Normative data for the Words-in-Noise Test for 6- to 12-year-old children.

PURPOSE To establish normative data for children on the Words-in-Noise Test (WIN; R. H. Wilson, 2003; R. H. Wilson & R. McArdle, 2007). METHOD Forty-two children in each of 7 age groups, ranging in age from 6 to 12 years (n=294), and 24 young adults (age range: 18-27 years) with normal hearing for pure tones participated. All listeners were screened at 15 dB HL (American National Standards Institute, 2004) with the octave interval between 500 and 4000 Hz. Randomizations of WIN Lists 1, 2, and 1 or WIN Lists 2, 1, and 2 were presented with the noise fixed at 70 dB SPL, followed by presentation at 90 dB SPL of the 70 Northwestern University Auditory Test No. 6 (T. W. Tillman & R. Carhart, 1966) words used in the WIN. Finally, the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised (L. M. Dunn & L. M. Dunn, 1981) was administered. Testing was conducted in a quiet room. RESULTS There were 3 main findings: (a) The biggest change in recognition performance occurred between the ages of 6 and 7 years; (b) from 9 to 12 years, recognition performance was stable; and (c) performance by young adults (18-27 years) was slightly better (1-2 dB) than performance by the older children. CONCLUSION The WIN can be used with children as young as 6 years of age; however, age-specific ranges of normal recognition performance must be used.

[1]  William E Hodgetts,et al.  Speech intelligibility of young school-aged children in the presence of real-life classroom noise. , 2004, Journal of the American Academy of Audiology.

[2]  Richard H Wilson,et al.  The Words-in-Noise (WIN) test with multitalker babble and speech-spectrum noise maskers. , 2007, Journal of the American Academy of Audiology.

[3]  L. L. Elliott.  Performance of children aged 9 to 17 years on a test of speech intelligibility in noise using sentence material with controlled word predictability. , 1979, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[4]  B. B. Proger.  Test of Auditory Discrimination , 1970 .

[5]  A Boothroyd,et al.  Context effects in phoneme and word recognition by young children and older adults. , 1990, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[6]  A Boothroyd,et al.  Speech recognition with reduced spectral cues as a function of age. , 2000, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[7]  Andrew Stuart,et al.  Development of Auditory Temporal Resolution in School-Age Children Revealed by Word Recognition in Continuous and Interrupted Noise , 2005, Ear and hearing.

[8]  K. Jokinen,et al.  Undistorted and filtered speech audiometry in children with normal hearing. , 1975, Acta oto-laryngologica.

[9]  D. Dirks,et al.  A proposed SRT procedure and its statistical precedent. , 1973, The Journal of speech and hearing disorders.

[10]  L L Elliott,et al.  Children's understanding of monosyllabic nouns in quiet and in noise. , 1979, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[11]  Ryan McCreery,et al.  Performance-Intensity Functions for Normal-Hearing Adults and Children Using Computer-Aided Speech Perception Assessment , 2010, Ear and hearing.

[12]  R Carhart,et al.  An expanded test for speech discrimination utilizing CNC monosyllabic words. Northwestern University Auditory Test No. 6. SAM-TR-66-55. , 1966, [Technical report] SAM-TR. USAF School of Aerospace Medicine.

[13]  B. M. Siegenthaler,et al.  DEVELOPMENT OF TWO STANDARDIZED MEASURES OF HEARING FOR SPEECH BY CHILDREN. , 1966 .

[14]  R. McArdle,et al.  Intra- and inter-session test, retest reliability of the Words-in-Noise (WIN) test. , 2007, Journal of the American Academy of Audiology.

[15]  J. O. Irwin,et al.  Statistical Method in Biological Assay , 1953, Nature.

[16]  Richard H. Wilson,et al.  Measurements of Auditory Thresholds for Speech Stimuli , 1983 .

[17]  P. Dawes,et al.  Maturation of visual and auditory temporal processing in school-aged children. , 2008, Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR.

[18]  G. Studebaker.  A "rationalized" arcsine transform. , 1985, Journal of speech and hearing research.

[19]  Richard H. Wilson,et al.  Use of 35 words for evaluation of hearing loss in signal-to-babble ratio: A clinic protocol. , 2005, Journal of rehabilitation research and development.

[20]  A Boothroyd,et al.  Age-related changes on a children's test of sensory-level speech perception capacity. , 1998, Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR.

[21]  Richard H. Wilson,et al.  Development of a speech-in-multitalker-babble paradigm to assess word-recognition performance. , 2003, Journal of the American Academy of Audiology.

[22]  L L Elliott,et al.  Development of a test of speech intelligibility in noise using sentence materials with controlled word predictability. , 1977, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[23]  J. S. Bradley,et al.  The intelligibility of speech in elementary school classrooms. , 2008, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[24]  S. Trehub,et al.  Children's perception of speech in multitalker babble. , 2000, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[25]  B M Siegenthaler,et al.  Reliability of the TIP and DIP speech-hearing tests for children. , 1975, Journal of communication disorders.

[26]  M Ross,et al.  A picture identification test for hearing-impaired children. , 1968, Journal of speech and hearing research.

[27]  Rachel A McArdle,et al.  An Evaluation of the BKB-SIN, HINT, QuickSIN, and WIN Materials on Listeners With Normal Hearing and Listeners With Hearing Loss. , 2007, Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR.

[28]  B. M. Siegenthaler,et al.  A speech reception threshold test for children. , 1954, The Journal of speech and hearing disorders.

[29]  R. Bendel,et al.  Equivalent forms and split-half reliability of the NU-CHIPS administered in noise. , 1984, The Journal of speech and hearing disorders.

[30]  J. Kei,et al.  Children with Minimal Conductive Hearing Impairment: Speech Comprehension in Noise , 2009, Audiology and Neurotology.

[31]  H. Abrams,et al.  A word-recognition task in multitalker babble using a descending presentation mode from 24 dB to 0 dB signal to babble. , 2003, Journal of rehabilitation research and development.

[32]  W F Rintelmann,et al.  Articulation functions and test-retest performance of normal-hearing children on three speech discrimination tests: WIPI, PBK-50, and NV Auditory Test No. 6. , 1976, The Journal of speech and hearing disorders.

[33]  B. Siegenthaler.  Maturation of Auditory Abilities in Children , 1969 .

[34]  Andrew Stuart,et al.  Auditory temporal resolution in normal-hearing preschool children revealed by word recognition in continuous and interrupted noise. , 2006, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.