Effects of Stimulus Intensity on Speech Perception by Deaf Children

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Abstract
Ten monosyllabic, 10 trochaic, and 10 spondaic words were presented monaurally to 10 severely (70–95 dB HTL) and 10 profoundly (x0003E 95 dB HTL) hearing-impaired children at sensation levels (SL) ranging from near detection to near discomfort. Two methods were used to evaluate word perception as a function of stimulus intensity: the percentage of words recognized correctly and the percentage of words categorized correctly as to stress pattern. Both word-recognition and categorization scores reached maxima at 24–36 dB SL for the severe group, supporting previous results. For the profoundly deaf group, word-recognition scores were low regardless of SL, but their perception of the stress patterns of words improved as a function of increasing intensity, reaching maxima at 12–30 dB SL. The procedure and results described in this paper may be used by audiologists to help select optimal hearing aid volume settings for young hearing-impaired children.

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