The Development of a Paediatric Phoneme Discrimination Test for Arabic Phonemic Contrasts.

Hanin Rayes,Ghada Al-Malky,Deborah Vickers

doi:10.3390/audiolres11020014

Hanin Rayes, Ghada Al-Malky + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/audiolres11020014

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Abstract

Objective: The aim of this project was to develop the Arabic CAPT (A-CAPT), a Standard Arabic version of the CHEAR auditory perception test (CAPT) that assesses consonant perception ability in children. Method: This closed-set test was evaluated with normal-hearing children aged 5 to 11 years. Development and validation of the speech materials were accomplished in two experimental phases. Twenty-six children participated in phase I, where the test materials were piloted to ensure that the selected words were age appropriate and that the form of Arabic used was familiar to the children. Sixteen children participated in phase II where test–retest reliability, age effects, and critical differences were measured. A computerized implementation was used to present stimuli and collect responses. Children selected one of four response options displayed on a screen for each trial. Results: Two lists of 32 words were developed with two levels of difficulty, easy and hard. Assessment of test–retest reliability for the final version of the lists showed a strong agreement. A within-subject ANOVA showed no significant difference between test and retest sessions. Performance improved with increasing age. Critical difference values were similar to the British English version of the CAPT. Conclusions: The A-CAPT is an appropriate speech perception test for assessing Arabic-speaking children as young as 5 years old. This test can reliably assess consonant perception ability and monitor changes over time or after an intervention.

Highlights

Dotted boxes represent confusion groups (CGs) that were excluded from the final word lists
CGs that was included in the easy list and grey boxes represent the
Just like the CHEAR auditory perception test (CAPT) [21] from which it was adapted, the Arabic CAPT (A-CAPT) uses a wide range of phonemes in a speech discrimination task that will be helpful when programming hearing devices or planning an intervention

Summary

Introduction

319 million people in the world speak Arabic, inclusive of all dialects and forms, making it one of the five most spoken languages worldwide [1,2]. Similar to Modern Greek, Swiss German, and Haitian Creole, Arabic is a diglossic language where the same speaker uses different forms of the language in different settings [5]. There is a coexistence of two varieties of the language throughout the community, one of which is the literary or formal dialect while the other is a colloquial dialect that is spoken on everyday basis. Colloquial dialects are the true mother-tongue of native speakers of Arabic, and they vary slightly within regions and between different parts of the country, as well as between different Arabic-speaking countries where dialects may even be incomprehensible [6]. The Modern Standard Arabic is the common form of Arabic that can be understood across this diverse Arabic-speaking population

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