bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Using a Family-Centered Care Approach in Audiologic Rehabilitation for Adults with Hearing Impairment
Authors: Scarinci Nerina , Meyer Carly , Ekberg Katie , Hickson Louise
Published: July 2014

Hearing problems are the most common communication disability in older people. The wide-ranging impact of hearing impairment means that not only does the person with hearing impairment experience the consequences, but also his or her family members. This impact on family members is referred to as a “third-party disability” (World Health Organization, 2001). Health professionals and researchers worldwide suggest that professionals can increase effectiveness of health care if they take into account the needs of the person with hearing impairment and the needs of family members (Dunst, 2002). This article discusses the important role of family-centered care in audiologic rehabilitation for adults with hearing impairment. Strategies for increased inclusion of family members in the rehabilitation process are proposed, with concepts from the field of psychology applied to audiologic rehabilitation.
SIG 14 Perspectives Vol. 19, No. 1, March 2012
Authors: Faroqi-Shah Yasmeen
Published: July 2014

Sorry, this activity is no longer available for CEUs. Visit the SIG 14 page on the
ASHA Store
to see available CE activities.

Use the CE questions PDF here as study questions to guide your Perspectives reading.
Pronunciation Training Needs for Chinese and Korean Interpreters-in-Training
Authors: Turner Jean , Gutierrez Audrey
Published: July 2014

Professional interpreters working in the English-Korean and English-Chinese combinations work in both directions; they render spoken Korean/Chinese into English and spoken English into Korean/Chinese. Graduate programs in Interpretation Studies (IS) have proliferated in Korea and China and admission to programs in these countries and the United States is competitive; pronunciation accuracy is expected. However, some students fear their speech lacks the desired degree of fluency or accuracy, or they worry that the pressure of interpreting will degrade their pronunciation. Pronunciation instruction addressing the concerns of these advanced language learners should build both their confidence and substantial skills. In this article, we present the findings of an initial needs assessment. Interview data from 9 IS professors suggest that little systematic pronunciation instruction is currently provided, though individual students receive self-study direction. Interview and survey data from 3 IS graduates and 22 Korean and Chinese IS students reveal that their early language study included both intuitive-imitative and analytic-linguistic pronunciation techniques. In the final section of this article we synthesize the findings and propose practices from second language pedagogy and speech therapy that could be incorporated into pronunciation training addressing the specific needs of these language professionals.
Early Motor Unit Disease Masquerading as Psychogenic Breathy Dysphonia: A Clinical Case Presentation
Authors: Aronson Arnold E.
Published: July 2014

This is a study of a 20-year-old girl who developed mild, breathy dysphonia which, because of its nonspecificity, had been previously diagnosed as psychogenic; in actuality her voice change was a sign of early myasthenia gravis. The case is presented to alert the clinician to the fact that voice changes can be one of the first and only signs of early neurologic disease. Differential diagnosis requires careful laryngologic, psychiatric, speech, and neurologic examinations. In this instance, the laryngologic and psychiatric examinations were nonproductive, but the speech examination elicited a marked increase in breathiness, hypernasality, and articulatory imprecision as the consequence of prolonged, effortful speaking. This finding, along with the neurologist’s demonstration of an increase in muscular strength by means of injecting edrophonium chloride (Tensilon) led to the diagnosis of myasthenia gravis. A summary of the incidence, clinical features, methods of examination, and treatment of this disease follow the case presentation.
Why Not Pivot Grammar?
Authors: Bloom Lois
Published: July 2014

Children’s early attempts at syntax have been described in the recent language development literature in terms of “pivot grammar.” The pivot-open class distinction is discussed in the light of the author’s more recent research that inquired into the semantic intentions that underlie early sentences. When utterances were examined along with context and behavior in the speech events in which they occurred, certain underlying conceptual relations could be identified. It is concluded that the “pivot grammar” account is only a superficial characterization of the form and distribution of linguistic elements in early two-word utterances. It is suggested that a more productive model of early language development to use for evaluation and treatment of language pathology would need to specify the semantic relations among objects and events that are coded by syntax.
Objective Indices of Severity of Chronic Aphasia in Stroke Patients
Authors: Smith Aaron
Published: July 2014

Standardized language tests of 78 stroke patients with chronic aphasia indicated: (1) All four language components were impaired in all 78 aphasics. (2) The severity of comprehension defect generally reflected the severity of overall language impairment. (3) In hemiplegics and nonhemiplegics, writing was more severely impaired than speech, comprehension, and reading. (4) Severity of language defects increased with advancing age. (5) Residual language functions in highly educated aphasics were greater than those in less educated aphasics. (6) Left-handed adults are less likely than dextrals to sustain chronic aphasia as a result of cerebrovascular lesions. (7) Patterns of associated language defects did not coincide with the traditional dichotomy of Broca’s “motor” vs Wernicke’s “sensory” and “conduction” aphasia as originally described.

