The Relationship Between Measures of Hearing Loss and Speech Intelligibility in Young Deaf Children

Abstract

The relationship between hearing loss and speech intelligibility was investigated in a sample of 121 young deaf children. Significant independent effects were associated with the unaided hearing threshold level (HTL), but not with the aided HTL or with shape. Further analysis of the data suggested the existence of three distinct groups. Most children with losses of 70-89 db developed some intelligible speech and the unaided HTL had additional predictive validity. Between 90 and 104 db, considerable variability occurred, and the aided HTL had additional predictive validity. Above 105 db, few children developed any intelligible speech.

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