Speech in Quiet (SIQ) Test

What is the speech in quiet (SIQ) test?

The SIQ test is a method of testing a patient’s functional hearing in the absence of any competing sound. The objective of this is to identify their functional hearing ability (Schoepflin, 2012). The outcome of this investigation will give a Speech Recognition Threshold (SRT).

This type of testing is different from Tone Audiometry as it involves higher areas of the Auditory pathway as the information needs to be heard, processed and repeated in order to give a correct response (National Research Council (US), 2004).

The SIQ test is designed to be performed via loudspeaker as it is a free field test. However it can be configured to perform monaurally via selection of headphones and routing the signal to the relevant ear-side.

The SIQ test is very similar to Speech Audiometry and can use any of the materials you have already ripped into your Interacoustics Suite software. However the Stimulus intensity is maintained automatically by the software following a correct or incorrect response to the stimulus, this helps to speed up the test time.

It is normal to perform this following Tone Audiometry as it gives a good indicator of the patient s performance for speech, it can also be a good indicator of the accuracy of your audiogram (Mehta & Singh, 2000). It can also be used before and after the provision of hearing aids to give an identification of the benefit achieved through amplification (REF).

Launch the Affinity Suite from Noah or OtoAccess®.

Click on the AUD tab on the upper right hand side of the screen. Ensure that your Audiometry has been performed ahead of advancing into the SIN test as this determines the start level for the test.

Click on Menu, Tests and then select SIQOnce in the SIQ test screen, the stimuli levels should be set for you. These are based on the patient audiogram and the PTA score.