Marked impairment in visual ideational, spatial, and memory functions characteristic of deficits resulting from right posterior lesions was associated with severe comprehension defects. Since the same finding was consistently reported in several earlier studies, the results suggest that (1) cerebrovascular lesions resulting in chronic aphasia involve the nondominant as well as the left hemisphere more frequently than is commonly believed, and (2) the nondominant hemisphere plays a significant role in auditory comprehension and in recovery of language functions in aphasia.
Developmental Sentence Scoring: A Clinical Procedure for Estimating Syntactic Development in Children’s Spontaneous Speech
Authors: Lee Laura L. , Canter Susan M.
Published: July 2014

Developmental Sentence Scoring (DSS) is a clinical procedure for estimating the status and progress of children enrolled for language training in a clinic. It is based upon a developmental scale of syntax acquisition. By analyzing a child’s spontaneous, tape-recorded speech sample, a clinician can estimate to what extent the child has generalized the grammatical rules sufficiently to use them in verbal performance. With such a guide the clinician can plan lessons which present these structures in a presumably developmental sequence, thereby introducing grammatical complexity in systematically graded steps. The DSS procedure gives weighted scores to a developmental order of pronouns, verbs, negatives, conjunctions, yes-no questions, and wh-questions. The mean score per sentence estimates the child’s ability to formulate sentences with a high grammatical “load.” The DSS procedure was carried out on 80 boys and 80 girls, ages 3 years, 0 months, to 6 years, 11 months, equally distributed within six-month age groups, all coming from middle-income, standard dialect homes, and all scoring between 85 and 115 on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. Percentiles of DSS scores for these 160 normal children provide guidelines for estimating the status and rate of progress of children treated in a clinic.
The Application of Filial Therapy to Young Children with Stuttering Problems
Authors: Andronico Michael P. , Blake Irwin
Published: July 2014

Filial therapy is a method of teaching parents to conduct nondirective play therapy sessions at home with their children. This approach is discussed along with its potential application to children with stuttering problems. Emphasis is on helping parents to become constructively involved in the treatment of their children and to deal with their own emotional reactions to their stuttering children.
The Use of Real-Time Visual Displays of Speech in the Training of a Profoundly Deaf, Nonspeaking Child: A Case Report
Authors: Stark Rachel E.
Published: July 2014

Real-time amplitude contour and spectral displays were used in teaching speech production skills to a profoundly deaf, nonspeaking boy. This child had a visual attention problem, a behavior problem, and a poor academic record. In individual instruction, he was first taught to produce features of speech, for example, friction, nasal, and stop, which are present in vocalizations of 6- to 9-month-old infants, and then to combine these features in syllables and words. He made progress in speech, although sign language and finger spelling were taught at the same time. Speech production skills were retained after instruction was terminated. The results suggest that deaf children are able to extract information about the features of speech from visual displays, and that a developmental sequence should be followed as far as possible in teaching speech production skills to them.
A Preliminary View of Information Theory and Articulatory Omissions
Authors: Leonard Laurence B.
Published: July 2014

This paper presents a preliminary view of the clinical application of information theory. An analysis of a six-year-old child demonstrating inconsistent omissions of /z/ revealed that the /z/ items the child uttered were associated with much information while the /z/ items the child omitted contributed little information. Rather than sequencing treatment from those tasks most easily performed by the child to more difficult tasks, this approach commenced by requiring the child to correctly utter sentences more difficult for a listener to comprehend, and proceeded to requiring him to correctly utter sentences much easier for the listener to comprehend. This approach was based on the assumption that it is the listeners in a child’s environment who are, at least in part, responsible for the child’s articulatory behavior.
A New Approach to the Classification and Measurement of Stuttering
Authors: Wertheim Eleanor S.
Published: July 2014

A quantitative, multidimensional approach to clinical diagnosis and management of stuttering is proposed. This approach would involve (1) the measurement of stuttering behavior under a number of contrived social conditions relevant to the given population of stutterers; (2) a method of measurement which provides separate quantitative estimates of the qualitative aspects of the stuttering pattern, for example, total frequency of disfluencies as well as incidence of hard blocking; (3) an analysis of the quantitative relationship between the social context and the qualitative pattern of stuttering and its severity; (4) a diagnostic formulation of “stutterogenic” situations for a given individual and of the stability and severity of the stuttering pattern across the total range of situations; and (5) a management plan geared to these diagnostic considerations. The approach is illustrated, using the findings of an experimental study primarily designed to test the author’s recently postulated bioadaptive theory of stuttering. Further research is needed to refine the proposed diagnostic approach and to establish its clinical validity and usefulness.
Use of a Baseline Probe Technique to Monitor the Test Responses of Aphasic Patients
Authors: Salvatore Anthony P.
Published: July 2014

