Preliminary standardization of consonant-vowel in noise test in normal Persian speaking children

Abstract

Background and Aim: Children have more dif­ficulty in understanding speech in noisy envi­ronment than adults. Different tests are available for evaluation of speech perception ability in noise in children, each examines different levels of auditory system. The present study aimed to obtain normative data for consonant-vowel in noise test for 8–12 years old Persian-speaking children. Methods: A hundred and sixty children were selected in five age range groups of 8 to 12 years old (32 children in each age range) with normal hearing from school students in Tehran. The audiometry test was performed in octave interval between 500–4000 Hz. Then the con­sonant-vowel test was first performed in silence and then in signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) of +12, +6, 0, −6, −12, at the listening comfort lev­el and randomly in children ears. Results: There were significant differences bet­ween age range of 8 and 9 years with other age groups in the SNR of −12. There was a signi­ficant difference in all children between the scores of left and right ears in −12, −6, 0 SNRs (p < 0.05). However, there was no specific pattern in each age group. The results showed that with increasing SNR, the scores of rec­ognition of the syllables increased. Sex had no effect on consonant-vowel recognition in the presence of noise. Conclusion: Recognition of the consonant-vowel in high SNR in both ears is stable before age 8, and this stability in the low signal-to-noise ratio is higher at around the age of 10.