It’s important for an audiologist to know whether you hear sounds, but they also identify what sounds you comprehend. This information can aid our speech-language pathologist during therapy planning and is an important component of a speech disorder diagnosis. As part of the diagnostic process, our provider at Fuel Medical Group LLC might perform a speech audiometry assessment to learn more about the symptoms you’re experiencing.
How Does Speech Audiometry Differ From Other Hearing Tests?
While other tests measure a patient’s hearing abilities, speech audiometry measures a patient’s ability to understand sounds. It can sometimes reveal a hearing impairment that other tests don’t disclose or measure effectively.
How Does Speech Audiometry Work?
The exam is typically completed in five to ten minutes. One of its components, the SRT, measures the volume sound needs to reach for you to hear it. Another component, the SD, assesses your ability to recognize words. These results are scored on a percentage scale and measured on an audiogram, which measures the extent of your hearing loss.
What Are the Two Types of Speech Audiometry Tests?
During both portions of the test, you will listen to prerecorded speech through headphones and repeat the prompts to our provider.
- SRT: This measures your speech reception threshold, or how loud speech needs to be for you to hear it. Words are repeated at lower and lower volumes until you are unable to recognize what you hear. Once your response accuracy is below 50 percent, your audiologist will end this portion of the testing.
- SD: Speech discrimination examines your ability to recognize words using speech sounds at a volume level you can hear clearly – which is determined during the SRT portion of the test.
The results of these procedures are typically shared with you at the end of testing. Our audiologist will explain the meaning of your results and answer your questions about your diagnosis and condition.
What Are the Benefits of Speech Audiometry?
Unlike other hearing tests, speech audiometry focuses on how a patient understands words. This allows our speech-language pathologist to better create a customized treatment plan that is responsive to your needs.
Call Fuel Medical Group LLC for more information or to schedule an appointment.