Developing the Kelaniya Monosyllabic – Trochee – Polysyllabic test (MTP) and Glendonald Auditory Screening Procedure (GASP) for Sinhala-speaking children

Abstract

Several test protocols are used in evaluating the auditory development in children following cochlear implantation. However, in Sri Lanka there are no such tests available in Sinhala. In order to assess the performance scores of Sinhala speaking normative hearing children on the a) Translated Glendonald Auditory Screening Procedure (GASP) and b) Kelaniya Monosyllabic – Trochee – Polysyllabic test (MTP), the Kelaniya MTP test (12 words) was developed and the GASP was (10 questions) translated into Sinhala. Two randomly selected samples of 212 participants (101 male, 111 female) aged 4.1- 8.0 years and 200 participants (105 male, 95 female) aged 2.1 – 8.0 years were included in the assessment of the MTP test and GASP, respectively. Children with normal hearing were recruited using their medical history, Pure Tone Audiometry and immittance audiometric results. All children with normal hearing were administered the tests. With the exception of the word /kesel/ in the 2.1 – 3.0 year age group, all the other words were correctly repeated by more than 80% of the children in the MTP test. The average GASP scores were significantly low (p<0.001) in the youngest age group, which increased with age. The Kelaniya MTP test and GASP can be used with children aged above 3.0 years and above 5.0 years respectively.