A Simple and Practical Test of Hearing
- Author:
Kirkpatrick,
State Normal School, Fitcliburg, Mass.
All persons who have had much experience in testing the hearing of children, will agree that such tests are not easily made with accuracy. It is still more difficult to record the results of such tests in a form that will mean much except in relation to other tests made by the same person, under the same conditions. The requirements of the new state laws in Massachusetts, Vermont, and Connecticut, that teachers shall test the sight and hearing of their pupils, has made it especially necessary that a simple test and form of record should be found.
At the Fitchburg State Normal School a group test has been adopted that is more quickly made and more accurate than individual tests. As many as fifteen children may bo tested at onc(? in an ordinary school room. They are placed five each in the two outside rows and the middle row of seats. They are supplied with paper and pencil, and asked to keep their eyes to the front while the teacher, standing on the right, opposite the middle pupil, pronounces in a low, distinct tone, and in a low, distinct whisper, a series of numbers which they arc required to write as a dictation exercise. After four or five numbers have been given in a low tone, and as many in a whisper, the children change seats, those nearest going to the farther side of the room and the middle row taking their places, those in the farthest row coming to the middle row. After dictating another series of numbers, the moving is repeated, and another list of numbers is given. This completes the test of the right ear, all pupils having been tested at threo distances?near, far and medium. The left ears are tested in a similar way. The teacher then collects tho papers, and marks them one for every digit written correctly. The marks of tho children for the right ear and the left car respectively are then averaged. The record of each ear for each child is then recorded in the form of a fraction, the denominator of which is the avorago for the group (or for tho whole room tested by the same teachor), the numerator of which is the number of digits correctly written by the pupil for that ear.
This record shows accurately the acuteness of the hearing of each child as compared with that of his mates, regardless of the size of the room, its quietness, and the loudness and distinctness of the voices of the teachers who have made the test in different schools. All but the first grade may be tested in this way, but it is well in the lower grades to give a little preliminary practice in writing numbers in columns, as they are spoken in an ordinary tone of voice, so that the children will not have to give thought to getting them arranged properly. To avoid confusion, let the pupil write the numbers spoken to the right ear on the side of the paper on which he “writes his name, and those spoken to the left ear on the other side. It is well, after giving a number, to say in an ordinary voice, “Write.” The children who do not hear can makea dash in place of the number. If five different numerals are given for each series in a low tone, and the same number in a low whisper, the total number of digits given in testing one ear will be thirty. The test will have been satisfactorily made if the number heard averages about twenty. This will mean that the teacher has spoken in a sufficiently low tone to make it impossible for those in the farthest row to hear. It is well for the teacher to give herself a little practice in speaking in a low but distinct tone and whisper, before making the test.
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