What is it about?

Smartphones are increasingly used in fieldwork and clinical research. Speech-language therapists provide a useful, cost-effective tool for measuring patient treatment outcomes. To date, little work has been done to test the reliability of smartphones for tracking changes in sound-pressure level (SPL; volume) of a client's voice before and after treatment. This study compared four smartphones with an industry-standard sound-level meter. While phones gave different exact decibel values, they were able to measure near identical changes in volume to the sound-level meter, even with some background noise. Results were highly repeatable across tests. This means that, although smartphones are not accurate for measuring single SPL values (without calibration), they can accurately measure changes in SPL. Smartphones can be a low-cost way to monitor changes in voice loudness over time, and can be used to track treatment effects in voice patients.

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Why is it important?

Clinicians need easy-to-use and reliable tools to measure the effectiveness of their treatments in clinical contexts. These are needed to guide treatment plans and ensure patients have the right care. This study provides evidence supporting the use of smartphones to measure volume (SPL) changes in speakers as a treatment effect. This will promote more robust reporting in a low-cost and convenient manner.

Perspectives

I hope this article will help clinicians and voice researchers see how they can improve their assessment of patient treatment outcomes using simple but effective methods.

Calvin Baker
University of Auckland

Read the Original

This page is a summary of: Exploring the Feasibility of Using Smartphones for Measuring Sound-Level Difference as a Treatment Outcome, American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, June 2025, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA),
DOI: 10.1044/2025_ajslp-24-00538.
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