A Computer-Based, Word-Free Phoneme Identification Test Teetahtoo — Adaptation into Polish

Abstract

The auditory processing of different phonemes is an important listening skill, which is usually already acquired in early childhood (Kuhl, 2004). These developments, in turn, affect a variety of other skills as speech development and normal acquisition of literacy skills (Eimas, 1985). Early detection and intervention of hearing disorders as well as advanced technology of auditory prosthesis like digital hearing aids and cochlear implants improve the auditory capabilities of hearing-impaired children. The achievement of skills like auditory discrimination and identification of phonemes become realistic objectives in the therapy of hearing-impaired children (Coninx & Moore, 1997). There is a lack of a well-defined and internationally comparable paediatric tests, assessing phoneme identification, in different languages as closely as possible comparable to each other. The aim of this work is to adopt to Polish language a computer-based, word-free phoneme identification test Teetahtoo, which evaluates a child‘s ability to discriminate and identify different phonemes. The Teetahtoo test was developed for German language by Frans Coninx (Coninx & Stumpf, 2005).