Measuring Auditory Speech-Perception Capacity in Young Children

Auditory capacity is defined, here, as the ability of cortical and sub-cortical auditory systems to relay consistent and differentiable information about sound patterns to higher centers of the brain (with the help of hearing aids or cochlear implants, if used). This capacity represents the potential for the development of auditory performance. Because of the importance of hearing to the development of spoken language, we have a particular interest in the sound patterns of spoken language – hence the focus on auditory speech-perception capacity in this chapter. Auditory capacity depends on a combination of two aspects of hearing – sensitivity and resolution. Considerable progress has been made in the development of behavioral and physiological methods for the assessment of frequency-specific auditory sensitivity in very young children. The same cannot be said for auditory resolution. As a result, auditory capacity must either be predicted, on the basis of threshold and assumed pathology, or inferred after the fact, on the basis of observed auditory performance. Both approaches fail tests of validity, precision and predictive value.