PP1109 - A Bilingual Minimum Speech Test Battery for Pediatric Patients

The recent development of Spanish AzBio sentences has initiated advances in developing a standardized test battery for adult bilingual CI candidates and recipients. While there are various Spanish word tests for pediatric patients, there is no set MSTB for bilingual pediatric patients. When assessing benefit from amplification and considering implantation for pediatric patients raised in bilingual households, their performance may be influenced by the language in which they are tested. To contribute to the limited body of evidence on this topic, a suggested Spanish and English bilingual test battery was compiled as a proposed method to appropriately assess bilingual pediatric patients.

Summary:

Introduction:  According to the United States Census in 2019, nearly 40 million people over the age of 5 speak Spanish at home.1The recent development of Spanish AzBio sentences has initiated advances in developing a standardized test battery for adult bilingual cochlear implant (CI) candidates and recipients. The same advances are not routinely applied to the materials used to test the speech discrimination abilities of patients in the pediatric population. While there are various Spanish word tests for pediatric patients, there is no set minimum speech test battery (MSTB) for bilingual pediatric patients. When assessing benefit from traditional amplification and considering implantation for pediatric patients raised in bilingual households, their performance may be influenced by the language in which they are tested. In order to contribute to the limited body of evidence on this topic, a suggested Spanish and English bilingual test battery was compiled as a proposed method to appropriately assess bilingual pediatric patients.

Methods:
We have compiled a suggested bilingual pediatric MSTB in a Texas Pediatric Audiology Clinic. Patients who are bilingual will undergo a hierarchy of speech perception testing in Spanish and English using age-appropriate materials.

Results:
Preliminary results will be discussed.

Conclusion:
In order to appropriately test bilingual pediatric patients that have been fit with either hearing aids and/or cochlear implants, evidence demonstrates that it is imperative to do so in both languages to obtain a comprehensive picture of their overall speech understanding. At present, the limited number of recorded speech perception testing materials in Spanish, for pediatric patients, may influence clinicians’ perceptions of outcomes with amplification, cochlear implant candidacy, and other decisions regarding their audiologic care. More research, in addition to the development of test materials, is needed in this area to establish a protocol for testing bilingual pediatric patients in order to assure culturally competent care for all.

Key Words: pediatric, bilingual, minimum speech test batter

Sources:
1. U.S. Census Bureau (2019). Language Spoken at Home, American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Retrieved from