Ling-6 sounds as a hearing screening tool

Author/Creator

Author/Creator ORCID

Date

2014-07-09

Department

Towson University. Department of Audiology, Speech-Language Pathology and Deaf Studies

Program

Citation of Original Publication

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Copyright protected, all rights reserved.
There are no restrictions on access to this document. An internet release form signed by the author to display this document online is on file with Towson University Special Collections and Archives.

Subjects

Abstract

Despite its high prevalence, hearing loss often goes undetected amongst American adults. Undetected hearing loss can have several negative impacts on an individual's well being, including social withdrawal and depression. To combat the adverse effects of undetected hearing loss, a simple and effective screening measure must be developed. Many of the currently available hearing screeners are simple and cost effective, but are not very sensitive for detecting hearing loss. This is especially true for milder degrees of hearing loss. With its six speech sounds that span all of the speech frequencies, the Ling-6 Sound Test is a promising new method for screening hearing. The purpose of this study was to correlate the Ling-6 sounds to individuals' audiograms and examine its feasibility as a bedside hearing screener. Results of this study indicated that hearing loss has a negative effect on accuracy for repeating back Ling-6 sounds. A significant difference in scores for each Ling-6 sound was observed between the normal hearing participants and participants with hearing loss. A significant correlation existed between scores for each Ling-6 sound and puretone thresholds. Based on these findings, the Ling-6 Sound Test is a simple and accurate method for detecting hearing loss across the frequencies of speech.