title: VTMR, a new speech audiometry test with verbal tasks and motor responses.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study was to design a complementary speech audiometry test using verbal tasks and motor responses (VTMR) to assess the ability of a subject to understand and perform simple motor tasks with 3-dimensional objects, to describe its construction, and to show the preliminary results of a pilot study on the Italian version of the test.
  
  
  METHODS
  The items used in the test setting included 1 base, 1 hammer, 1 wooden structure with 4 sticks, and 5 rings of different colors and 20 lists with 5 verbal tasks per list. The VTMR test and bisyllabic speech audiometry were evaluated in normal-hearing subjects with and without cognitive impairment and in subjects with sensorineural hearing loss.
  
  
  RESULTS
  All normal-hearing subjects without cognitive impairment performed the VTMR tasks (100%) correctly at 35 dB sound pressure level. In subjects with sensorineural hearing loss, the percentage of correct answers was significantly higher for the VTMR test than for bisyllabic speech audiometry above 50 dB sound pressure level. This percentage was higher for the VTMR also in normal-hearing subjects with poor cognitive skills.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The VTMR might make it easier to check patients' ability to understand verbal commands than does traditional speech audiometry, in particular in those patients with poor test-taking skills.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze Chirurgiche Specialistiche, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy. federica.diberardino@unimi.it
authors.forename: Federica
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Di Berardino
authors.forename: Stella
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Forti
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cesarani
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D001302:Audiometry, Speech / Q000379:methods*; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D032882:Comprehension; D004314:Down Syndrome / Q000150:complications*; D005260:Female; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000150:complications*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010865:Pilot Projects; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013067:Speech Perception