Trends in Performance Using Early Speech Perception Test in Typically Developing Tamil-Speaking Children.

Background and objectives: The study attempted to trace age-related changes in speech perception in typically developing children (≥3 to ≤6 years) using the "Early Speech Perception (ESP)" in Tamil. The test was developed in line with the original English version of ESP but adapted to suit the linguistic requirement of the Tamil language.

Subjects and methods: Using a cross-sectional design, the test was administered to 205 children with normal hearing who were classified into three age groups (≥3 to ≤4, >4 to ≤5, and >5 to ≤6 years). The developed test had three subtests (syllable categorization, bisyllable word identification, and trisyllable word identification).

Results: All three age groups obtained perfect or near-perfect scores on the three subtests of ESP. There was no significant difference observed between the two adjacent age groups (≥3 to ≤4 vs. >4 to ≤5 years, >4 to ≤5 vs. >5 to ≤6 years) for all three subtests. However, significant differences were seen only between the youngest and the oldest age groups for the three subtests (≥3 to ≤4 vs. >5 to ≤6 years).

Conclusions: The results indicated that ESP in Tamil can be performed effectively in all the three age groups studied.