Preliminary Study for Development of Auditory Training Tool Using Story and Question

Abstract

Purpose: This study aims to develop auditory training materials using stories for adults and the elderly hearing-impaired listeners. Each story was composed of two sentences and one questionnaire. The new 200 stories are developed which are categorized into four main topics, Korean culture, cuisine, traditional game, and tourist attraction. Twelve normal hearing adults were administrated to verify difficulty of the stories, and 175 out of 200 stories were selected. Methods: To test validity and difficulty of each story and question, a total of 36 subjects with normal hearing listeners participated. Among 175 stories, 79 stories had type I questions, and the 96 stories had type II questions. Each story and the related question were presented at an individual most comfortable level at 6 dB signal-to-noise ratio condition through a loud speaker. Results: The results showed that 160 stories scored 100% of correct response rate, ten stories scored 90-99%, three stories scored 80-89%, and two stories scored 0%. Also, there were no differences between stories with the different type of questions. Conclusion: These results showed that a total of 170 stories are appropriate for the auditory training tool. Future research is needed to demonstrate whether developed training tool is useful to improve communication skills for hearing-impaired listeners.