Pure-Tone Thresholds and Word-Recognition Abilities of Hearing-Impaired Children

A recorded list of 25 spondaic words was administered monaurally through earphones to 72 hearing-impaired children to evaluate their comprehension of “easy” speech material. The subjects ranged in age from eight to 16 years, and their average pure-tone thresholds (500-1000-2000 Hz) ranged in level from 52 to 127 dB (ANSI, 1969). Most spondee-recognition scores either were high (70 to 100* correct) or low (0 to 30% correct). The degree of overlap in thresholds between the high-scoring and the low-scoring groups differed as a function of the method used to describe the audiogram. The pure-tone average of 500-1000-2000 Hz was a good, but not perfect, predictor of spondee-recognition ability. In general, children with average pure-tone thresholds better than about 85 dB HTL (ANSI, 1969) scored high, and those with thresholds poorer than about 100 dB scored low. Spondee-recognition scores, however, could not be predicted with accuracy for children whose audiograms fell between 85 and 100 dB HTL.