Auditec Auditory Test Pediatric Speech Intelligibility, Standard

The Pediatric Speech Intelligibility Test is a test for children ages 3 to 6. It fits in two important auditory processing domains. It can be categorized as both a dichotic test and a monaural low-redundancy speech test (monaural separation closure-MSC) sensitive to low brainstem.

The importance of speech audiometry, especially where the test materials include both monosyllabic words and sentences, has been well established for adults. Experience with performance vs. intensity (PI) functions and message to competition ratio (MCR) functions with adults led to the development of an analogous test for children; the Pediatric Speech Intelligibility (PSI) test.

The PSI includes both monosyllabic words and and two sets of sentences recorded in quiet and with competition (auditory figure ground). The test employs color plates with pictures of animals (animals were used to avoid ethnic biases) which represent either the sentences or the words. It is an extremely useful tool for the investigation of peripheral and auditory processing with children down to a language age of three or slightly younger.