Audiological Clinical Validation of New Original Romanian Speech Audiometry Materials for Evaluation of Communication Abilities in Children of Primary School Age

Autori:

Sebastian COZMA, Cristina Gena DASCALU, Luminita RADULESCU, Cristian MARTU, Oana BITERE, Dan MARTU, Raluca OLARIU

Cod: ISSN: 1583-3410 (print), ISSN: 1584-5397 (electronic)
Dimensiuni: pp. 47-62

How to cite this article:

Cozma, S., Dascalu, C.G., Radulescu, L., Martu, C., Bitere, O., Martu, D., Olariu, R. (2016). Audiological Clinical Validation of New Original Romanian Speech Audiometry Materials for Evaluation of Communication Abilities in Children of Primary School Age. Revista de Cercetare si Interventie Sociala, 55, 47-62.

Abstract:

Communication and speech pathology in children is determined mostly by hearing loss and less frequently by neurological or psychological disorders. The pure tone hearing and the capacity of sound discrimination and voice perception are determinant in speech intelligibility and development of speech production, important factors conditioning cognitive and school performances and social integration. A particular condition is ANSD (auditory neuropathy spectrum disorders) with a rising prevalence in last years. Despite the good tonal hearing, these children cannot reach normal speech and cognitive development. The assessment of hearing and speech understanding in children has to include tone and speech audiometry according to age and psychoneural condition. Different speech intelligibility tests have been developed for some languages, but calibrated materials for Romanian were not clinically validated until now. We created a kit test using monosyllabic and bisyllabic words from spoken language corresponding to the normal speech development between 7-12 years old. The words were filtered by special software to select the most common and frequency spectrum homogeneous word lists. The aim of study was to clinically assess and validate this material in Romanian language for speech audiometry. The audiological assessment was made in standard test conditions and the results were statistically analyzed. This original new Romanian speech test for evaluation of hearing and communication abilities in primary school aged children was statistically proved as a valid clinical tool for widely use in the evaluation of hearing loss or communication disorders and also for monitoring hearing and speech development progress in children during medical and speech therapy rehabilitation.