Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 14, 2026
Behavioral Assessment of Hearing in 2 to 4 Year-old Children: A Two-interval, Observer-based Procedure Using Conditioned Play-based Responses
Published on: January 23, 2017
Assessing auditory capabilities in young children
Laurie S Eisenberg1, Amy S Martinez, Arthur Boothroyd
1House Ear Institute, 2100 W. Third Street, Los Angeles, CA 90057, USA. leisenberg@hei.org
Insights
A new progressive test battery aids in early detection of hearing loss by assessing auditory perception in infants and toddlers. Further development is needed for the 1-3 year age range.
Area of Science:
- Audiology
- Developmental Psychology
- Speech and Language Pathology
Background:
- Early detection of hearing loss is crucial for infant and toddler development.
- Existing tests may not adequately assess auditory perceptual capabilities in very young children.
- A need exists for age-appropriate tools to track auditory development.
Purpose of the Study:
- To introduce a progressive test battery for evaluating auditory perceptual capabilities in children aged 6 months to 5 years.
- To assess phonetic contrast perception, phoneme recognition, and word recognition.
- To support a clinical research protocol for tracking auditory development.
Main Methods:
- Developed a progressive test battery based on a model of auditory perceptual development.
- Utilized the Battery of Auditory Speech Perception Tests for Infants and Toddlers (BATIT) for phonetic discrimination (VRASPAC, PLAYSPAC, OLIMSPAC, VIDSPAC).
- Employed consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) phonemes and lexically controlled words (LEXSEN) for phoneme and word recognition in older children (4+ years).
Main Results:
- Normal hearing children can be assessed from 7 months (VRASPAC) to 4-5 years (VIDSPAC, LEXSEN).
- The VRASPAC test is sensitive to the degree of hearing loss in infants.
- Performance on VRASPAC declines in normally hearing children after 12 months of age.
Conclusions:
- The progressive test battery largely enables phonetic discrimination and word recognition assessment in young children.
- A gap exists in effective testing for children aged 1 to 3 years.
- Further research is needed to refine tests and differentiate auditory from non-auditory performance factors.
Objective:
Early detection of hearing loss in infants and toddlers has created a need for age-appropriate tests that assess auditory perceptual capabilities. This article describes a progressive test battery we have developed to evaluate phonetic contrast perception, phoneme recognition, and word recognition in children 6 months to 5 years. This battery is part of a clinical research protocol designed to track auditory development in this population.
Methods:
The progressive test battery originated from a model of auditory perceptual development to assess phonetic discrimination and word recognition. Phonetic discrimination is evaluated using the Battery of Auditory Speech Perception Tests for Infants and Toddlers (BATIT). The BATIT is composed of four measures (VRASPAC, PLAYSPAC, OLIMSPAC, and VIDSPAC) intended to assess the child's ability to distinguish between phonologically significant contrasts using developmentally appropriate tasks. Designed for children aged 6 months and up, performance is represented either by percent correct or by the level of confidence that the child's responses are not random. Phoneme and word recognition are assessed in children 4 years and older using lists of consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) phonemes in words and lexically controlled words both in and out of sentence context (LEXSEN).
Results:
Cross-sectional data show that children with normal hearing may be assessed by the age of 7 months on VRASPAC; by 3 years on PLAYSPAC and OLIMSPAC; and by 4-5 years on VIDSPAC, CVC phonemes in words, and LEXSEN words in isolation and in sentences. Data from infants with hearing loss show that VRASPAC is sensitive to degree of hearing loss, but performance with normally hearing children declines after 12 months of age.
Conclusion:
Assessment of phonetic discrimination and word recognition is, for the most part, attainable in young children using a progressive test battery, but none of the tests used here is effective between 1 and 3 years of age. Continued development will be required to fill this gap and to separate auditory from non-auditory influences on performance.
