A Tablet-Based Mobile Hearing Screening System for Preschoolers: Design and Validation Study

Area of Science:

• Pediatric audiology
• Mobile health technology
• Speech and language development

Background:

• Early childhood hearing is crucial for speech and language acquisition.
• Mass hearing screenings are conducted after newborn tests, particularly at preschool age.
• Low-resource settings require innovative, accessible tools like mobile technology for effective screening.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a cost-effective, tablet-based system for rapid hearing screening.
• To implement a minimal speech recognition level test using mobile technology.
• To create an accessible tool for preschool-aged children's hearing assessment.

Main Methods:

• Developed an Android-based application for hearing screening.
• Validated word sets and calibrated speech power levels for the app.
• Recruited 122 children (4-5 years) for development and 63 for version 2 testing, comparing results to conventional audiometry.

Main Results:

• Version 2 demonstrated 76.67% sensitivity and 95.83% specificity for mild hearing loss.
• Screening time averaged 150.52 seconds, significantly faster than conventional play audiometry (11.79 minutes).
• The system proved effective for rapid, mobile hearing screening in young children.

Conclusions:

• Tablet-based systems show potential for rapid, mobile hearing screening.
• The developed system exhibits good overall sensitivity and specificity.
• The concept is adaptable for multilingual applications and broader implementation.