Difference between pure tone and speech audiometer

It is complementary to pure tone audiometry, which only gives an indication of absolute perceptual thresholds of tonal sounds (peripheral function), whereas speech audiometry determines speech intelligibility and discrimination (between phonemes).

Explanation:peech audiometry was performed on 15 children with secretory otitis media pre-and post-operatively and the findings compared with the pre-and post-operative pure tone audiograms. The results showed that in 30 per cent of cases pre-operatively the speech audiogram suggested a significantly worse hearing ability than that suggested by the pure tone audiogram (PTA). Where a PTA gives a borderline threshold disproportionate parental concern should be taken seriously as the hearing ability may well be worse than the PTA suggests.