Understand Sounds Better with Speech Audiometry

It’s important for an audiologist to know whether your child hear sounds, but they also identify what sounds your child can comprehend. As part of the diagnostic process, our provider at ENT for Children might perform a speech audiometry assessment to learn more about the symptoms they’re experiencing.

How Does Speech Audiometry Differ From Other Hearing Tests?

While other tests measure a patient’s hearing abilities, speech audiometry measures a patient’s ability to understand sounds. It can sometimes reveal a hearing impairment that other tests don’t disclose or measure effectively.

How Does Speech Audiometry Work?

The exam is typically completed in five to ten minutes. One of its components, the SRT, measures the volume sound needs to reach for your child to hear it. Another component, the SD, assesses your child’s ability to recognize words. These results are scored on a percentage scale and measured on an audiogram, which measures the extent of your child’s hearing loss.

What Are the Two Types of Speech Audiometry Tests?

During both portions of the test, your child will listen to prerecorded speech through headphones and repeat the prompts to our provider.

• SRT: This measures your child’s speech reception threshold, or how loud speech needs to be for your child to hear it. Words are repeated at lower and lower volumes until your child is unable to recognize what they hear. Once your child’s response accuracy is below 50 percent, their audiologist will end this portion of the testing.
  
• SD: Speech discrimination examines your child’s ability to recognize words using speech sounds at a volume level your child can hear clearly – which is determined during the SRT portion of the test.

The results of these procedures are typically shared with you at the end of testing. Our audiologist will explain the meaning of your child’s results and answer any questions about your child’s diagnosis and condition.

What Are the Benefits of Speech Audiometry?

Unlike other hearing tests, speech audiometry focuses on how a patient understands words. This allows our speech-language pathologist to better create a customized treatment plan that is responsive to your child’s needs.