives of this single-subject study were to assess how an FM system use impacts parent-child interaction in a noisy listening environment, and how a parent/caregiver training affect the interaction between parent/caregiver and child. Two 5-year-old children with hearing loss and their parent/caregiver participated. Experiement 1 was conducted using an alternating design measured three communication behaviors (e.g., child's vocalization, parent/caregiver's initiation, and parent/caregiver's response) across four listening conditions (e.g., HA+Quiet, HA+Noise, FM+Quiet, and FM+Noise). Experiment 2 was conducted using a comparison within and between conditions to re-measure the communicative behaviors across the listening conditions after the parent/caregiver training. Findings of this study point to three major conclusions. First, FM system use (i.e., FM-only mode) facilitated FM01 child's ability to maintain same level of interaction in a noisy as good as in a quiet environment. Second, parent/caregiver training enhanced the impact of FM system use for one child (FM01), although parent/caregiver initiation increased for both. Third, it is important to verify the function of both FM system and HA microphones to ensure access to FM advantage.

ABSTRACT Thus far, literature is scant in assessing the ability of children with conductive hearing impairment to understand everyday speech. This assessment is important in determining the functional ability of children with conductive hearing impairment. In order to identify the hearing ability of children with conductive hearing impairment, many assessments to date have used speech stimuli, such as syllables, words and sentences, to measure how well children perform. In general, these tests are useful in measuring speech recognition ability, but are not adequate in measuring the functional ability of children to understand the conversations they encounter in their daily lives. In addition, many of these tests are not designed to be interesting or engage the children whom they are assessing. The University of Queensland Understanding of Everyday Speech (UQUEST) Test was developed to address the above issues by providing a stimulating speech perception assessment for children aged 5 to 10 years. This overall objectives of this thesis were to: (1) determine the applicability of a computer-based, self-driven assessment of speech comprehension, the UQUEST, (2) establish normative UQUEST data for school children, (3) compare the UQUEST results in children with and without histories of otitis media in understanding everyday speech, and (4) measure speech understanding in noise by children with minimal conductive hearing impairment. A total of 1094 children were assessed using the UQUEST. All children were native speakers of English and attended schools in the Brisbane Metropolitan and Sunshine Coast regions within the state of Queensland, Australia. All children were firstly assessed using otoscopic examination, pure tone audiometry testing and tympanometry. Children with sensorineural hearing impairment were excluded from the study. Following the initial audiological assessments, the UQUEST was administered to all participants. Three experiments were performed on three cohorts of children selected from the pool of 1094 children. Experiment 1 aimed to assess whether the UQUEST is a feasible speech perception assessment tool for school children and to establish normative data in a sample of normally hearing children. ix In this experiment, participants were a total of 99 children (55 boys / 44 girls), attending Grade 3 and grade 4 (41/58, mean age = 8.3 yr, range = 7 – 10 yr, SD = 0.7). The results showed that the UQUEST is a feasible test of speech understanding in children aged 7 to 10 years. In general, the UQUEST scores decreased as the signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) decreased from 10 to 0 dB. Normative data based on the scores of six passages of equal difficulty were established for the 0 dB and 5 dB SNR conditions. In addition, the children appeared to be captivated with the UQUEST task and the attention of all the children was sustained throughout the duration of the test. Experiment 2 determined whether children with histories of otitis media (experimental group) performed worse on the UQUEST in comparison to those children without histories of otitis media (OM). A total of 484 children (246 boys / 238 girls), attending Grade 3 (272, mean age = 8.25 yr, SD = 0.43) and Grade 4 (212, mean age = 9.28 yr, SD = 0.41), were assessed. Children were grouped according to the number of episodes of otitis media as per parental report (control: < 4 episodes; mild history group: 4-9 episodes; and moderate history group: > 9 episodes OM). All children had normal hearing as determined by otoscopy, pure tone audiometry screening and tympanometry results. Results showed no significant difference in UQUEST scores between the control group in comparison to the experimental groups. However, children with a history of OM demonstrated varying speech comprehension abilities. Some children had severe difficulty with the speech comprehension task, suggesting that in cases with extensively reported episodes of OM, performance on the UQUEST was compromised. Experiment 3 determined the prevalence of conductive hearing loss in the Australian primary school population and investigated the ability of school children with minimal conductive hearing loss to understand everyday speech under noisy conditions. Based on a sample of 1071 children (mean age = 7.7 yr; range = 5.3 - 11.7 yr), 10.2% of children were found to have conductive hearing loss in one or both ears. To evaluate the binaural speech comprehension ability of children, a sample of 542 children were divided into four groups according to their audiological assessment results: Group 1: 63 children (34 boys, 29 girls, mean age = 7.7 yr, SD = 1.5) who failed the pure tone audiometry and tympanometry tests in both ears; Group 2: 38 children (17 x boys, 21 girls, mean age = 7.5 yr, SD = 1.2) who passed pure tone audiometry and tympanometry in one ear but failed both tests in the other ear; Group 3 (control group): 357 children (187 boys, 170 girls, mean age = 7.8 yr, SD = 1.3) who passed pure tone audiometry and tympanometry in both ears; Group 4: 84 children (41 boys, 43 girls, mean age = 7.2 yr, SD = 1.3) who passed pure tone audiometry in both ears, but failed tympanometry in one or both ears. The results showed that Group 1 had the lowest mean scores of 60.8% - 69.3% obtained under noise conditions. Their scores were significantly lower than the corresponding scores of 69.3% - 75.3% obtained by children in Group 4; 70.5% - 76.5% obtained by children with unilateral conductive hearing loss (Group 2); and 72.0% - 80.3% obtained by their normally hearing peers (Group 3). This study confirmed that young children, who are known to have poorer speech understanding in noise than adults, show further disadvantage when a bilateral conductive hearing loss is present In summary, the UQUEST has been found to be a useful tool to measure children‟s understanding of everyday speech. This test could be successfully used as a measure of speech comprehension in background noise in children. The UQUEST met expectations of being an interesting and engaging test for children aged 5-10 years. In addition, the UQUEST scores showed that children performed worse when challenged by the more difficult noise conditions incorporated in the test design. The findings from this thesis demonstrated that, at the group level, children with histories of OM did not perform any differently from those without significant histories of OM. However, at the individual level, children with significant OM histories had degraded functional performance with low UQUEST scores. Lastly, this thesis provided much needed speech comprehension data obtained from children with minimal conductive hearing impairment and provided evidence that young children were more affected by the co-occurrence of environmental noise and bilateral conductive hearing loss than their normally hearing peers in understanding everyday speech.

No description available.