Briefly discusses several hearing screening methods, and indicates that standards for hearing tests are well established and are not controversial. (CJ)

Auditory filter widths for six groups of subjects, adults and children, were tested with fixed signal level (psychophysical tuning curve procedure) and fixed masker (notched noise procedure). Found that auditory filter widths from ages six to adult were not significantly different, and auditory deficits that appear as a function of age likely…

Materials from the Northwestern University Auditory Test Number 6, spoken by a female speaker, were passed through a low-frequency notch filter, reducing the amplitude range within the spectrum. Data obtained from 12 normal-hearing listeners in filtered and unfiltered conditions demonstrated that alterations to words spoken by the same speaker…

This study of 14 children (ages 5-9) with a history of otitis media with effusion found that subjects had significantly reduced masking-level differences (MLD) compared to controls. Results suggest that the reduction in MLD may be related to abnormal brainstem processing. (Author/JDD)

This study was designed to investigate the developmental aspects of performance by a group of normal children on tasks constructed to measure auditory figure-ground perception, and to compare this function with academic achievement. (Author)

Puretone auditory assessment of 21 adults with severe to profound mental retardation indicated that a bivariate plotting procedure of predicting hearing sensitivity from the acoustic reflexes should be included in an audiological test battery for this population. (CL)

This study aimed to (a) investigate the effect of using a hearing aid in conjunction with a cochlear implant in opposite ears on speech perception in quiet and in noise, (b) identify the speech information obtained from a hearing aid that is additive to the information obtained from a cochlear implant, and (c) explore the relationship between…

The study presents normative data on Masking Level Difference (an improvement of the auditory processing of interaural time/intensity differences between signals and masking noises) for 90 learning disabled persons (4-35 years old). It was concluded that the MLD may quickly screen for auditory processing problems. (CL)

Almost 15 percent of children from 6 to 19 years old have some degree of hearing loss in one or both ears. Offers guidelines for screening students' hearing and recommends that interventions begin with classroom acoustics, which affect all children including those with normal hearing. Includes strategies for accommodating hearing-impaired…

This paper examines the special considerations involved in selecting a speech perception test battery for young deaf children. The auditory-only tests consisted of closed-set word identification tasks and minimal-pairs syllable tasks. Additional tests included identification of words in sentences, open-set word recognition, and evaluation of…

Frequency difference limens (DLFs) for pure tones were obtained over a wide range of frequencies and levels from 7 normal-hearing subjects and 16 ears of 12 listeners with sensorineural hearing losses. Results indicated that it is reasonable to use data from normal listeners' DLFs to evaluate DLFs from hearing-impaired listeners. (Author/JDD)

Data from 1968-69 testing by the National Speech and Hearing Survey of over 38,000 United States school children indicates a prevalence of hearing impairment at roughly half the usually cited rates. Because of the number of subjects and the unique calibration technique used, these findings should be given greater weight and dissemination.…

The study investigates differences in the auditory discrimination ability of 24 elementary school age reading achievers and underachievers, as measured by standard audiometric tests and nonconventional auditory tests. The findings show that reading underachievers scored significantly poorer than reading achievers on some of the nonconventional…