A speech intelligibility test for Maltese speaking children : a pilot study

Abstract

The study of speech intelligibility of Maltese speakers has not been targeted yet, even though speech intelligibility is an essential feature of verbal communication and the assessment of speech intelligibility is an issue of fundamental clinical importance. The aim of this study was to initiate the research in speech intelligibility of Maltese speakers and to develop and pilot an assessment tool that would measure speech intelligibility of Maltese speakers aged 5 to 10 years. The "Rating of Maltese Speech Intelligibility Test" (ROMSIT) was developed and piloted on ten Maltese speakers aged 5 to 10 years; nine speakers with speech intelligibility problems and a normal speaker. The collected speech samples (including both single-word and connected-speech samples) were judged by four listeners for each speaker; including a familiar, unfamiliar trained and two unfamiliar untrained listeners. The data was analysed quantitatively, statistically and qualitatively to provide preliminary information about the performance of the ROMSIT in measuring speech intelligibility of Maltese speaking children, the linguistic factors affecting Maltese speech intelligibility and the difference in listeners' performance according to the variables of familiarity and training. Results indicate that the ROMSIT was able to give a good indication of speech intelligibility scores at various levels of severity and was very positively rated by the Speech and Language Pathologists who participated in its piloting. Linguistic factors and listeners' variables affecting speech intelligibility of Maltese speakers were described and discussed. The present study, being a pilot study, generated more questions than answers but leads to a number of research questions for future studies in Maltese speech intelligibility.