Desarrollo de una prueba de inteligibilidad de habla en ambientes ruidosos para niños en edad escolar

A quick intelligibility test for noisy environments is presented and evaluated in this article. It is designed for children of 6 to 12 years old at schools or institutions where audiometric equipments are not easily available. Word identification capacity is evaluated in sentences through headphones under noise controlled conditions. The test is presented at the level required for each child to recognize 100% of the words in silence. The sentences and masking noise are presented simultaneously to the same ear at different signal to noise ratios, from 20 to -5 dB. The modulated speech shaped noise was used, which is considered highly effective as masker. Results for normal hearing children indicate that 1) the sound pressure level for 100% word recognition in isolation, has an average of 55 dB and 60 dB in laboratory and school conditions respectively, and 2) 50% word identification is reached at the 0 db signal to noise ratio, both in the laboratory and the school. It is concluded that this test will allow quick intelligibility evaluations in places with different level of environmental noise and absence of technical resources.