According to the Royal National Institute for the Deaf, between eight and nine million people suffer from some form of deafness or loss of hearing. Modern technology, however, together with the work of audiologists such as Karen Shepherd, enables many adults and children to recover near-normal levels of hearing, even when they have suffered some…

Behavioral preferences for consonance over dissonance were tested in hearing infants of deaf parents and in hearing infants of hearing parents when they were 2 days old. Using a modified visual-fixation-based, auditory-preference procedure, I found that both 2-day-old infants of deaf parents and those of hearing parents looked longer at a visual…

Purpose: Examination of movement parameters and consistency has been used to infer underlying neural control of movement. However, there has been no systematic investigation of whether the way individuals are asked (or cued) to increase loudness alters articulation. This study examined whether different cues to elicit louder speech induce…

An auditory test of 10 spondaic words recorded on Language Master cards was presented monaurally, through insert receivers to 58 hearing-impaired young children to evaluate their ability to recognize familiar speech material. (MYS)

The booklet, another in a series for parents of deaf blind children, presents information in large type about the nature and cause of deaf blindness. A drawing of the ear is followed by a simplified discussion of the ear's functioning and definitions of terms (such as spondee threshold) used in hearing testing and hearing loss. Similarly, a…

Twelve hearing-impaired and eight normal-hearing adults listened to speech and music programs that were reproduced using five different frequency responses (one flat, the others combinations of reduced lower frequencies and/or increased higher frequencies). Most preferred was a flat response at lower frequencies and a 6dB/octave increase…

A 40-item speech/sound discrimination test was administered to 158 children (6 to 9 years old) to assess the effects of socioeconomic level and administrative mode, oral or tape, on auditory discrimination ability. Results indicated a model of administration effect, age effect, and an interaction between age and socioeconomic level. (Author)

The study examined the test-retest reliability in unaided and aided sound-field thresholds and the functional gain values derived from these measurements in 24 hearing-impaired adults. Test-retest standard deviations were slightly larger for functional gain than for unaided thresholds. (Author/DB)

A descending version of K. Hattler's Lengthened Off-Time (LOT) Bekesy test was administered to 24 hearing-impaired adults and 30 normal-hearing adults. The Descending LOT test substantially increased screening sensitivity relative to LOT test identifications, because of larger intertrace gaps. (Author/JDD)

This paper describes a new "class" of auditory tests designed to evaluated the ability of young children to detect commonly encountered sounds; localize sound sources; and understand speech in noise. The tests appear to be sensitive to the effects of auditory pathology and to the normal development of auditory processing skills. (DB)

Materials and Resources: The Unfair Hearing Test audiocassette tape, audiocassette tape player, a sheet of paper with three columns numbered from 1-10, and writing utensils. Grade Level 3-12. May be adapted for college-level and preservice educators. Objectives: After participating in the Unfair Hearing Test exercise, students will be able to: 1.…