Development of a Mandarin Speech Perception Battery

The goal of hearing rehabilitation (HR) is to help children with hearing impairment (HI) achieve their best potentials in speech and language ability, to integrate into the mainstream and to maximize their contributions in the society. HR typically consists of fitting of hearing aids or cochlear implants (CIs), followed by years of auditory training and speech and language therapy. The Chinese government and philanthropic efforts are funding CIs because research has demonstrated the efficacy of these devices in English-speaking children. However, little is known about the long-term efficacy in Mandarin-speaking children, partly due to a lack of standardized assessment tools of speech perception. Clinicians do not have a systematic way to identify specific areas of speech perception for training and listening device adjustment. There are many shortcomings associated with currently available Mandarin perception measures. They either do not adequately survey speech perception or would take too much time to administer, thus not suitable for children with limited attention span. Most importantly, their psychometric properties have not been verified and none evaluates perception in noise, which is eminently present in daily environments. Because of differences in test stimuli and administration methods, inconsistent findings have also been reported (Zhu, Wong, Chen et al., 2015a). Thus, the proposed research will develop and validate tests to evaluate Mandarin consonant and vowel discrimination. Together with the Mandarin Tone Identification Test (the MTIT, Zhu, Wong, & Chen et al., 2014a) previously developed by the same investigators, they will make up a battery of Mandarin speech perception measures. The research methodology is grounded on investigators’ experience in developing the MTIT and research on Mandarin speech perception and production (Li & To, 2017; Zhu, Wong, Chen et al., 2015b). Materials for the consonant discrimination test have been developed and evalua

Funding Source: RGC - General Research Fund (GRF)