Interlist equivalencies for a numeral and a vowel/consonant multiple-choice monosyllabic test for severely/profoundly deaf young adults.

Abstract

Conventional multiple-choice speech tests measuring discrimination of initial/final consonants, and the CID "Everyday" Sentences test are too difficult for many young adults whose hearing is severely/profoundly limited. Using the 6-choice closed-set paradigm, a new 12-item Numerals test was developed as well as a modification of the Pickett et al (Gallaudet) modified rhyme test of vowel and consonantal discrimination. This test, here called the Webster-Pickett (W/P) test, essentially expands the original 2 alternative lists to 6, with some further minor changes. Both these tests were administered to 35 students at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID). In combination, the new tests provided usable scores for the NTID population. Most of those who yielded scores of zero on the W-22, on the CID sentences tests and on the W/P test nevertheless scored above zero on Numerals, while those who scored 100% on Numerals scored between 0 and 100% on the W/P test. All 6 recorded lists of the Numerals test were equivalent. Slight corrections to those raw scores between 10 and 90% on the 6 lists of the W/P were proposed to yield interlist equivalence.