Speech audiometry – methodology and clinical value

Speech audiometry is a key component of audiological as­ses­s­ment because it uses the types of auditory signals pre­sent in everyday communication. Speech audiometry can tell us more realistically than pure tone audiometry how a hearing disorder affects communication in everyday life. Speech audiometry test can thus be used for hearing status diag­nos­tic and to examine central auditory processing abi­lity and how this is affected by lesions in the middle ear, coch­lea, auditory nerve, brainstem pathways, or cortical au­di­tory centers. Furthermore, there is a predictable rela­tion­ship between a person’s hearing for pure tones and hearing for speech. Thus, the speech audiogram can serve as a cross-check on the validity of the pure tone audiogram.