Many different versions of the original Token Test (De Renzi and Vignolo, 1962) have been available to speech language pathologists as a language assessment tool with various populations. The most recently adapted version of the Token Test is the Token Test for Children developed by DiSimoni (1978) as a measure to detect subtle receptive language abilities in children. The purpose of this study was to determine ii a significant difference existed between reading disabled and normal readers on syntactic and memory abilities on the Token Test for Children and if a difference existed between reading disabled students in grades 3 - 6 and dyslexic adolescents in grades 7 - 12 from the Whitehouse (1983) study.

These two joint-studies used recorded versions of the Northwestern University Auditory Test Number 6 (NU-6) and the California Consonant Test (CCT) in the hearing aid evaluations (HAEs) of 12 male and one female subjects, aged 41 to 87 years. They exhibited precipitous high frequency losses beyond 1 kHz in at least one ear. All subjects were evaluated without amplification and while monaurally aided with two conventional high pass hearing aids. Ten of the subjects were evaluated in multi-talker noise and 11 were tested in quiet. Since the CCT was more heavily weighted than the NU-6 with target phonemes sensitive to high frequency losses, it was hypothesized that the CCT might be more sensitive than the NU-6 to significant differences between aided and/or unaided performances of these particularly high frequency impaired subjects. The data collected in noise and in quiet was analyzed separately with the one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) for repeated measures. No significant differences were found in noise or quiet between the aided performances on either the CCT or the NU-6. The NU-6 in noise, however, revealed significant degrees of aided improvement at the .01 level of confidence that the CCT did not. The addition of noise seemed to make the CCT too difficult for these subjects. In quiet, both tests seemed to be as equally sensitive in revealing significant aided improvement at the .01 level of confidence. The lower mean CCT scores in quiet, however, seemed to indicate that if unaided NU-6 performances are too high to allow for significant aided improvement or significant differences between aids, the more time consuming CCT might be appropriate.

While there is agreement in the literature that otitis media is an extremely prevalent disorder among young children, there is disagreement as to the effect that otitis media has on language development. The lack of definitive research attests to the complexity of the issue and to the need for continued research. This study examined the relationship between an early history of otitis media and the language development of a group of "late talkers". The 28 toddlers in this group, while otherwise normal, were late to begin to speak. Each of the subjects was placed into one of two subgroups, depending upon their reported experience with otitis media. When the children were four years old, they were evaluated using the TOLD-P and a spontaneous speech sample. A similar group of 25 children who had a history of normal language development was also examined.

Classroom teachers frequently refer adolescents to speech language pathologists for language skills evaluations. Many of the traditional evaluation tools of the speech-language pathologist focus on the student's oral language skills. The first indication to the classroom teacher that there may be a language problem, however, is usually from the student's written classwork. Very few written language assessment tools are available which give speech language pathologists information regarding linguistic units which can be viewed as communication acts. This paper focuses on one particular discourse unit - the written narrative. Narratives are a natural form of thought and demonstrate how a person organizes and views the world around them. Narratives can be analyzed from the perspective of their "texts," how the writer links individual sentences together to create a cohesive discourse. The purpose of this study was to compare the written narratives of language impaired and normal adolescents. Two questions were addressed in this study. First, are there differences in texts between language impaired and normal adolescents? And second, do the written narratives of a personal experience and imaginary event produce different texts in language impaired and normal adolescents?

A review of the literature indicated that not all of the research in the area of overselectivity of autistic children has been in agreement. It does seem evident that some autistic children overselect. This could be the result of an attentional factor or a modality preference. This has important implications for the education of autistic children. In the light of the inconsistency of autistic children's reactions to sensory stimuli (Hermelin and O'Connor, 1970; Wing, 1972; Koegel, 1976) this investigator believe·d there was a need to determine if overselection is consistent before referring to the overselected modality as a preferred modality or comparing overselected modalities with the child's mode of communication (manual' or speech).

There is a growing group of researchers who believe that narrative skills are the bridge from oral language to literacy (Culatta, Page, & Ellis, 1983; Roth & Spekman, 1989; Westby, 1989). Narrative production requires higher level language skills to create a cohesive discourse unit using decontextualized language. Narrative ability has also been found to be the best predictor for normal speech and language development for preschoolers with language impairments (Bishop & Edmundson, 1987) and reading comprehension achievement for learning-disabled, school-age children (Feagans & Applebaum, 1986) . These same skills are prerequisites for achievement of literacy and school success. The purpose of the present study was to compare the story retelling ability of 4-year-olds who did not achieve normal expressive language milestones at age 2 with those who did. The original group size was 22 children with normal expressive vocabulary size at age 24-34 months, and 23 children whose expressive vocabulary size fell below the normal range at 24-34 months referred to as "late talkers."