Responses of aphasic patients on a visual discrimination task were monitored using a baseline probe technique. A baseline item was shaped and used as a probe item during the task. Retention of test instructions and fatigue were delineated from item complexity by the probes. Patients responded correctly to probe items during sequences of errors, suggesting that the notion of “temporary imperception” to account for such error clusters is not tenable.
Auditory Feedback as a Major Factor in Stuttering
Authors: Timmons Beverly A. , Boudreau James P.
Published: July 2014

This paper summarizes theories of DAF reaction and related research, and explores another hypothesis relating stuttering behavior and DAF reaction. The hypothesis stresses both internal and external feedback disruptions due to physiological characteristics of individuals. It also proposes that anxiety and its concomitant physiological factors act as catalysts to feedback disruptions.
Linguistics and Language Therapy: The Sentence Construction Board
Authors: Davis G. Albyn
Published: July 2014

This paper describes the use of an apparatus called the sentence construction board (SCB) to facilitate therapy involving sentence structure. The SCB was developed from basic linguistic principles and from Fitzgerald’s method for teaching language to deaf children. Several authors have suggested use of structural linguistics and transformational grammar to guide the selection of syntactic patterns in language therapy. Therapy should progress from using simple structures such as kernel sentences to using minor and major transformations. Fitzgerald’s method employed key words and symbols to represent grammatical classes and to be arranged according to syntactic rules. The SCB contains lights that are employed as symbols for grammatical classes. The light symbols and key words may be arranged to depict kernel structures and different transformations. The SCB is intended to assist a patient in constructing standard or nonstandard English sentences in response to simple pictures. It may be applied in therapy for a variety of language pathologies, including training hard-of-hearing children and retraining aphasic adults. It may also be helpful in teaching English as a second language or dialect. The SCB also shows that linguistic theory can have practical consequences for the language clinician.
The Development of a Stuttering Chronicity Prediction Checklist: A Preliminary Report
Authors: Cooper Eugene B.
Published: July 2014

A stuttering chronicity prediction checklist for research purposes is described following a review of the literature concerning spontaneous recovery rates among stutterers and the variables that have been suggested as being related to spontaneous recovery. Longitudinal studies will be necessary to determine the reliability and validity of the 27-item checklist.
Acoustic Impedance Measurement in the Study of Patients with Spasmodic Dysphonia
Authors: McCall Gerald N.
Published: July 2014

The use of acoustic impedance measurement for the study of middle ear muscle dysfunction in patients with spasmodic dysphonia is advocated. Preliminary data reported here provide evidence of a high incidence of apparent middle ear muscle dysfunction in these patients. The findings appear to add further support to the theory of neurogenic dysfunction in spasmodic dysphonia. Observations of possible problems in muscle relaxation in some patients and tremor of the middle ear muscle(s) in others are interpreted as being suggestive of neurologic involvement of the extrapyramidal motor system.
The Treatment of Stuttering Through Precision Punishment and Cognitive Arousal
Authors: Berecz John M.
Published: July 2014

A new method for the treatment of stuttering is described in which patients vividly imagine the cues which usually lead to their stuttering and then contingently experience a painful shock. The use of imagined cues makes possible great flexibility while increasing the precision with which punishment is applied. Various ethical and theoretical objections to the use of punishment are discussed, and the author concludes that punishment can be effective and useful in the treatment of stuttering. The steps for implementing cognitive conditioning therapy are clearly outlined and a case study is presented.
Childhood Verbal Apraxia and Its Treatment
Authors: Chappell Gerald E.
Published: July 2014

This article reports some ideas and a program of procedures for identifying children with verbal apraxia and for treating their special needs. The program focuses on behavioral differentiation and on the teaching of basic target phonemes, the teaching of combination and blending skills for the production of critical syllable units, and the teaching of volitional control for the emission of key word vocabulary.
Nonverbal Communication: An Alternate Mode of Communication for the Child with Severe Cerebral Palsy
Authors: Hagen Chris , Porter Wyne , Brink Joyce
Published: July 2014

This paper reports the results of a study to determine the feasibility and usefulness of teaching severely mentally retarded cerebral-palsied children a nonverbal means of communication. All the children easily learned to use the communication device as a means of signaling distress and the need for attention. Most of them learned to use it to communicate their basic needs. The extent to which they used the communication system depended heavily on the attitude of the staff.
The Establishment, Transfer, and Maintenance of Fluent Speech in 50 Stutterers Using Delayed Auditory Feedback and Operant Procedures
Authors: Ryan Bruce P. , Van Kirk Barbara
Published: July 2014

Operant speech fluency techniques are being used in a clinical program in a rehabilitation center to treat people who stutter. Establishment, transfer, and maintenance programs are used. Delayed auditory feedback is commonly employed to produce the initial fluent speech. From more than 200 clients seen over the past four years, 50 recent clients were selected for a detailed analysis. The results indicate that the programs are effective in helping people of varying ages and stuttering severity to speak fluently. This was accomplished in relatively short periods (approximately 20 hours of therapy). The fluent speech of the clients has transferred to their environment and checks indicate that it has been maintained.
Treatment of Vocal Abuse Disorders Using a Vocal Intensity Controller
Authors: Holbrook Anthony , Rolnick Michael I. , Bailey Clayton W.
Published: July 2014

