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The Persian Version of Auditory Word Discrimination Test (P-Awdt) for Children: Development, Validity, and Reliability Publisher Pubmed



Hashemi N1 ; Ghorbani A2 ; Soleymani Z1 ; Kamali M3 ; Ahmadi ZZ4 ; Mahmoudian S5, 6
Authors
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Authors Affiliations
  1. 1. Department of Speech Therapy, School of Rehabilitation, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
  2. 2. Department of Speech Therapy, School of Rehabilitation Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
  3. 3. Department of Basic Sciences in Rehabilitation, School of Rehabilitation Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
  4. 4. Department of Speech Therapy, School of Rehabilitation, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, I.R, Iran
  5. 5. Laboratory for Auditory Neuroscience, ENT and Head & Neck Research Center, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
  6. 6. Department of Otorhinolaryngology - Medical University of Hannover (MHH), Hannover, Germany

Source: International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology Published:2018


Abstract

Objective: Auditory discrimination of speech sounds is an important perceptual ability and a precursor to the acquisition of language. Auditory information is at least partially necessary for the acquisition and organization of phonological rules. There are few standardized behavioral tests to evaluate phonemic distinctive features in children with or without speech and language disorders. The main objective of the present study was the development, validity, and reliability of the Persian version of auditory word discrimination test (P-AWDT) for 4-8-year-old children. Methods: A total of 120 typical children and 40 children with speech sound disorder (SSD) participated in the present study. The test comprised of 160 monosyllabic paired-words distributed in the Forms A-1 and the Form A-2 for the initial consonants (80 words) and the Forms B-1 and the Form B-2 for the final consonants (80 words). Moreover, the discrimination of vowels was randomly included in all forms. Content validity was calculated and 50 children repeated the test twice with two weeks of interval (test–retest reliability). Further analysis was also implemented including validity, intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), Cronbach's alpha (internal consistency), age groups, and gender. Results: The content validity index (CVI) and the test-retest reliability of the P-AWDT were achieved 63%–86% and 81%-96%, respectively. Moreover, the total Cronbach's alpha for the internal consistency was estimated relatively high (0.93). Comparison of the mean scores of the P-AWDT in the typical children and the children with SSD revealed a significant difference. The results revealed that the group with SSD had greater severity of deficit than the typical group in auditory word discrimination. In addition, the difference between the age groups was statistically significant, especially in 4–4.11-year-old children. The performance of the two gender groups was relatively same. Conclusion: The comparison of the P-AWDT scores between the typical children and the children with SSD demonstrated differences in the capabilities of auditory phonological discrimination in both initial and final positions. It supposed that the P-AWDT meets the appropriate validity and reliability criteria. The P-AWDT test can be utilized to measure the distinctive features of phonemes, the auditory discrimination of initial and final consonants and middle vowels of words in 4-8-year-old typical children and children with SSD. © 2018