The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of variation of speaking rate, gender and age on aerodynamic and acoustic measure of the VP function in 19 typically-developing young children aged 4-7 years. Additionally, this study aimed to compare results from children from this study to that of Gauster, Yunusova and Zajac (2010). Aerodynamic measurements such as oral pressure, nasal pressure, nasal flow, and VP area were taken at the /m/ and /p/ segments in the word "hamper" (HAMPER) and the initial /p/ of "puppy" in the utterance "Buy Bobby a puppy" (BBP). Nasalance and nasalance distance was collected for the utterances "Buy Bobby a puppy" and "Mama made lemon jam" (MMJ). Speech tasks were performed in 4 different self-regulated rates including normal, fast, slow, and slowest. Results indicated that only the aerodynamic measures in the /m/ of HAMPER were affected by speaking rate. Rate affected the nasalance measures of BBP and MMJ and nasalance distance. Gender affected the nasalance of BBP, and age affected nasalance distance. Additionally, children varied from the adults in Gauster et al. (2010) in differences in rate, gender and variability. In summary, rate, gender, and age group had various effects on the measures relating to VP function in healthy children, and should therefore be considered when working with children with VP dysfunction.

Children with cochlear implants (CIs) typically have smaller lexicons in relation to their same-age hearing peers. There is also evidence that children with CIs show slower rates of vocabulary growth compared to hearing children. To understand why children with CIs have smaller vocabularies, we proposed to investigate their word learning process and determine how it compares to children with normal hearing. The present study explores multiple aspects of word learning - acquisition, extension, and retention - to better inform us about the real-world process of lexical acquisition in children with CIs. We evaluated 24 children with cochlear implants, 24 children with normal hearing matched by chronological age, and 23 children with normal hearing who were matched by vocabulary size. Participants were trained and tested on a word learning task that incorporated fast mapping, word extension, and word retention over two days. We also administered a battery of tests that included measures of receptive vocabulary and speech perception skills to determine which variables might be significant predictors of fast mapping and word retention. Children with CIs performed more poorly on word learning measures compared to their age-mates, but similarly to their vocabulary-mates. These findings indicate that children with CIs experience a reduced ability to initially form word-referent pairs, as well as extend and retain these pairs over time, in relation to their same-age hearing peers. Additionally, hearing age-mates and vocabulary-mates showed enhancement in their production of novel words over time, while the CI group maintained performance. Thus, children with CIs may not take the same route in learning new words as typically-developing children. These results could help explain, in part, why this population consistently demonstrates slower rates of vocabulary learning over time. Furthermore, we expected that speech perception and vocabulary size would relate to variations in fast mapping, as well as word retention. Neither of these variables proved to be significant predictors of fast mapping, but they were highly significant for word retention. Based on these findings, we may conclude that the factors that account for acquiring that first link between a word and its referent are not the same as those that are important for storing in a word in long-term memory.

The identification and management of concussion is a growing public health issue. The science of concussion research and the clinical management of children and adolescents who have experienced concussion are rapidly evolving, presenting many challenges and opportunities for those serving this population. A concussion can impact cognitive, communicative, academic, and social success; students affected by concussion may be eligible for special education services. The current study is a national survey of speech language pathologists (SLPs) aimed at characterizing concussion knowledge and management in the schools. One thousand surveys were sent to school-based SLPs from 10 states. Twenty-eight percent of surveys were returned and the results offer a snapshot of current SLP practices and support improved identification and management of concussed children. Findings indicate school-based SLPs' uncertainty in some aspects of concussion knowledge and their role in concussion management. Increased training in pediatric TBI and concussion is needed, and research directed at identifying and developing sensitive assessments and effective treatments for pediatric concussion is required to ensure quality service delivery.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of progressive relaxation training on the verbal ability of adult aphasics. Sixteen adult aphasics (15 males and 1 female) were administered a battery of four, 16 item verbal tests (VTB) following a period of relaxation training and a control period. The tasks of the VTB paralleled the four verbal subtests of the PICA (Porch, 1967). Subjects were required to give the function of 15 common objects, to name each object, to produce the name of each object after hearing a carrier phrase and to repeat the name of each object. Relaxation procedures employed a modified Jacobson (1929) technique.

