A Free-field Pure-tone Hearing Screening Test

South Dakota state college requires hearing test as part of a physical examination for all entering freshmen. The purpose of the test is to discover students with a significant hearing loss. The test, administered by the college’s speech department, has been part of the examination program since 1952. A word intelligibility test was administered from a tape recording which was played to all entering freshmen through loudspeakers. There was evidence that this test, though it could be efficiently administered, did not discover students with highly significant hearing losses. Problems with earlier tests spurred the search for a more efficient instrument. Webster experimented with a screening test of this general type about 1950. In preliminary tryouts of his pure tone group test, Webster concluded that such a test was feasible. The purpose of the test was to screen students rapidly and to discover those with hearing losses of a magnitude assumed to be handicap in everyday activities