Prior to this investigation, there appeared to be no published research data available on tympanometric configurations obtained from an older adult population. This study was designed to examine tympanograms obtained from an otologically normal, elderly population. Forty individuals, ranging in age from 59 to 83 years, participated in this study. All had a negative history of middle ear pathology and had normal tympanic membranes as determined by otologic examination. From the eighty ears tested, fifty were used in this survey. Conductance and susceptance at 220 and 660 Hz were obtained at each ear and ranges for admittance were computed from these components. Additionally, acoustic reflex thresholds were obtained from this population. The results obtained indicate that the values for the measures of conductance and susceptance are comparable to those from young adult groups. The reflex thresholds are slightly higher in the older group because their hearing thresholds are not as acute as those found in younger populations. Finally a larger percentage of the older population than might be expected was found to have evidence of healed perforations which were not discovered during otoscopic examination. The present investigation demonstrated that additional normative data are neededin order that the otoadmittance meter be fully utilized with older adult populations.

This investigation was conducted to determine whether the removal of hearing aids from these children for eighteen hours (+ 1/2 hour and including sleep time) would result in reduced speech intelligibility as perceived by a panel of listening judges who were unfamiliar with the speech of the deaf.

The medial olivocochlear reflex (MOCR) is a brainstem-mediated reflex that reduces cochlear amplifier gain when elicited by sound. The MOCR may provide benefits such as protection from acoustic trauma and improved hearing in background noise. Measurement of MOCR effects may also have clinical applications. MOCR effects can be measured using transient-evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAEs), as amplitudes of TEOAEs are typically reduced during MOCR activation. The primary purpose of the current study was to quantify the repeatability of MOCR effects on TEOAEs because high repeatability in a healthy population is a necessary (but not sufficient) component of a clinically-useful test. A secondary purpose was to assess the relationship between MOCR strength and speech perception in noise. Twenty-one normal hearing subjects ages 18-30 participated. TEOAEs were elicited using 35 dB sensation level (SL) clicks. The MOCR was elicited using contralateral acoustic stimulation (CAS) consisting of 35 dB SL broadband noise. Sixteen measurements were made across a 5-week period (4 visits × 4 measurements per visit). TEOAEs were bandpass filtered in 1/6-octaves from 1-2 kHz. An individualized time-frequency analysis was used to select the largest TEOAE envelope peak within a restricted time analysis window. Responses were characterized as the complex ratio of TEOAEs obtained with versus without CAS. The statistical significance of effects was assessed. Results revealed generally high levels of stability across time, as assessed by the interquartile ranges of all results and as assessed by Cronbach's alpha. Four MOCR measurements appeared to be adequate to obtain a reliable baseline measurement. Individualized time-frequency analyses were also important for obtaining reliable measurements. However, several subjects showed stable baseline measurements but unusual patterns of variability at subsequent sessions. These changes did not appear to be the result of changes in auditory status, methodological issues, or equipment issues. No significant relationship was found between MOCR strength and speech perception in noise. Results suggest that MOCR measurements are stable in most subjects when using careful measurement and analysis methods, but that further work is needed to better characterize changes in MOCR and to validate the current methodology in a larger number of subjects.

Verbal communication relies heavily on the ability to effortlessly produce intended words to express a meaning. This capacity is frequently impaired in individuals with aphasia, and impairment often lasts well into the chronic stages. However, the nature of anomia can vary. Phonological neighborhood density (PND) is one feature of words which has been shown to impact the ease of retrieval in speakers with aphasia; words with more similar-sounding neighbors are easier to retrieve because the neighbors help activate the target. However, it is unclear how different types of lexical access breakdowns affect the impact of PND. The aim of this project was to analyze the relationship between word retrieval accuracy, speech error patterns, and PND in individuals with aphasia. Twenty-two participants with various types and severities of aphasia named 200 single-syllable line drawings. WebFit, an online software program designed to fit naming data to a theoretical model of word retrieval, was used to characterize participants' error patterns by calculating the strength of connections within the lexicon, as well as the rate of decay. Analyses confirmed previous findings that participants with all types of breakdown achieved lower rates of overall accuracy. Weaker connections between semantic knowledge and words resulted in a more errors that were close to the target, relative to errors with no relationship to the target. Individuals with more severe impairments of the semantic-lexical connections and the lexical-phonological connections produced words with many neighbors more accurately than words with fewer neighbors. Implications for initial therapy target selection and directions for further research are discussed.