A portable voice intensity controller (VIC) was used in a treatment program for patients with dysphonia related to vocal cord lesions and to laryngeal hypertension. The device, worn in daily speaking situations, provided auditory feedback contingent on excessive vocal intensity. Consequently, a soft vocal level was automatically maintained even in the presence of high-level environmental noise. The device proved to be an aid to vocal rehabilitation for the 32 patients who were studied.
A Modification of the Tillman-Olsen Method for Obtaining the Speech Reception Threshold
Authors: Martin Frederick N. , Stauffer Mary Lou
Published: July 2014

Twenty normal-hearing subjects were tested to determine their speech reception thresholds (SRTs) using the Tillman-Olsen method and a modification of their method requiring no knowledge of the pure-tone audiogram from which to estimate the SRT. Varying amounts of attenuation were added to the line leading to the test earphone to minimize experimenter bias. The data revealed no significant differences between the two methods in either the SRTs themselves or the amount of time required to obtain them. A procedure is therefore advanced for clinicians wishing to measure SRTs without prior knowledge of pure-tone thresholds.
The Expressive Portion of the NSST Compared to a Spontaneous Language Sample
Authors: Prutting Carol A. , Gallagher Tanya M. , Mulac Anthony
Published: July 2014

This study was undertaken to determine the relationship between syntactic structures produced on the expressive portion of the NSST and those produced in a spontaneous language sample. The NSST was administered to 12 children previously diagnosed as delayed in language. In addition, spontaneous language samples were collected by a speech clinician and by the child’s mother. The children ranged in age from four years one month to five years 11 months. We found that 30% of those syntactic structures incorrectly produced on the NSST were correctly produced spontaneously in the language sample. Furthermore, the sample obtained by the clinician was significantly richer in terms of number of structures produced correctly than the sample collected by the mother. Overall results indicate that an item analysis of the expressive portion of the NSST does not present an accurate representation of the child’s language performance and therefore cannot be interpreted beyond its stated purpose, namely that of a screening instrument.
Articulation Development in Children Aged Two to Four Years
Authors: Prather Elizabeth M. , Hedrick Dona Lee , Kern Carolyn A.
Published: July 2014

The articulation skills of 147 children aged 24 to 48 months were tested and the results compared with earlier classical studies and distinctive feature development. The results of the present study indicate consistently earlier age levels for the correct sound and feature usage than the previous studies, though the general sequences of development are strikingly similar in all studies.
Acupuncture and Sensorineural Hearing Loss: A Review
Authors: Taub Harvey A.
Published: July 2014

Recent reports concerning the use of acupuncture as a possible treatment for sensorineural hearing impairment were reviewed and evaluated. It was concluded that acupuncture has no effect upon the hearing ability of individuals with sensorineural losses. Further, it was suggested that subjective feelings of improvement represent a placebo effect resulting from the application of a treatment that patients believe might work and not from acupuncture itself.
Auditory-Visual Perception of Speech
Authors: Erber Norman P.
Published: July 2014

Hearing-impaired persons usually perceive speech by watching the face of the talker while listening through a hearing aid. Normal-hearing persons also tend to rely on visual cues, especially when they communicate in noisy or reverberant environments. Numerous clinical and laboratory studies on the auditory-visual performance of normal-hearing and hearing-impaired children and adults demonstrate that combined auditory-visual perception is superior to perception through either audition or vision alone. This paper reviews these studies and provides a rationale for routine evaluation of auditory-visual speech perception in audiology clinics.
Analysis of a Father’s Speech to his Language-Learning Child
Authors: Giattino Jill , Hogan Jeanne G.
Published: July 2014

This study analyzed the speech of a father to his language-learning child. Father-to-child speech was taped daily over a two-week period when the child was three years old. Results indicated that declarative (35%) and interrogative (34%) sentences occurred most often. Smaller percentages of exclamatory (9%) and imperative (6%) sentences were found. The father rarely repeated his own utterances and almost never expanded his daughter’s utterances. The child rarely immediately imitated her father’s utterances. Comparisons are made of aspects of father-to-child speech with mother-to-child speech as reported in previous investigations.
The Effects of Age on the Diagnostic Utility of the Rollover Phenomenon
Authors: Gang Richard Philip
Published: July 2014

