Clinical evaluation and test-retest reliability of the IHR-McCormick Automated Toy Discrimination Test

Area of Science:

• Audiology
• Speech-Language Pathology
• Pediatric Medicine

Background:

• The IHR-McCormick Automated Toy Discrimination Test (ATT) assesses speech perception in children.
• It measures word-discrimination thresholds in quiet, serving as a proxy for auditory sensitivity.
• Enhancements aimed to improve test-retest reliability and introduce noise-based measurements.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the clinical utility and reliability of the ATT in a pediatric audiology setting.
• To assess the feasibility of the ATT across a wide age range (2-13 years).
• To determine the correlation between ATT results and traditional audiometric measures.

Main Methods:

• A clinical evaluation involving 215 children aged 2-13 years at a pediatric audiology clinic.
• Paediatric audiologists administered the ATT to measure word-discrimination thresholds in quiet.
• Test-retest reliability was assessed using standard deviation and absolute difference variability.

Main Results:

• 72% of children provided two thresholds, and 83% provided at least one, with younger children (under 4) being less successful.
• ATT performance correlated with pure-tone audiometry, predicting average pure-tone thresholds within +/- 13 dB.
• Excellent test-retest reliability was observed, with adult-level reliability (2.3 dB) achieved in children aged 4+.

Conclusions:

• The ATT is a reliable and clinically valuable tool for assessing speech discrimination in children.
• It provides a useful complement to pure-tone and warble-tone audiometry, especially for younger children.
• The ATT's reliability and correlation with other measures support its use in pediatric audiology.