Analytic study of the fundamental speech skills test

The fundamental speech skills test (FSST) evaluates basic speech production skills and is designed for use with hearing-impaired students. A field study was performed in which 250 hearing-impaired students (age range 6 through 19 yr) were evaluated. A series of factor analyses was performed on the data, the results of which showed distinct patterns among basic speech skills. Relationships with hearing loss, age, and gender were examined. The primary factors were found to be vowel production, consonant articulation, breathstream management, pitch control, stress and intonation, and syllabification. Similar rates of improvement with increased residual hearing were observed for almost all factors. Age effects differed among the factors. Male-female differences were observed primarily with respect to pitch control.