Interobserver reliability using the Phonetic Level Evaluation with severely and profoundly hearing-impaired children

This study examines whether observers reliably categorize selected speech production behaviors in hearing-impaired children. A group of experienced speech-language pathologists was trained to score the elicited imitations of 5 profoundly and 5 severely hearing-impaired subjects using the Phonetic Level Evaluation (Ling, 1976). Interrater reliability was calculated using intraclass correlation coefficients. Overall, the magnitude of the coefficients was found to be considerably below what would be accepted in published behavioral research. Failure to obtain acceptably high levels of reliability suggests that the Phonetic Level Evaluation may not yet be an accurate and objective speech assessment measure for hearing-impaired children.