Utvärdering av svenska HINT-listor på normalhörande barn i åldrarna 6-11 år

Abstract

A Swedish version of the Hearing in Noise Test (HINT) has earlier been developed to assess the ability to recognize speech in noise. The aim of this study was to see if the same test could be used on children and to validate the test. Also to see if all sentences could be used or if some had to be excluded and if there was any difference in the performance between boys and girls. Signal to noise ratio (SNR) for 50 % correctly repeated sentences were measured in 42 (18 boys, 24 girls) native Swedish-speaking children in the ages 6 – 11 years, to establish mean performances across various age groups, and comparing performance with adult performance to validate the normalization protocol for the Swedish HINT. Statistical analyses indicate that SNRs decrease with age and approach adult values in children past 8-yr olds. No significant learning effect was found in the current data. There were 20 sentences which differed from the rest. Boys and girls performance was equal. The study shows that it is possible to use the HINT for normal-hearing children from six years of age. Findings of the current study concur with the literature on age effects in auditory processing abilities, increase with age and larger inter-subject variability in lower ages.