another name for speech recognition threshold

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Speech Audiometry

Speech audiometry involves two different tests:

One checks how loud speech needs to be for you to hear it.

The other checks how clearly you can understand and distinguish different words when you hear them spoken.

What Happens During the Test

The tests take 10-15 minutes. You are seated in a sound booth and wear headphones. You will hear a recording of a list of common words spoken at different volumes, and be asked to repeat those words.

Your audiologist will ask you to repeat a list of words to determine your speech reception threshold (SRT) or the lowest volume at which you can hear and recognize speech.

Then, the audiologist will measure speech discrimination — also called word recognition ability. He or she will either say words to you or you will listen to a recording, and then you will be asked to repeat the words. The audiologist will measure your ability to understand speech at a comfortable listening level.

Getting Speech Audiology Test Results

The audiologist will share your test results with you at the completion of testing. Speech discrimination ability is typically measured as a percentage score.

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Auditory Threshold:

The term threshold in general means the point or level at which something happens to occur. In the context of audiology hearing threshold means the sound level below which a person cannot hear but from that particular sound level the person begins to hear.

Threshold Levels:

Absolute threshold: The lowest level at which a stimulus can be detected. Recognition threshold: The level at which a stimulus can not only be detected but also recognized. Differential threshold: The level at which an increase in a detected stimulus can be perceived.

Absolute threshold of hearing (ATH)

Absolute threshold of hearing (ATH) is the minimum sound level of a pure tone that an average human ear with normal hearing can hear with no other sound present. The absolute threshold relates to the sound that can just be heard by the organism. The absolute threshold is not a discrete point, and is therefore classed as the point at which a sound elicits a response a specified percentage of the time.This is also known as the auditory threshold. The auditory threshold needs an relative sound level. Therefore in case of normal hearing ATH is usually considered 0 dB. As a result of which threshold estimation becomes easy to calculate.

Suprathreshold:

Suprathreshold refers to speech presented above the auditory threshold of the listener.

The prefix ” Supra” from the basic word supra threshold means “above” or “beyond”. When extra stimulus is provided beyond the threshold , it is called Supra threshold. It mainly facilities the speech processing in the brain(decode) /speech recognition.

Measurement of suprathreshold speech recognition allows clinicians to assess a patient’s speech communication ability in a controlled and systematic manner. The results can help clinicians distinguish between different causes of hearing loss and plan and evaluate audiological rehabilitation programs .

Example, a patient who could correctly repeat 40 out of 50 words presented would have 80% speech recognition. Because speech is a complex and continually varying signal requiring multiple auditory discrimination skills, it is not possible to repeat accurately.