Articulation curves were constructed for 32 elderly listeners with hearing according to previously established decadal age norms. Each function was specifically examined for the presence of rollover, a previously determined indicator of retrocochlear pathology. Rollover exhibited by six subjects was an age-related phenomenon. It is suggested that normal neural degeneration concomitant with the aging process is responsible for this auditory behavior and that clinical significance of the rollover phenomenon is greatly reduced when dealing with the aged population. Implications for the use of the rollover index are also discussed.
Spouses' Understanding of the Communication Disabilities of Aphasic Patients
Authors: Helmick Joseph W. , Watamori Toshiko S. , Palmer John M.
Published: July 2014

The language skills of 11 aphasic patients were assessed through the use of the PICA. Spouse’s understanding of the aphasic partner’s language deficits was measured by rating the aphasic spouse on the Functional Communication Profile. Results indicate that spouses of aphasic patients view the patient’s communication to be less impaired than it actually is. Implications for the counseling role of the speech pathologist in language therapy are discussed.
Spectrographic Comparison of Two Types of Spastic Dysphonia
Authors: Wolfe Virginia I. , Bacon Mary
Published: July 2014

A spectrographic comparison of the voices of two patients with spastic dysphonia demonstrated differences in vocal characteristics. The voice of one patient was characterized by intermittent breathiness which appeared spectrographically as a breakdown in formant structure or as the addition of fricative fill superimposed upon resonance bars. The voice of the second patient was characterized by strainstrangle phonation which appeared spectrographically as widely and irregularly spaced vertical striations. The contrasting vocal characteristics of the two patients are compatible with the viewpoint that there may be two types of spastic dysphonia.
Response Patterns of Pre-School-Age Children to the Northwestern Syntax Screening Test
Authors: Larson George W. , Summers Patricia A.
Published: July 2014

This study was undertaken to describe the response patterns of 216 boys and girls between the ages of five-and-one-half and six-and-one-half years of age on grammatically matched receptive and expressive items of the NSST. The results showed no significant differences among the mean scores for three age levels or between the two sexes. However, the obtained means were substantially below those obtained on the NSST standardization sample. Item analysis suggested several inconsistencies between the ages of five-and-one-half and six-and-one-half years of age on gramcorrect expressively but incorrect receptively.
A System for Reporting Tympanometric Results
Authors: Seidemann Michael F. , Byers Vincent W. , Sisterhen Dan H.
Published: July 2014

Available electroacoustic middle-ear measurement instruments report information concerning middle-ear function in at least six different terms. These terms are used to report middle-ear function: impedance, compliance, admittance, susceptance, conductance, and volume. A standard system for the clinical expression of middle-ear measurements, regardless of the particular measurement unit used, is proposed.
Right-Hemisphere Language Dominance in a Case of Left-Hemisphere Arteriovenous Malformation
Authors: Wertz Robert T. , Messert Bernard , Collins Michael , Rosenbek Jay C. , Kao Chun C.
Published: July 2014

This paper reports a case of surgical removal of a left-hemisphere arteriovenous malformation (AVM) in a left-handed adult without subsequent speech or language deficit. Preoperative intracarotid amobarbital testing indicated right-hemisphere language dominance. Our patient demonstrated no language involvement prior to or following surgery. We speculate the congenital nature of a left-hemisphere AVM may dictate right-hemisphere language dominance, thereby explaining the lack of residuals following removal of AVMs in left-hemisphere speech and motor areas.
Word Discrimination for Listeners with Flat Sensorineural Hearing Losses
Authors: Bess Fred H. , Townsend Thomas H.
Published: July 2014

This study examined discrimination scores among listeners (742 ears) with flat sensorineural hearing losses. The discrimination data were analyzed in terms of degree of hearing impairment and subject age. Contrary to previous findings, the results showed that the average subject exhibited a discriminative ability of 70% or better for hearing levels less than 60 dB. A 10 to 20% decline in intelligibility, however, was found for losses 60 dB and greater. Listeners' performance decreased somewhat as a function of age especially for subjects with the greatest hearing losses. Finally, a subject’s word discrimination was similar whether hearing loss was based on a three- or a five-frequency average.
Effects of Stimulus Intensity on Speech Perception by Deaf Children
Authors: Erber Norman P. , Witt Linda H.
Published: July 2014

Ten monosyllabic, 10 trochaic, and 10 spondaic words were presented monaurally to 10 severely (70–95 dB HTL) and 10 profoundly (x0003E 95 dB HTL) hearing-impaired children at sensation levels (SL) ranging from near detection to near discomfort. Two methods were used to evaluate word perception as a function of stimulus intensity: the percentage of words recognized correctly and the percentage of words categorized correctly as to stress pattern. Both word-recognition and categorization scores reached maxima at 24–36 dB SL for the severe group, supporting previous results. For the profoundly deaf group, word-recognition scores were low regardless of SL, but their perception of the stress patterns of words improved as a function of increasing intensity, reaching maxima at 12–30 dB SL. The procedure and results described in this paper may be used by audiologists to help select optimal hearing aid volume settings for young hearing-impaired children.
A Hearing Aid Malfunction Detection Unit
Authors: Roeser Ross J. , Glorig Aram , Gerken George M. , Kessinger Roger
Published: July 2014

