Argues that some speech perception test materials lack the sensitivity to be accurate measures of listeners' ability to perceive speech in realistic listening situations, especially if the tests are conducted in an environment for which they were not designed. A warning and guide for professional and student audiologists. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Millions of Americans experience some degree of hearing loss. The Social Security Administration (SSA) operates programs that provide cash disability benefits to people with permanent impairments like hearing loss, if they can show that their impairments meet stringent SSA criteria and their earnings are below an SSA threshold. The National Research Council convened an expert committee at the request of the SSA to study the issues related to disability determination for people with hearing loss. This volume is the product of that study. Hearing Loss: Determining Eligibility for Social Security Benefits reviews current knowledge about hearing loss and its measurement and treatment, and provides an evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the current processes and criteria. It recommends changes to strengthen the disability determination process and ensure its reliability and fairness. The book addresses criteria for selection of pure tone and speech tests, guidelines for test administration, testing of hearing in noise, special issues related to testing children, and the difficulty of predicting work capacity from clinical hearing test results. It should be useful to audiologists, otolaryngologists, disability advocates, and others who are concerned with people who have hearing loss.

Now in its Third Edition, the Auditory Perception Test for the Hearing Impaired continues to enable the accurate determination of children's discrete auditory perception abilities (aged three years and older) by profiling in sixteen different skill areas.

Notes that in the decade since the first edition, speech audiometry has been almost entirely replaced by electrophysiological tests in many countries for advanced diagnosis, but that many countries do not have such sophisticated equipment or training, and that audiology is still used for rehabilitation. Explains such aspects as the basic properties of speech, speech tests in quiet and noise as a measure of auditory processing, equipment and its calibration, speech tests of hearing for children, and experiences in a number of countries and institutions. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.