Children can only develop spoken language through consistent exposure to the acoustic cues that comprise speech and language. Until recently, hearing levels from the clinical audiogram were the primary measure used to define typical hearing and the presence or degree of a child's hearing loss. While the clinical audiogram remains an important…

Worldwide, 15 million babies are "born too soon" every year (Blencowe et al., 2012; Howson et al., 2013). Remarkably, prematurity survival rates now exceed 93% across all countries. More than 360,000 preterm babies survived in the United States in 2020; 10% of all births (Blencowe et al., 2012; Howson et al., 2013). While this is an…

Examined was the performance of 18 normal and 20 learning disabled (LD) 8- to 9-year-old children on two competitive measures of auditory discrimination. Ss were administered the Wepman Auditory Discrimination Test (1974) and the Goldman, Fristoe, Woodcock Test of Auditory Discrimination (1970). Results suggested that little correlation exists…

The manual describes a procedure to assess to what extent a deaf-blind multiply handicapped student uses his residual hearing in the classroom. Six levels of auditory functioning (awareness/reflexive, attention/alerting, localization, auditory discrimination, recognition, and comprehension) are analyzed, and assessment activities are detailed for…

A pilot project evaluated the use of a microcomputer database system to maintain hearing screening, evaluation, and followup records in a school for physically, emotionally, or educationally handicapped children (6 months-18 years). Using a universal database management system for a microcomputer, a program was designed which would allow for easy…

Audiological assessments were performed on 20 learning disabled students (6-16 years old). Results of Speech Reception Threshold testing and Discrimination Testing indicated that Ss generally scored lower on discrimination tasks, were more affected by the introduction of noise, and showed a greater variability in discrimination performance than 10…

This study investigated the possibility of a functional relation between the auditory and visual systems in the human newborn beyond reflexive organization. Visual activity was monitored in 16 newborns through the use of infrared corneal reflection video tape recording. Infants were observed in total darkness and while monocularly viewing a…

This paper reports a study which investigated 2-month-old infants' auditory discrimination of tone quality in the male voice, extending a previous study which found that voice quality changes (soft versus harsh) in a female voice were discriminable by infants at this age. Subjects were 20 infants, tested at 8 and 9 weeks of age. Each infant was…

This study attempted to assess how very young children respond to discrepant social communications. Forty children, ages 12 to 42 months, with their mothers were exposed to four trial situations: two discrepant, two nondiscrepant communication episodes. Two observers recorded each child's movement and behavior. Results indicated a significant…

This study assesses the effects of an aural rehabilitation program, alone or in combination with information about cognitive learning style, on reducing feelings of hearing handicap by first-time hearing aid users. Subjects, 40 newly amplified hearing-impaired adults (ages 30 to 90), were pretested for conception of their hearing handicaps and…

A non-aversive modification of Bekesy Audiometric Procedures (BAP) used in assessing hearing ability has been found to produce interpretable audiograms from children whose responses to the unmodified BAP were erratic and uninterpretable. In an experiment with six 8-year-old children, three subjects were assigned to a condition in which a light cue…

This experimental study has three aims: (1) to give a detailed description of imitative behavior as it develops during the first six months of life; (2) to compare imitative responses perceived through visual, kinesthetic and auditory modalities; and (3) to describe and explain the regulating mechanisms and processes present in the early…

The purpose of this investigation was to determine how well Down Syndrome (DS) adolescents and young adults, relative to other mentally handicapped (MH) individuals, comprehend single words and simple sentences. Samples of 26 DS and 26 MH individuals were matched on intelligence and chronological age and were administered audiological, language,…

This study explored the hearing capabilities of Down Syndrome (DS) adolescents and young adults relative to a matched sample of non-DS trainable mentally handicapped (MH) individuals, and examined the relationship between hearing ability and performance on several cognitive tasks. Samples of 26 DS and 26 MH individuals were matched on intelligence…

This study examined individual patterns of the maturation of auditory evoked potential (AEP) in normal infants to determine whether longitudinal data show less variability than cross-sectional data, and to further assess the effect of stage of sleep on AEP. The AEPs for 10 children were examined by repeated testing between the ages of about two…