Characterizing the Relationship Between the Intelligibility in Context Scale and Transcription Intelligibility in Typically Developing English-Speaking Children Between Ages 2;6 and 9;11.

Abstract

Purpose: The goal of the present study was to quantify the relationship between Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS) scores and transcription intelligibility scores of typically developing English-speaking children when the confounding effects of age were controlled.

Method: Five hundred forty-five typically developing children aged 2;6 to 9;11 (years;months) participated in the study. Parents of each child participant completed the ICS. Naïve listeners orthographically transcribed speech samples from child participants. To control the effect of age, we computed Spearman correlation values between the transcription intelligibility scores and ICS scores stratified by age bands. To estimate the relationship between the transcription intelligibility score and ICS scores across age while controlling the effect of age, we averaged Spearman correlation values across age bands.

Results: Spearman correlations between ICS scores (as composite scores or as individual ICS item scores) and transcription intelligibility scores were generally negligible to low, indicating a weak relationship.

Conclusions: ICS and transcription intelligibility are complementary measures in giving a holistic picture of how well a child is understood, in shaping an individualized interventional plan and in monitoring progress.

Supplemental material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.29856173.