Which of the following is NOT a benefit of speech testing?

Speech testing plays a crucial role in assessing an individual's hearing abilities and understanding their communicative needs. One of the key functions of speech testing is to provide insights that complement other audiometric evaluations, particularly pure tone audiometry. By measuring how well a person can understand and repeat speech sounds, clinicians can gain a deeper understanding of the patient's auditory processing capabilities.

The correct choice indicates that speech testing does not replace the need for pure tone audiometry. Instead, it serves as a valuable supplement. While pure tone audiometry measures the threshold levels of hearing for frequencies, speech testing focuses on assessing someone's performance with everyday communication. Both assessments are essential: pure tone audiometry provides specific data about frequency responses, while speech testing offers context regarding how those thresholds affect real-world communication. Therefore, speech testing cannot substitute the comprehensive information obtained through pure tone evaluations, as each serves a unique purpose in the audiological assessment process.

The other potential options highlight the additional benefits of speech testing, such as aligning results with patient complaints, predicting outcomes related to pure tone results, and forecasting hearing aid effectiveness, all of which emphasize the complementary nature of speech testing within the overall audiologic assessment.