Degree Name

Doctor of Audiology

Document Type

Scholarly Project

Date Created

5-1-2022

Department

College of Natural and Health Sciences, Communication Sciences and Disorders, CSD Student Work

Abstract

Hearing loss impacts many individuals, both children and adults, around the globe; thus, hearing evaluations have become a routine and annual examination for individuals of all ages. Due to differences between children and adults, components of the routine hearing evaluation have been adapted to fit the needs of both populations. When testing children, age-appropriate materials are utilized and variables such as an individual's level of focus, cooperation, and willingness to participate are considered. One component of all routine hearing evaluations is speech testing, which provides clinicians with information regarding an individual’s speech recognition abilities. A speech recognition test commonly used with children is the Word Intelligibility by Picture Identification (WIPI). The WIPI is a picture-pointing test that is interactive and appropriate for assessing the word recognition abilities of young children. When using the WIPI, children are asked to look at a booklet containing six colored pictures on each page and given instructions to point to the picture that corresponds with the word the clinician says. This test was originally created in 1970 and then modernized in 2009. Despite the modifications, aspects of society have changed in the time between the creation of the WIPI and the modification of the original test, leading to some pictorial confusion and creating the need for further updates. The purpose of this research project was to determine if there was a significant difference between children’s accuracy in identifying the target words of the WIPI test when shown the original WIPI pictures or the cartoon images of the same test. A total of 20 iv participants between the ages of five and six years participated in this study. A student’s paired t-test was used to analyze the collected data. The results of this study indicated there was a significant difference between the participants’ accuracy in identifying the target words when shown the cartoon images versus the WIPI pictures. These results suggested the need to modify the current version of the WIPI test to increase the usability of this speech test with children who are accustomed to viewing realistic online images.

Keywords

Audiology, WIPI, Word Intelligibility by Picture Identification (WIPI), Pediatric Audiology, Hearing Loss

Rights Statement

Copyright is held by the author.

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