Communication Scale for Older Adults (CSOA).

The communication Self-Assessment Scales for Older Adults (CSOA) are comprised of a 41-item Communication Strategies scale and a 31-item Communication Attitudes scale. Three-point and 5-point response formats are available. The scales were standardized on a population of 135 independent-living adults with hearing loss, ranging in age from 60 to 88 years. Item analysis, internal consistency reliability, test-retest reliability, normative data, and 95 percent confidence intervals are presented. A sample case illustrates how the scales can be used to evaluate the communication strategies and attitudes of an individual client. In addition, data are presented to show changes in the use of communication strategies and attitudes of a group of clients 3 months and 9 months after completion of aural rehabilitation programs.

Benefit from visual cues in auditory-visual speech recognition by middle-aged and elderly persons.

The benefit derived from visual cues in auditory-visual speech recognition and patterns of auditory and visual consonant confusions were compared for 20 middle-aged and 20 elderly men who were moderately to severely hearing impaired. Consonant-vowel nonsense syllables and CID sentences were presented to the subjects under auditory-only, visual-only, and auditory-visual test conditions. Benefit was defined as the difference between the scores in the auditory-only and auditory-visual conditions. The results revealed that the middle-aged and elderly subjects obtained similar benefit from visual cues in auditory-visual speech recognition. Further, patterns of consonant confusions were similar for the two groups.