title: The Galker test of speech reception in noise; associations with background variables, middle ear status, hearing, and language in Danish preschool children.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We tested "the Galker test", a speech reception in noise test developed for primary care for Danish preschool children, to explore if the children's ability to hear and understand speech was associated with gender, age, middle ear status, and the level of background noise.
  
  
  METHODS
  The Galker test is a 35-item audio-visual, computerized word discrimination test in background noise. Included were 370 normally developed children attending day care center. The children were examined with the Galker test, tympanometry, audiometry, and the Reynell test of verbal comprehension. Parents and daycare teachers completed questionnaires on the children's ability to hear and understand speech. As most of the variables were not assessed using interval scales, non-parametric statistics (Goodman-Kruskal's gamma) were used for analyzing associations with the Galker test score. For comparisons, analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used. Interrelations were adjusted for using a non-parametric graphic model.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In unadjusted analyses, the Galker test was associated with gender, age group, language development (Reynell revised scale), audiometry, and tympanometry. The Galker score was also associated with the parents' and day care teachers' reports on the children's vocabulary, sentence construction, and pronunciation. Type B tympanograms were associated with a mean hearing 5-6dB below that of than type A, C1, or C2. In the graphic analysis, Galker scores were closely and significantly related to Reynell test scores (Gamma (G)=0.35), the children's age group (G=0.33), and the day care teachers' assessment of the children's vocabulary (G=0.26).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The Galker test of speech reception in noise appears promising as an easy and quick tool for evaluating preschool children's understanding of spoken words in noise, and it correlated well with the day care teachers' reports and less with the parents' reports.
authors.affiliation: The Research Unit for General Practice, Centre of Health and Society, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Maj-Britt Glenn
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Lauritsen
authors.affiliation: Department of General Practice, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Margareta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Söderström
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Svend
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kreiner
authors.affiliation: Section for Health Informatics, University of Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark.
authors.forename: Jens
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dørup
authors.affiliation: Research Unit of General Practice, Department of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Jagtvej 20A, DK-8270 Højbjerg, Denmark. Electronic address: jlous@health.sdu.dk.
authors.forename: Jørgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lous
mesh_terms: D000158:Acoustic Impedance Tests; D000367:Age Factors; D001299:Audiometry; D002675:Child, Preschool; D032882:Comprehension; D003718:Denmark; D004432:Ear, Middle / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006309:Hearing; D006320:Hearing Tests; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D007804:Language Development; D008297:Male; D009622:Noise; D013060:Speech; D013067:Speech Perception; D013069:Speech Reception Threshold Test / Q000379:methods; D014825:Vocabulary
keywords: Day care children; Hearing; Language development; Non-parametric statistics; Otitis media; Speech recognition in noise test