2012년 세계보건기구는 전 세계 난청인의 수가 약 3억 5,000 만 명이고, 이 중 약 9%인 3,200만 명이 유소아 난청이라 보고 하였다. 2002년에 미국 질병예방통제센터는 100명의 어린이 중 12명이 소음성 난청의 위험에 노출되어 있다고 발표한 바 있다. 난청 아동의 수가 점차 증가함에 따라 난청의 조기 발견 및 청 능재활의 중요성이 강조되었다. 난청이 의심되는 경우 조기에 난청을 진단받고 청력 손실의 종류와 정도에 따라 적절한 증폭 기기를 착용하는 등 청각재활을 최대한 빨리 시작하는 것이 중 요하다. 청능훈련은 청능재활의 중요한 요소 중 하나로, 반복적 인 듣기 연습을 통한 의사소통 능력 개선을 목표로 하는 것이 다. 청능훈련은 단순히 듣기 능력만을 향상시키는 것이 아니라 청각 기능을 포함하여 인지, 기억 및 주의집중 발달에도 긍정적 인 영향을 미칠 수 있다(Ferguson & Henshaw, 2015; Henshaw & Ferguson, 2013; Oh, 2016). 아동의 경우 조기에 적극적이고 집중적인 청능훈련을 시작하여야 말, 언어, 의사소통 능력 발달 에 있어서의 문제점을 최소화할 수 있다(Kim & Yoon, 2016; Lee, 2016; Yoon et al., 2016).
Purpose: Despite various options of auditory training materials for hearing-impaired adults, auditory training tool has been relatively limited for hearing-impaired children. Given that closed-set auditory training would adjust the level of difficulty easier, the purpose of this study was to develop multiple-choice sentences as a closed-set auditory training material for hearing-impaired children. Methods: The sentences were recorded by a professional female speaker, and the keywords in each recorded sentence were cut and re-synthesized. Using the keywords, we constructed six sentence lists (list 1 for practice, list 2-6 for training). Each sentence included 2-4 keywords such as name, adjective, object, numeral, and verb. In total, 1,616 sentences were generated from any possible combination of words. Pictures matching the key words in sentence were also made by a professional illustrator. As a final step, 25 preschool children with normal hearing participated in determining the difficulty level of training material at 0, 3, 6 dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) conditions. Results: Results showed that the multiple-choice sentences developed in this study were identified with the mean accuracy greater than 96% for list 1-5, regardless of noise conditions. However, the mean sentence recognition score of list 6 was 34-44% for the conditions of 0, 3, 6 dB SNRs. The sentence recognition score of list 6 was not related to the age of children. Conclusion: The developed multiple-choice sentences could be used as the auditory-training material for children. Continued research is necessary to determine the clinical feasibility of this auditory training tool for preschool hearing-impaired children.
INTRODUCTION MATERIALS AND METHODS RESULTS DISCUSSIONS