Maximum phonation time has been widely utilized as a simple clinical evaluation of the vocal function. Its importance has been emphasized by Van Riper (1954), Westlake and Rutherford (1961), Boone (1971), and other authors. A review of the literature revealed three trials of sustained phonation have been utilized by most researchers to determine maximum duration of phonation. Additionally, the review revealed a lack of test-retest reliability in maximum phonation time in children. The present study was designed to determine the variability in test-retest of maximum duration of· sustained /a/ among prepubescent male and female children. Eighty subjects, twenty at each of the four age levels, seven, eight, nine and ten, were selected from a larger pool using a random order table. Each age level was further divided into two groups of ten male and ten female subjects. A tape recording of twenty maximum phonations of /a/. was obtained for each subject. A second measure of maximum phonation time was recorded between two weeks and a month following the original run. The essential questions of this investigation were: 1. Given the means of age and sex groups of the longest performance of maximum duration of sustained /a/, is there a significant difference between runs one and two? 2. In the test cohort does the rank order of maximum phonation time differ between runs one and two? The following secondary questions were also posed: 1. Is there a significantly greater duration of the longest sustained /a/ when given twenty trials as opposed to the first three trials? 2. Is there a relationship between sex and the duration of sustained /a/? 3. Given four prepubescent age groups, is age a factor in relation to length of phonation?

In the clinical evaluation and management of speech disorders, a speech-language pathologist may observe disturbances in a client's motor abilities that suggest possible neurological dysfunction. One possible disturbance is in oral diadochokinesis (DIO), an individual's ability to start and stop the movement of the articulators rapidly and execute repetitive, alternating, sequential movements typically associated with speech articulation. It is often recommended that a speech-language pathologist test DIO speed and compare the performance to available norms. There is, however, a lack of normative DIO data spanning all ages of adulthood. The purpose of this study was to develop preliminary normative data on the speed of oral diadochokinesis used in articulation of syllables and oral movements by adults. The investigation sought to answer the question: What are the mean rates of oral diadochokinetic syllable productions and selected oral movements for each decade of adulthood?

Currently language is viewed as a multi-dimensional construct, consisting of three interrelated components; content, form and function (Bloom and Lahey, 1978). In recent publications, language function has been referred to as pragmatics (Prutting, 1979). The essence of pragmatic theory is that language is used functionally in social contexts, to accomplish specific types of communication (Wood, 1981). One such communicative function is referred to as the informative function, which occurs when a speaker provides ideas and information to others, as in describing, naming and giving examples {Wood, 1981). It is not clear, however, when children become competent in making specific, clear statements when describing a referent or event. No study, found by this writer, has provided a detailed analysis of the changes that may occur in baseline descriptive strategies when children are placed under pressure to provide more information. Such data could provide additional insight into children's descriptive abilities at different stages of development. The questions posed in this investigation were: (1) Does referential communication vary under pressure among four, six and eight year old children? and (2) How do four, six and eight year old children's descriptions vary when they are pressured to provide more information?

The purpose of this study was to compare the frequency of occurrence of specific discontinuities in 30 to 36 month old normal female children to normal 54 to 60 month old female children. Specifically. the discontinuities were categorized as follows: part word repetitions. whole word repetitions. and false starts. The discontinuities were observed while the child spontaneously interacted with an investigator in a clinical room.

The purpose of this study was to measure the verbal fluency of normal gerontologic subjects and to determine the extent of association between verbal fluency score and level of education. Specifically, this investigation sought to determine means, ranges and standard deviations for three groups of subjects: those 61 to 69 years of age, those 70 to 79 years of age, and those 80 years of age and above. In addition, correlations between verbal fluency score, and age, sex, years of education, and order of stimulus presentation were computed.

Previous investigations of masking have established that the action of the masking tone spreads upward in frequency, creating significantly more masking (threshold shift) above the masker frequency than below. It was the purpose of this study to investigate the masking pattern produced by high frequency pure tones, heretofore uninvestigated. Masking patterns were obtained for nine normal hearing young adults utilizing the method of adjustment. The masking produced by an 11000 Hz pure tone of 40 dB sensation level was measured at three frequencies above and three frequencies below the masker frequency. Analysis of the data revealed a downward spread of masking. Pure tone stimuli below the 11000 Hz masker showed significantly more threshold shift than those above the masker frequency. On the basis of the data collected in this investigation, it must be concluded that the upward-spread-of-masking phenomenon is not applicable at certain high frequencies. A method for obtaining high frequency thresholds is discussed and the results compared to recent normative studies pertaining to the extra high frequencies.