title: Use of a monosyllabic adaptive speech test (MAST) with young children.
abstract: Sixty children aged 3, 5, and 7 years were tested using a simple up-down adaptive speech threshold procedure. The test stimuli were familiar monosyllabic words presented as a closed set with a picture-pointing response. The results indicate that monosyllabic adaptive speech test (MAST) procedures can be used reliably with children as young as 3 years of age. Thirty of the children also received a different randomization of the same speech stimuli presented at a constant level, equal to their MAST threshold. The results confirmed the accuracy of the MAST estimate of the children's 50% speech threshold. Further support for the validity of the MAST threshold procedure with young children was obtained using a group of 10 children with conductive hearing loss. Their results show a significant correlation between the MAST threshold and pure-tone loss. The data also indicated significant improvement in MAST thresholds over the three age groups investigated. These developmental changes are discussed in terms of a word frequency effect.
mesh_terms: D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D034381:Hearing Loss / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006314:Hearing Loss, Conductive / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D007804:Language Development; D013063:Speech Discrimination Tests / Q000379:methods*; D013069:Speech Reception Threshold Test / Q000379:methods*; D014825:Vocabulary