The effect of guessing on the speech reception thresholds of children

Speech audiometry is an essential part of the assessment of hearing impaired children and it is now widely used throughout the United Kingdom. Although instructions are universally agreed upon as an important aspect in the administration of any form of audiometric testing, there has been little, if any, research towards evaluating the influence which instructions that are given to a listener have on the Speech Reception Threshold obtained. This study attempts to evaluate what effect guessing has on the Speech Reception Threshold of children. A sample of 30 secondary school pupils between 16 and 18 years of age with normal hearing was used in the study. It is argued that the type of instruction normally used for Speech Reception Threshold in audiometric testing may not provide a sufficient amount of control for guessing and the implications of this, using data obtained in the study, are examined.