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Development of the Test of Listening Difficulties--Universal and Australian Normative Data in Children and Adults.

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Title: Development of the Test of Listening Difficulties--Universal and Australian Normative Data in Children and Adults.
Authors: Dillon, Harvey1,2 Harvey.Dillon@mq.edu.au, Gaikwad, Shrutika1, Luengtaweekul, Ponsuang1,3, Buchholz, Jorg1, Cameron, Sharon1
Source: Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing Research. Dec2025, Vol. 68 Issue 12, p6089-6099. 11p.
Subject Terms: *Auditory perception testing, *Intelligibility of speech, *Experimental design, *Speech audiometry, *Speech perception, Reference values, Word deafness, Noise, T-test (Statistics), Research funding, Descriptive statistics, Psychometrics, Data analysis software, Confidence intervals, Regression analysis
Geographic Terms: Australia
Abstract: Purpose: This research was carried out to create a new realistic speech-in-noise test designed to be sensitive to several causes of difficulty understanding speech in noise. The test, conducted under headphones, simulates listening in a typically reverberant classroom. It comprises a frontal target talker speaking high-context sentences and six competing talkers at different apparent locations. Method: The first experiment initially measured the degree of context in the sentences by presenting them in writing, with one or two words missing, to adult participants who were asked to guess the missing word(s). The 48 highest context sentences were then presented to young adults through headphones, with the competing speech, to measure the relative intelligibility of every morpheme in each sentence. The levels of each morpheme were then adjusted to minimize intelligibility differences between morphemes. In the second and main experiment, the final version of the test was presented to 103 adults and 77 children (aged 6-12 years) to create normative data for an Australian-accented version of the test. Results: In children, mean speech reception threshold in noise (SRTn) improved at a rate of 0.5 dB per year, down to -12.1 dB at 12 years of age. The regression line suggests that performance reaches that of young adults (with SRTn = -13.3 dB) at 14 years of age. Conclusions: The Test of Listening Difficulties--Universal (ToLD-U) appears to be suitable for assessing speech understanding in both children and adults under realistic, challenging listening conditions. It is the first test designed to simultaneously realistically simulate real-world environments using sentence-level but morpheme intelligibility--equalized test stimuli recorded using a conversational style, with multiple competing talkers and reverberation; nonetheless, it was designed to be suitable for routine clinical use via headphone presentation. Studies evaluating the ToLD-U in a clinical setting are in progress. Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.30493694 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Copyright of Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing Research is the property of American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
Database: Education Research Complete
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  Data: Development of the Test of Listening Difficulties--Universal and Australian Normative Data in Children and Adults.
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Dillon%2C+Harvey%22">Dillon, Harvey</searchLink><relatesTo>1,2</relatesTo><i> Harvey.Dillon@mq.edu.au</i><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Gaikwad%2C+Shrutika%22">Gaikwad, Shrutika</searchLink><relatesTo>1</relatesTo><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Luengtaweekul%2C+Ponsuang%22">Luengtaweekul, Ponsuang</searchLink><relatesTo>1,3</relatesTo><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Buchholz%2C+Jorg%22">Buchholz, Jorg</searchLink><relatesTo>1</relatesTo><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Cameron%2C+Sharon%22">Cameron, Sharon</searchLink><relatesTo>1</relatesTo>
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="JN" term="%22Journal+of+Speech%2C+Language+%26+Hearing+Research%22">Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing Research</searchLink>. Dec2025, Vol. 68 Issue 12, p6089-6099. 11p.
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  Data: *<searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Auditory+perception+testing%22">Auditory perception testing</searchLink><br />*<searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Intelligibility+of+speech%22">Intelligibility of speech</searchLink><br />*<searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Experimental+design%22">Experimental design</searchLink><br />*<searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Speech+audiometry%22">Speech audiometry</searchLink><br />*<searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Speech+perception%22">Speech perception</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Reference+values%22">Reference values</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Word+deafness%22">Word deafness</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Noise%22">Noise</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22T-test+%28Statistics%29%22">T-test (Statistics)</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Research+funding%22">Research funding</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Descriptive+statistics%22">Descriptive statistics</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Psychometrics%22">Psychometrics</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Data+analysis+software%22">Data analysis software</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Confidence+intervals%22">Confidence intervals</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Regression+analysis%22">Regression analysis</searchLink>
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Australia%22">Australia</searchLink>
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  Data: Purpose: This research was carried out to create a new realistic speech-in-noise test designed to be sensitive to several causes of difficulty understanding speech in noise. The test, conducted under headphones, simulates listening in a typically reverberant classroom. It comprises a frontal target talker speaking high-context sentences and six competing talkers at different apparent locations. Method: The first experiment initially measured the degree of context in the sentences by presenting them in writing, with one or two words missing, to adult participants who were asked to guess the missing word(s). The 48 highest context sentences were then presented to young adults through headphones, with the competing speech, to measure the relative intelligibility of every morpheme in each sentence. The levels of each morpheme were then adjusted to minimize intelligibility differences between morphemes. In the second and main experiment, the final version of the test was presented to 103 adults and 77 children (aged 6-12 years) to create normative data for an Australian-accented version of the test. Results: In children, mean speech reception threshold in noise (SRTn) improved at a rate of 0.5 dB per year, down to -12.1 dB at 12 years of age. The regression line suggests that performance reaches that of young adults (with SRTn = -13.3 dB) at 14 years of age. Conclusions: The Test of Listening Difficulties--Universal (ToLD-U) appears to be suitable for assessing speech understanding in both children and adults under realistic, challenging listening conditions. It is the first test designed to simultaneously realistically simulate real-world environments using sentence-level but morpheme intelligibility--equalized test stimuli recorded using a conversational style, with multiple competing talkers and reverberation; nonetheless, it was designed to be suitable for routine clinical use via headphone presentation. Studies evaluating the ToLD-U in a clinical setting are in progress. Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.30493694 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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  Data: <i>Copyright of Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing Research is the property of American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.</i> (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
PLink https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=ehh&AN=190171428
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      – Type: doi
        Value: 10.1044/2025_JSLHR-24-00330
    Languages:
      – Code: eng
        Text: English
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        PageCount: 11
        StartPage: 6089
    Subjects:
      – SubjectFull: Auditory perception testing
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Intelligibility of speech
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Experimental design
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Speech audiometry
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Speech perception
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Reference values
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Word deafness
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Noise
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: T-test (Statistics)
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Research funding
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      – SubjectFull: Descriptive statistics
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      – SubjectFull: Psychometrics
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      – SubjectFull: Data analysis software
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      – SubjectFull: Confidence intervals
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      – SubjectFull: Regression analysis
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      – SubjectFull: Australia
        Type: general
    Titles:
      – TitleFull: Development of the Test of Listening Difficulties--Universal and Australian Normative Data in Children and Adults.
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              Text: Dec2025
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              Y: 2025
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