title: German Oldenburg Sentence Test for Children: a useful speech audiometry tool for hearing-impaired children at kindergarten and school age.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  In speech audiometry, sentence tests have the advantage of assessing more words within a given period of time than single-word tests do. Consequently, greater accuracy (steeper discrimination function) is achieved. The recently developed German Oldenburg Sentence Test for Children (OlKiSa) has been evaluated thus far for school-aged children in noise, and normative data for younger children in a quiet environment have been established. In this study, the focus is on its applicability in hearing-impaired children fitted with hearing aids or cochlear implants.
  
  
  METHODS
  The use of the OlKiSa in a quiet environment in hearing-impaired children aged 4 years or older was evaluated. One hundred and nineteen hearing-impaired children aged between 4 and 10 years performed the OlKiSa in a quiet environment. Individual speech reception thresholds (SRT) were measured aided and unaided and the slopes of the discrimination functions were calculated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Independent of age, the mean slope of the discrimination function for SRT was about 7%/dB in both conditions, which is a high value of steepness for a speech audiometric test in a quiet environment.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The OlKiSa in quiet is a reliable test procedure for hearing-impaired children aged 4 years and older.
authors.affiliation: Department of Phoniatrics and Pediatric Audiology, ENT Clinic, Goethe University, DE-60590 Frankfurt am Main, Germany. tobias.weissgerber@kgu.de
authors.forename: Tobias
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Weißgerber
authors.forename: Uwe
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Baumann
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Brand
authors.forename: Katrin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Neumann
mesh_terms: D001302:Audiometry, Speech / Q000379:methods*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003054:Cochlear Implants; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006310:Hearing Aids; D006314:Hearing Loss, Conductive / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D006320:Hearing Tests / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*; D013069:Speech Reception Threshold Test / Q000379:methods*