A system is described, the Hearing Aid Malfunction Detection Unit (HAMDU), that electrically checks for proper operation of several aspects of hearing aid function. HAMDU is a miniature, add-on device which performs a check of hearing aid operation about every half hour, and which indicates malfunction by means of a highly visible, electrically tripped indicator. Functions checked include battery voltage, gain, distortion and noise, and continuity of the receiver cord. In addition, the indicator will be tripped if the hearing aid is turned off. HAMDU is small, low in cost, can be adapted to most body aids, and has no effect on hearing aid performance. The primary features of the system are that the hearing aid is checked periodically throughout its use, and the aid does not have to be removed from the wearer. The unit is designed specifically for body type hearing aids worn by children.
Time-Compressed Speech Discrimination in Central Auditory Disorder: A Pediatric Case Study
Authors: Oelschlaeger Mary Lee , Orchik Daniel
Published: July 2014

Audiological data are presented for an 11-year-old aphasic girl with confirmed left-hemisphere damage. Pure-tone audiometry, impedance measurement, and speech discrimination testing were completed. Discrimination testing included presentation of the Word Intelligibility by Picture Identification (WIPI) test at 0 and 60% time compression. Results indicated significantly poorer speech discrimination in the ear contralateral to the site of lesion at 60% time compression. This case study supports the use of time-compressed speech discrimination testing in the assessment of central auditory function of children and as a diagnostic tool for determination of site of lesion.
Tympanometry Assessment of Eustachian Tube Patency in Children
Authors: Seidemann Michael F. , Givens Gregg D.
Published: July 2014

Eustachian tube patency was assessed tympanometrically in a group of otologically normal children at a pediatric outpatient clinic. A pressure-swallow technique of assessing eustachian tube patency was administered. The results indicated the importance of the examination of both middle ear pressure and function changes in the evaluation of eustachian tube test results.
Modification of the Eight-Step Continuum for Treatment of Apraxia of Speech in Adults
Authors: Deal Jon L. , Florance Cheri L.
Published: July 2014

A previously reported treatment program for patients with severe apraxia of speech suggested that (1) some communicative ability could be restored, (2) it might be feasible to develop home programs from the original program, (3) the complete eight-step continuum may not be necessary, and (4) some patients had difficulty at Step 4 in the program. Protocols from four severely apractic patients supported the contention that some communicative ability could be restored using this program. Effective home programs, based on the original program, were successfully developed. The complete program was not needed for two of the four patients. Finally, a methodology for reducing the difficulty at Step 4 in the program was discussed.
Clinician-Child Discourse: Some Preliminary Questions
Authors: Prutting Carol A. , Bagshaw Nancy , Goldstein Howard , Juskowitz Susan , Umen Ilene
Published: July 2014

Various pragmatic procedures were used to analyze clinician-child discourse in a language remediation setting. Communicative acts, responses to prior requests, and discourse topics were described in the interaction between clinician and child. Three major trends were derived from the data. First, consistent patterns were found among clinicians and children for the relative frequency of communicative acts as well as the general and specific types of communicative acts. Second, patterns were not found for the responses to prior requests for either clinicians or children. Last, consistent patterns were found across data on groups of clinicians and children for the introduction, continuation, and reintroduction of discourse topics. Preliminary questions are raised regarding the variables associated with clinician-child discourse to begin to understand the nature of this interaction.
Velopharyngeal Relationships of /i/ and /s/ as Seen Cephalometrically for Persons with Suspected Incompetence
Authors: Bowman Sally A. , Shanks James C.
Published: July 2014

Measurements of velopharyngeal gaps were obtained for 110 subjects with suspected velopharyngeal incompetence. Cephalometric x rays during a high vowel, /i/, and a sustained voiceless sibilant, /s/, were compared. Velopharyngeal gaps for the two phonemes differed in group means and for most individual subjects, with greater gaps being found for /i/ than for /s/. Persons with smaller gaps generally were found to have /i/ gaps in the absence of /s/ gaps, and greater /i-s/ discrepancy. Relationships between velum and pharyngeal wall perceived cephalometrically during /i/ and /s/ were not found to be equivalent. Generally, the /i/ radiograph agreed better with presumed velopharyngeal incompetence.
Assessment of Parent-Administered Listening Training for Preschool Children with Articulation Deficits
Authors: Shelton Ralph L. , Johnson Anita F. , Ruscello Dennis M. , Arndt William B.
Published: July 2014

