The development of speech perception tests for children in the Indonesian language

Well-designed audiometric speech tests for Indonesian children are not currently available. This study involved the development of the Indonesian-Speech Recognition Threshold Test (INDO-SPRITT) for children with mild to moderately – severe hearing loss, which measures the speech recognition thresholds and can be used to: (i) complement pure tone audiometry; (ii) provide unaided speech thresholds and to crosscheck pure tone audiometry results; (iii) demonstrate the impact of hearing loss on speech perception to parents and teachers; (iv) provide aided speech thresholds for patients with hearing aids or cochlear implants; and (v) provide a method of demonstrating aided advantage to parents and teachers. One hundred and fifteen Indonesian children with normal hearing and 16 children with severe to profound hearing loss participated. Results showed that INDO-SPRITT materials were familiar to normal hearing children as young as 4 years and 6 months to severe to profound hearing-impaired children from the age of 7 years and 6 months. Results from the assessment of speech recognition thresholds (SRT) with children who had hearing ≤ 20 dBHL indicated that INDO-SPRITT was a reliable and valid test. The mean SRT in this study provides a normative reference against which the SRT of hearing-impaired individuals can be compared. As the majority of hearing impaired children in hearing institutions are severely to profoundly deaf, a worthwhile outcome of the study on INDO-SPRITT led to the development of the Indonesian Speech Perception Assessment for Severe to Profound Hearing Loss (INDO-SPASP). This assessment distinguishes between children who can perceive the spectral components of speech and children who can perceive only the time and intensity patterns of speech. Preliminary results for seven children (8-13 years) with severe to profound hearing loss indicate that: (i) INDO-SPASP can be administered successfully to Indonesian children; and (ii) children with hearing loss over 90 dB identify words primarily on the basis of their time and intensity patterns. It is expected that the results from this assessment technique can be used to assist in educational placement, to establish the objectives of auditory training, to measure the effects of auditory training, and to assist in selecting a listening device for the child.