Design and development of a speech recognition test: a study of typically-developing Persian-speaking children

We designed and validated a speech recognition test for Persian-speaking children aged 36-71 months.

This project was a cross-sectional and methodological study. Different steps of test development, encompassing item generation, content validity, construct validity, and reliability, were used to develop the scale.

The percentages of agreement among the experts' answers concerning test characteristics were all greater than 88%. After this phase, 20 items were removed. In the second phase of content validity, 18 additional pictures were suggested to be removed by the experts. Finally, a test with 162 pictures was developed among which 120 corresponding words were presented orally (the remaining pictures were distractors). The Persian speech recognition test revealed an age difference in speech recognition for both ears (p-value < 0.001, df = 5). There was no significant association between sex and total score on the Persian speech recognition test for right ear (U = 3063, p-value = 0.092) and left ear (U = 3009, p-value = 0.063). Test-retest values were excellent for both ears (right ear: r = 0.97, left ear: r = 0.98), p-value < 0.001).

Given the findings in typically developing (TD) children, the Persian speech recognition test is valid and reliable. However, future studies are highly recommended to apply this test in hearing-impaired children.