Two studies concerning preschool misarticulating children are reported. The first study was concerned with direct effects of two varieties of parent-administered listening training. The second study focused on the influence of that same training on children’s responses to sound-production training. Subjects were assigned to one of three conditions: listening, reading-talking, and control. Children in the first group were provided training by their parents that was intended to focus the child’s attention on consonants in syllables or words and to teach discrimination between correctly and incorrectly articulated consonants. Parents of children in the second group read to and talked with them about the material. Neither treatment group surpassed the control group in gains made on any auditory processing or articulatory measure employed, and some parents found the listening training frustrating. In the second study, a subset of the children in each of the three groups was given sound-production training. The data obtained did not show any effect from earlier listening experiences on sound-production performance.
The Acquisition of Question Formation in Spoken English and American Sign Language by Two Hearing Children of Deaf Parents
Authors: Jones Michael L. , Quigley Stephen P.
Published: July 2014

This longitudinal study investigated the acquisition of question formation in spoken English and American Sign Language (ASL) by two young hearing children of deaf parents. The linguistic environment of the children included varying amounts of exposure and interaction with normal speech and with the nonstandard speech of their deaf parents. This atypical speech environment did not impede the children’s acquisition of English question forms. The two children also acquired question forms in ASL that are similar to those produced by deaf children of deaf parents. The two languages, ASL and English, developed in parallel fashion in the two children, and the two systems did not interfere with each other. This dual language development is illustrated by utterances in which the children communicated a sentence in spoken English and ASL simultaneously, with normal English structure in the spoken version and sign language structure in the ASL version.
A Comparison of Language Samples Elicited at Home and in the Clinic
Authors: Kramer Claudia A. , James Sharon L. , Saxman John H.
Published: July 2014

One of the most common methods of obtaining diagnostic information about a child’s language production is to collect and analyze a spontaneous language sample. Usually, this sample is collected in a clinical setting by a speech-language pathologist. Because children’s language production seems very sensitive to situational variables, there is some question about the representativeness of language samples obtained in clinical settings. This study compared language samples obtained in the home by the mothers with those obtained in the clinic by speech-language pathologists. Subjects were three- to five-year-old children who had been referred for speech and language diagnostics. Results were that the children’s mean-length-of-utterance (MLU) scores were better for the home sample, although there was no difference between their Developmental Sentence Scores (DSS) for the home sample and the clinic sample. The home samples yielded higher MLU stage placements (Brown, 1973) and higher estimated language ages on the DSS (Lee, 1974) for most of the children. Clinical implications of the results are discussed.
Aspects of Phonological Acquisition During Articulation Training
Authors: Elbert Mary , McReynolds Leija V.
Published: July 2014

Acquisition of correct /s/ over time was studied in five misarticulating children and compared to data reported for younger children during normal phonological development. Changes in production of /s/ as the children were learning to produce /s/ were examined in untrained syllables session by session. These longitudinal data were explored for patterns reported to occur in normal acquisition. It was found that the misarticulating children typically shifted their responses from correct to incorrect during the acquisition period; this may be attributed to competing rules operating during the early stages of acquisition similar to the rules proposed to be operating during morphological acquisition. The children varied in the time required to acquire correct production which is comparable to the variability reported in normal acquisition. Individual learning strategies were noted in the children’s productions of consonant clusters which correspond to the proposed stages of development in normal phonological acquisition.
Hearing Levels among Elderly Nursing Home Residents
Authors: Schow Ronald L. , Nerbonne Michael A.
Published: July 2014

Specific frequency and degree of hearing loss data were determined for 202 elderly nursing home residents (159 females, 43 males) drawn from five nursing homes in three cities. Mean hearing levels and distribution of degree of hearing loss are presented for subjects by decade groups. Data also are presented by sex and by ear. Pure tone averages (500, 1000, 2000 Hz) for the better ear showed a substantial deterioration in each decade interval beginning from ages in the 60s and extending into the 90s. The prevalence of loss of hearing sensitivity for all subjects was 82% when a 26 dB pure tone average was used as a cutoff; 48% had pure tone averages greater than 40 dB. Consideration of collapsed ear canals on a sub-group of this sample suggested that conventional threshold findings slightly overestimated the prevalence of loss in this population.
Speech Performance, Dysphagia and Oral Reflexes in Cerebral Palsy
Authors: Love Russell J. , Hagerman Evelyn L. , Taimi Elaine G.
Published: July 2014

The adequacy of biting, sucking, swallowing, and chewing as well as the presence or absence of nine infantile oral reflexes were assessed in 60 cerebral-palsied individuals. The effect of the asymmetric tonic neck reflex and the Moro reflex on the infantile oral reflexes was also studied. There was a trend for subjects with more adequate feeding skills to achieve higher levels of overall speech proficiency and articulatory competency, but this trend was not completely systematic. Fifteen subjects displayed abnormal oral reflexes, but these reflexes could not be elicited consistently. The effect of the ATNR and Moro reflex on the oral reflexes seemed limited. Results generally supported the value of the widespread prescription of improving feeding in cerebral palsy, but the need to modify abnormal oral reflexes received less support. The question of using prespeech oromotor training to reduce possible future dysarthria is discussed in terms of the findings.
A Binary Articulatory Production Classification of English Consonants with Derived Difference Measures
Authors: Bryans Bonnie , McNutt James , Lecours André Roch
Published: July 2014

