Determining the Validity of a New Speech Perception Test for Toddlers With and Without Hearing Loss

Speech perception skills are foundational to language development and highly variable among children who are deaf and hard of hearing (D/HH), making the assessment of speech perception skills critical for understanding and nurturing language development in D/HH children. However, commonly used assessment tools of speech perception may not be valid measures for young children because they depend on children's vocabulary skills. To address this challenge, a new speech perception test was recently developed-the Toddler Speech Perception Test (TSPT)-a two-alternative forced-choice picture-pointing task that involves only words that most toddlers produce by 2.5 years of age.

This study evaluated the validity of the TSPT by analyzing the performance of 32 D/HH and 21 typically hearing (TH) 2.5-year-olds and determining if their performance was consistent with what would be expected of a test that assessed speech perception skills rather than language comprehension. Specifically, performance was compared to measures of vocabulary, total language, auditory functioning skills, and hearing thresholds. Internal validity was assessed by comparing performance of phonologically similar word contrasts with performance on more dissimilar contrasts. Reliability was assessed using the split-halves method.

The results demonstrated expected correlations with other measures, good internal validity, and good reliability with some differences between the TH and D/HH groups.

Overall, the findings suggest that the TSPT is a valid measure of speech perception, especially in children who are D/HH. Limitations and future directions are discussed with the aim of advancing scientific rigor of speech perception testing in young D/HH children.