Speech or word-understanding tests help the hearing care professional establish how clearly you can understand speech:
- You listen to and repeat a series of spondaic (two-syllable, i.e. ice cream) words at decreasing intensity levels.
- A threshold in dB HL is determined for the lowest level you can recognize speech (speech reception threshold).
- You listen to and repeat a series of monosyllabic words ("dog", for example) at various levels of loudness.
- A percentage of 'word discrimination' is calculated for each ear.
- Further evaluation of speech discrimination under difficult/noisy situations may be performed.
After the evaluation the hearing care professional will suggest the next steps to improve your situation.