English consonants were classified according to six binary articulatory variables. Differences between the members of each possible consonant pair were quantified and the overall difference between each consonant and all other consonants was calculated. The consonant difference measures were found to be significantly related to children's substitution errors and to account for 56% of the variance in Templin's (1957) data on normal consonant acquisition. Similar measures calculated from the distinctive feature classifications of Chomsky and Halle (1968) and Singh and Singh (1976) accounted for less than one third of this amount. These findings suggest the potential utility of the present classification for the analysis of articulated speech.
Election Criteria for the Adoption of an Augmentative Communication System
Authors: Shane Howard C. , Bashir Anthony S.
Published: July 2014

Criteria for determining candidacy for an augmentative communication system are reviewed. Included is a consideration of cognitive, oral reflex, language, motor, intelligibility, emotional, chronological age, previous therapy, imitative, and environmental factors. The multiple factors are arranged on a branching type decision matrix, which yields a decision to either elect, reject, or delay implementation of an augmentative communication system. Case data demonstrating application of the decision matrix are presented.
Erratum: Recurrent Laryngeal Nerve Dissection
Authors: Wilson Frank B. , Oldring D. J. , Mueller Kathleen
Published: July 2014

On page 112 of the report by Wilson, Oldring, and Mueller ("Recurrent Laryngeal Nerve Dissection: A Case Report Involving Return of Spastic Dysphonia after Initial Surgery," pp. 112-118), the paraphrase from Cooper (1971), "if the patients are carefully selected and are willing to remain in therapy for a long period of time," was inadvertantly put in quotation marks.
A Computerized Place-Manner Distinctive Feature Program for Articulation Analyses
Authors: Telage Kal M.
Published: July 2014

This paper emphasizes the availability of easy-to-use computers and illustrates some advantages that might be derived from application of computers as clinical tools in our profession. A program designed to perform a series of segmental and componential analyses of misarticulations is described to illustrate a clinical application. Case study data based on 10 computer analyses are summarized and tabulated.
Motoric and Linguistic Variables among Children Who Stutter
Authors: Riley Glyndon D. , Riley Jeanna
Published: July 2014

Seventy-six children who stuttered, aged 5–12, were administered tests of motor coordination, psycholinguistic abilities, and stuttering severity. A factor analysis of 19 selected variables yielded four statistically useful factors that implicate linguistic integration, oral motor ability, and auditory processing abilities as underlying components among the sample population. These components are assumed to affect a child's threshold for fluency and to permit stuttering development. Stuttering frequency or severity was not related to any of the four factors. The implications for diagnosing and treating children who stutter are discussed.
Assessing Non-Oral Clients for Assistive Communication Devices
Authors: Coleman Colette L. , Cook Albert M. , Meyers Lawrence S.
Published: July 2014

As the number of commercially available communication aids increases, determining an appropriate device for a particular client becomes more difficult. The development of systematic assessment procedures on which to base device recommendations has therefore become an important research problem. This report presents a set of assessment procedures developed by the authors in the Assistive Device Center at California State University-Sacramento. These procedures and their use in determining a communication device recommendation are illustrated through a description of two case studies.
Use of the Auditory Numbers Test to Evaluate Speech Perception Abilities of Hearing-Impaired Children
Authors: Erber Norman P.
Published: July 2014

A simple auditory test has been developed to assist in determining whether a young hearing-impaired child can perceive spectral aspects of speech or only gross temporal acoustic patterns. This live-voice test requires the child to identify counted sequences and individual numbers. It has been administered by two talkers to 39 children, three–eight years old, with mean hearing levels (500, 1000, 2000 Hz) at 60–130 dB. Resulting scores were bimodally distributed for both talkers, indicating effective separation of the subjects on the basis of minimal auditory function. Scores were related to mean HL, although a range from chance to maximum was obtained for children with audiograms at 100–113 dB. The test is recommended for rapid evaluation of speech perception in young hearing-impaired children to aid in the planning of an aural habilitation program.
Learning Words Using Traditional Orthography and the Symbols of Rebus, Bliss, and Carrier
Authors: Clark Charlotte R.
Published: July 2014

This study compared the learning of words represented in traditional orthography (T.O.) and in the logographic symbols of Rebus, Bliss, and Carrier. Subjects, 36 preschool children ages 4.3 to 5.4, were presented a short task requiring the learning of 15 words in one of the four graphic conditions, Rebus, Carrier, or T.O. The results showed that the logographic symbols as a group were significantly easier to learn than T.O., the partially iconic systems of Rebus and Bliss were significantly easier to learn than the Carrier symbols, and Rebus symbols were significantly easier to learn than Bliss symbols. Implications for the instructional use of logographic systems are discussed.