Speech Perception Test for Tamil Speaking Children with Hearing Impairment -A Manual 2002.pdf

Speech Perception Test for Tamil Speaking Children with Hearing Impairment: A Manual R.M. Chitra Tamilmani and Madhuri Gore (2002)

Abstract There are few test materials for Tamil speaking children with hearing impairment (HI) that evaluate speech perception. The aim of this study was to construct a picturable speech perception test with monosyllable, bisyllable and trisyllable words; evaluating two aspects: Pattern perception and Word identification. The test was based on the format of the Early Speech Perception Test by Moog and Geers (1990).

Method: The study was conducted in two phases. In the first phase stimuli were selected and prepared. Ten children between 3-5 years were asked to name pictures in kindergarten books, magazines charts. 47 pictures were named by all children. A total of 24 words were chosen from this pool of 47 high familiar words. These consisted of 8 trisyllables, 8 bisyllables and 8 words produced as monosyllables (to make the test akin to ESP). Pictures depicting the words were prepared. Only pictures that were identified appropriately were selected. The pictures were grouped into 4 subtests, with 9 stimuli in the pattern perception test and 8 each in the trisyllable, bisyllable and “monosyllable” subtests. Pictures for each test were arranged on a plate. Scoring charts were made.

In the second phase, thirty normal hearing children aged 3 to 5 years and 30 children with hearing impairment from a special school in Madurai with a matched hearing age, participated in the study. Of the 30 children with hearing impairment, 14 children had severe hearing loss and 16 children profound hearing loss. The chronological ages of the children with hearing impairment were between 4 to 9 years. The test was administered in two modesAuditory (A) and Auditory visual (AV).

Results: Normal hearing children identified all the pictures in the auditory mode. Children with hearing impairment had better scores on auditory visual presentation. They performed best in pattern perception test with a mean score of 16.7 for the auditory only mode and 19.1 for auditory visual mode. Acores in the AV mode were similar for the trisyllable, bisyllable

and “monosyllable” subtests. With respect to performance in the auditory mode, Trisyllable word identification subtest had the highest scores, followed by scores in bisyllable word identification subtest and lastly by scores in “monosyllable” subtest. The overall mean scores of children with severe hearing loss were higher than children with profound hearing loss.

Variation of scores was less in pattern perception test, but large on other subtests, the largest being on monosyllable word identification. The test is sensitive to degree of hearing loss and can be administered in 10 minutes or less, holding the interest of young children to complete the task.