[Application of the matrix sentence test Russian version in children]. / Primenenie russkoiazychnoi versii matriksnogo frazovogo testa u detei.

The Russian version of the matrix sentence test (RUMatrix test) has been shown to be suitable for accurate assessment of speech intelligibility in adults. AIM: To approve the RUMatrix for measurements in children and to evaluate its simplified version (Simplified RUMatrix). MATERIAL AND METHODS: 20 normal-hearing adults and 81 normal-hearing children aged from 5 to 10 years were involved into the study. Both versions of the test were developed by the University of Oldenburg, Germany. The tests contain syntactically homogeneous, semantically unpredictable sentences/phrases presented under the background noise. Each test list is composed of 20 sentences of 5 words for RUMatrix and of 14 speech phrases of 3 words for Simplified RUMatrix. RESULTS: A limitation in the use of the RUMatrix test in children under 10 years of age has been revealed. Evaluation of Simplified RUMatrix test in adults confirmed the perceptual homogeneity of the test list. The results of the RUMatrix test and the Simplified RUMatrix test in children were lower than in adults; they were improving with age and reach adult values by 10 years. One training track of Simplified RUMatrix test should be carried out before the assessment. CONCLUSION: The RUMatrix can be used for children of 10 years and older. The normative data of Simplified RUMatrix both for adults and children of the different ages have been obtained.

[The application of the screening questionnaires for the diagnostics of the central auditory processing disorders in the pediatric practice]. / Ispol'zovanie skriningovykh anket dlia vyiavleniia tsentral'nykh slukhovykh rasstroistv v pediatricheskoi praktike.

Identification and diagnostics of auditory processing disorders (APD) in the children continues to be a challenge. Screening tools help to decide the need for evaluation. However, none of them are used routinely in Russia, nor are there thus far auditory checklist questionnaires in the Russian language. The aim of his study was to approve Children's Auditory Performance Scale (CHAPS) and Fisher's Auditory Checklist in Russian for the children at the age of 5-10 years. The study included 52 children at the age from 5 to 11 years. All of them were native Russian speakers. Pure tone audiometry, immitancemetry, and the Simplified RuMatrix test were performed for all the children. All of them had normal hearing thresholds, speech and language development, and normal academic achievement at school. The parents filled in the CHAPS and Fisher's Auditory Checklist questionnaires in Russian. The mean value of Fisher's Auditory Checklist was 85.7 ± 9.3, the mean value of CHAPS questionnaire was equal to 0.08 ± 0.26. The results obtained with the use of the Russian language questionnaires are in excellent agreement with the test data yielded by the respective English language versions. It is recommended that the clinical assessment for APD should be performed for children with the result of the Fisher questionnaire less than 67 points and with the result of the CHAPS questionnaire less than -1 point. It is concluded that Fisher's questionnaire was more convenient for the parents to fill in.

[The speech audiometry using the matrix sentence test]. / Rechevaya audiometriya s ispol'zovaniem matriksnogo frazovogo testa.

The matrix sentence test in which the five-word semantically unpredictable sentences presented under the background noise conditions are used as the speech material was designed and validated for many languages. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the Russian version of the matrix sentence test (RuMatrix test) in the listeners of different ages with normal hearing. At the first stage of the study, 35 listeners at the age from 18 to 33 year were examined. The results of the estimation of the training effect dictated the necessity of conducting two training tracks before carrying out the RuMatrix test proper. The signal-to-noise ratio at which 50% speech recognition (SRT50) was obtained was found to be -8.8±0.8 dB SNR. A significant effect of exposure to the background noise was demonstrated: the noise level of 80 and 75 Db SPL led to a considerably lower intelligibility than the noise levels in the range from 45 to 70 dB SPL; in the subsequent studies, the noise level of 65 dB SPL was used. The high test-retest reliability of the RuMatrix test was proved. At the second stage of the study, 20 young (20-40 year old) listeners and 20 aged (62-74 year old) ones were examined. The mean SRT50 in the aged patients was found to be -6.9±1.1 dB SNR which was much worse than the mean STR50 in the young subjects (-8.7±0.9 dB SNR). It is concluded that, bearing in mind the excellent comparability of the results of the RUMat rix test across different languages, it can be used as a universal tool in international research projects.