In administering speech therapy to children with normal hearing and functional articulation difficulties, it was noted that some children made little voluntary use of visual cues; eye contact between therapist and student during direct articulation therapy was infrequent. This observation led the examiner to seek a possible relationship between articulation ability and the ability to use visual cues, specifically in speechreading. To test the hypothesis of a possible inverse relationship between the speechreading ability of a normal hearing sample of children with articulation problems and a matched sample of children with normal speech, the examiner chose twenty-five children with functional articulation difficulties and twenty-five children with normal articulation.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2003. / Advisor: Dr. Richard Morris, Florida State University, College of Communication, Dept. of Communication Disorders. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Mar. 3, 2004). Includes bibliographical references.

A number of studies have been made to examine several aspects of voice production in individuals with different types of hearing impairments. Most of the studies were made to explore the impact that hearing aids have for people with severe or congenital hearing impairment. So far it has been confirmed that there are changes regarding voice production in these individuals. A group that has not been investigated regarding voice production to a larger extent are hearing aid users with an acquired hearing impairment. In the present study the voice production of seven individuals, four men and three women, with a moderate acquired hearing impairment is examined. The individuals had an age span ranging from 55-71 years and had used hearing-aids for one year at the most. The participants were recorded as they completed three different tasks; reading aloud, spontaneous speech and production of sustained vowels. These tasks were performed twice; with and without hearing aids. An acoustic analysis of the recordings was performed in order to examine possible changes in mean fundamental frequency and vocal effort. Analysis on an individual level shows that throughout the different tasks, no participant demonstrated constant, audible differences regarding both fundamental frequency and vocal effort. However there were noticeable changes for a few participants in some of the tasks. Since the differences for most of the participants were negligible and inconsistent, no impact of the hearing aids or compensatory strategies was seen.

A hearing impairment is one of the three leading causes of disability worldwide. It is estimated that 600 million people around the world have a hearing impairment, which affects their communication abilities, causes them to feel isolated and depressed, and impacts their economic situation. Because a decrease in the ability to hear is associated with getting older and life expectancy is increasing, the number of hearing impaired individuals is expected to increase. Much of the current research on adults with a hearing impairment focusses on a disabling hearing impairment, which is a loss of at least 40 dB HL or worse in the better ear. The research on a mild hearing impairment is predominantly focussed on children, specifically on educational effects. The aims of this study were to identify demographic, audiometric and quality of life differences between adults with a mild hearing impairment who adopt hearing aids and those who choose not to adopt hearing aids, and to measure clinical outcomes for adults with a mild hearing impairment who adopt hearing aids. Two groups of clients with a mild hearing impairment were compared. One group consisted of hearing aid adopters whilst the other group consisted of non-adopters. There was no significant difference between the groups in terms of demographic variables, such as age, gender or working status, or objective audiometric variables. We found a statistically significant difference between the groups in terms of subjective audiometric variables. Hearing aid adopters rated their hearing impairment worse than the non-adopters and were more inclined to change their current situation than the non-adopters. In addition, the adopters showed significant clinical improvement after wearing their hearing aids for an extended period of time.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karolinska institutet, 2007. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Discipline of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Sydney, 2004. / Includes list of published articles: leaf iv. Bibliography: leaves [188]-203.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Sydney, 2004. / Title from title screen (viewed 14 May 2008). Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the Discipline of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print form.

Thesis (M.H.A.)--University of Michigan, 1958.

Thesis (M.H.A.)--University of Michigan, 1958.

Thesis (doctoral)--Ludwig Maximilians-Universität zu München, 1979.