Development of the Turkish hearing in noise test for children

Abstract

Objectives: The aim of this study is to develop the Turkish version of hearing in noise test for children (HINT-C) by providing norms and correction factors for the children in different age groups.

Methods: A total of 77 individuals with normal hearing – 62 children (6–12 years old) and 15 adults (18–30 years old) – were included. Twelve phonemically balanced 10-sentence lists were created from the adult version of the Turkish HINT (Study 1). Age-specific norms, correction factors and maturation effects were examined using the Turkish HINT-C (Study 2).

Results: Mean performances under different listening conditions and Spatial Release from Masking (SRM) advantage values were obtained for the 6-, 8-, 10-, and 12-year-old and estimated for the 7-, 9-, and 11-year-old age groups, and correction factors were calculated for all children age groups. Turkish-speaking children did not achieve adult-like hearing in noise performance, until they were 12 years old.

Conclusions: Twelve phonemically balanced 10-sentence lists of Turkish HINT-C were created, and the mean performances of children in different age groups were measured. In addition to the age-specific HINT-C norms and correction factors for the 6-, 8-, 10-, and 12-year-old age groups, the maturation effects were determined.

Highlights

• The assessment of speech-in-noise perception is highly critical for children.

• To evaluate the speech-in-noise perception ability, 12 phonemically balanced 10-sentence lists of Turkish HINT-C were created.

• Speech-in-noise perception ability improves with age.

• Turkish-speaking children do not achieve adult-like hearing in noise performance, until they were 12 years old.

Keywords:

• Speech perception in noise
• Speech-in-noise perception
• Hearing in noise test
• HINT-C
• Speech reception threshold
• Children
• Maturation effect

Acknowledgments

This was the thesis study of Ecem Kartal Özcan for Master of Science degree in Audiology at Hacettepe University. This paper is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Soli, who passed away on April 11, 2022.

Disclaimer statements

Conflicts of interest The authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.

Funding This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Ethics approval: The procedures used in this study adhere to the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki. The study was approved by the Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University Ethics Committee (12.09.2018-58).

Consent to Participate The consent was received from participants themselves and their parents.

Availability of data and material Not applicable.

Code availability Not applicable.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ecem Kartal Özcan

Ecem Kartal Özcan, PhD candidate is a research assistant of University of Health Sciences. Her research interests include hearing-in-noise and cochlear implantation.

Şule Çekiç

Şule Çekiç, PhD is a Associate Professor of Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University. Her main research areas are hearing-in-noise and acoustic immittance measures.

Gonca Sennaroglu

Gonca Sennaroglu, PhD is a Professor of Hacettepe University. Her research interests include pediatric audiology and cochlear implantation.

Sigfrid D. Soli

Sigfrid D. Soli, PhD is a Adjunct Professor of The University of British Columbia. His main research areas include the early development of cochlear implants and hearing aid technologies, development of multilingual versions of the Hearing in Noise Test (HINT).