An objective measure of a child’s speech intelligibility, the Beginner’s Intelligibility Test uses an audio recording of a child’s elicited production of ten sentences. If the child can read, it is acceptable to have them read the sentences. The digitized sentences are then played to a panel of listeners with no prior experience in listening to speech produced by children with severe to profound hearing impairment. The listeners write what they think the child has said. The average percentage of words correctly understood by the panel is determined.
The Common Phrases Test assesses identification of simple sentences in a modified open set under three conditions: visual cues only, auditory cues only, and combined auditory plus visual cues. Test items contain familiar phrases used in everyday situations. Children are provided pretest familiarization of the item topics, and performance is scored in terms of the percentage of phrases correctly understood.
The CHAOS is a behavior checklist measure of attention problems, impulsivity, oppositional behavior and rule-breaking in children and adolescents.
The LEAF is a 55-item caregiver- or self-report questionnaire that assesses executive functions, related neurocognitive functions, and academic skills in children and adults.
The OMS is a 20-item caregiver behavior checklist which measures of specific types of outbursts, including verbal and physical aggression directed toward self, property, and others.
The QHS-R is a modified version of the Speech Spatial Qualities scale. It is a 20-item caregiver- and self-report questionnaire that measures functional everyday hearing quality in children, adolescents, and adults. The QHS-R is a revision of the QHS with minor changes to the wording and rating scale.
Lexical Neighborhood Tests (LNT-MLNT) were developed primarily for use with children who use cochlear implants. These open-set word recognition tests have provided important diagnostic information relative to the benefits of sensory aids. Results gained from these tests indicate the extent of neural representation of words in a child’s long-term lexical memory.
Using caregiver/teacher observations of a child’s behavior, the MAIS examines meaningful use of sound in everyday situations. This scale begins with the evaluation of detection and progresses through the increasingly difficult skill levels of discrimination, identification, and comprehension of speech stimuli. Responses to ten questions are assigned scores of 0-4, depending upon the consistency of the behavior. A composite score is obtained.
The IT-MAIS is based on the MAIS with modifications on the first 2 of 10 questions to enable it to be used with infants and toddlers under age 3.
The Meaningful Use of Speech Scale is a caregiver/teacher report scale that assesses a child’s use of speech in everyday situations. Similar to the MAIS scale, the MUSS assigns scores from 0-4 on 10 questions, based upon how often a child displays a particular speech skill. A composite score is obtained.
The Minimal Pairs Test consists of pairs of pictured words, with members of a pair differing in terms of a single vowel or consonant. Vowel items are analyzed in terms of the features of vowel height and place; consonant items are analyzed in terms of the features of voicing, manner, and place. Chance performance is 50%.
The Mr. Potato Head Task is a modified open-set measure that requires the child to manipulate toys in response to instructions presented in the auditory-only modality (such as “Put a hat on Mr. Potato Head” or “Make Mr. Potato Head go to sleep.”). Ten instructions are presented and scored on the basis of the number of key words correct (out of a possible 20) and sentences correct (out of a possible 10). Sentence chance performance is 0%, and word chance performance is 5%.