Speech audiometry in quiet with the Oldenburg Sentence Test for Children

Abstract

Objective: To assess speech perception in children, speech audiometric sentence tests are generally better suited than single word tests because of their steeper discrimination function and thus higher sensitivity. A disadvantage of older German single word speech audiometric tests for children is their inapplicability in quiet and in noise. Moreover, their discrimination functions are shallower than those of optimized sentence tests, particularly in noise. The Oldenburg sentence test for children (Oldenburger Kinder-Satztest; OlKiSa) has already been shown to test reliably the speech perception in noise in normal-hearing children. Testing hearing-impaired children in noise, however, may be difficult. Therefore, quality criteria and norms for testing in quiet are also needed. Study sample: The OlKiSa in quiet was validated with 224 normal-hearing children between ages 4 to 10 years. Results: The discrimination functions are steeper (6.4 to 10.7 %/dB) than those of the commonly used German single word tests. Age-specific standards for 50% speech perception in quiet (speech reception threshold, SRT) are provided. Conclusions: The OlKiSa is a valid audiometric test to quantify speech perception in quiet in children from age 4.

Key Words::

• Speech audiometry in quiet
• children
• Oldenburg sentence test for children
• OlKiSa
• speech reception threshold

Acknowledgements

We thank Cochlear GmbH and Phonak AG for their financial support, and Kirsten Wagener, Thomas Brand, and Tobias Rader for their helpful advice and support with the study design and preparation of the manuscript.

Declaration of interest:The authors report no declarations of interest.