Outcomes of Children
Normative Data sub-study
If you have any questions about participating in this study, please contact Kate Crowe on 02 9412 6837 or email us.
Assessments of Children
Child Hearing Screening
Standard clinical procedures will be used to screen children’s hearing. This will take approximately one minute and be conducted by a qualified research audiologist. The result will be either ‘pass’ or ‘refer’. Any child receiving a ‘refer’ result will be provided with a thorough audiological assessment by a research audiologist at the National Acoustic Laboratories in Chatswood. Children with a ‘refer’ result will not participate in speech and language testing.
Speech Production Assessment
The Phonology subtest of the ‘Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation and Phonology’ (DEAP; Dodd, Hua, Crosbie, Holm & Ozanne, 2002) and twelve additional words (James, 2006) will be used to evaluate the speech sounds and sound combinations that children use. Children will be required to name and describe pictures and their speech will be audio recorded for further analysis.
Speech Intelligibility Assessment
The Beginners Intelligibility Test (BIT; Osberger et al, 1994) will be used to assess how easily children’s speech can be understood by others. Children will be audio recorded whilst repeating ten sentences. These recording (with all identifying information removed) will be played to naive listeners who will determine how easily the speech could be understood.
Nonword Repetition
The Syllable Repetition Test (SRT; Shriberg et al, 2006) and Nonword Repetition Test (Dollaghan & Campbell, 1998) will be used to assess how children repeat nonsense word of different lengths. Children will be asked to repeat eighteen nonsense words.
Digit Span
The Memory for Digits subtest of the Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing (CTOPP; Wagner, Torgesen & Rashotte, 1999) will be used to assess how well children can repeat a sequence of numbers.
Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test
The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT-4; Dunn & Dunn, 2007) will be used to assess children’s understanding of English vocabulary. Children will be asked to point to specific pictures.
Functional Hearing Assessment
The Self Evaluation of Listening Function (SELF; Ching et al, 2008) is used to determine how children evaluate their own listening skills. Children aged 6yrs and older will complete a structured interview about their listening behaviours in everyday situations.
Information from Parents
Available as online survey from 8th October 2009
Demographic Information
Parents will be asked to complete a brief demographic questionnaire about themselves and their children. This information is required to describe the normative sample. This questionnaire is attached.
Speech Intelligibility Rating
A Speech Intelligibility Rating scale (SIR) will be given to parents for them to rate how easily they can understand his/her own child’s speech and how easily his/her child’s speech can be understood by others.
Parent’s observations of children’s listening
The Parent Evaluation of Aural/Oral Performance in Children questionnaire (PEACH; Ching & Hill, 2007) will be given to parents to complete. The PEACH is a questionnaire and structured interview in which parents rate their child’s listening abilities in a range of everyday situations. The structured interview component of the PEACH will be completed with parents over the phone.