It is important that educators use adequate assessment procedures when placing hearing-impaired children in mainstreamed settings. Receptive vocabulary tests are part of the standardized test battery and can provide educators with valuable information. Although there has been a receptive vocabulary test recently developed for use with hearing-impaired children (CPVT), the most commonly used test with this population is the PPVT-R, which is standardized on normally hearing children. In order to further explore the difference between the receptive vocabulary of hearing-impaired and normally hearing children, a test standardized on hearing-impaired should be used. The purpose of the present study was to determine if a difference exists between the receptive vocabulary scores of hearing-impaired and normally hearing children on the CPVT. This study also sought to answer the following questions: 1) What is the correlation between the CPVT and the PPVT-R?, and 2) Is there a difference between the z-scores and age equivalent scores of the normally hearing children on the CPVT and the PPVT-R? Fifty 7- and a-year olds were selected from the Portland Metropolitan area as subjects. Each subject passed a puretone audiometric screening, had a negative history of ear infections, had not received any speech, language, hearing, or reading services, and received parental permission to be in the study. Mean z-scores and age equivalent scores on the CPVT and the PPVT-R were computed for the normally hearing subjects in the study. One sample, two tailed ~-tests were computed to determine if a difference exists between the performance of the normally hearing subjects on the CPVT and the normative data for the hearing-impaired. The tests were considered significant at the .05 level. A highly significant difference was found between the z-scores and age equivalent scores of the 7- and a-year old normally hearing subjects and the normative data for the hearing impaired. The normally hearing subjects scored higher on the CPVT than the standardized data. These results are consistent with previous research that has shown hearing impaired children to perform significantly lower than their normally hearing peers on vocabulary tests (Bunch & Forde, 1987; Davis, 1974; Markides, 1970). Pearson r correlations were used to determine the relationship between the CPVT and the PPVT-R. Weak correlations were obtained between the two tests for the 7- and a-year old subjects. Kline and Sapp (1989) also found a weak correlation between the CPVT and the WISC-R. One sample, two tailed t-tests were completed to determine if a difference exists between the z-scores and age equivalent scores of the 7- and a-year old normally hearing subjects on the CPVT and the PPVT-R. The age equivalent scores of the 7- and a-year old subjects were found to be higher on the CPVT than on the PPVT-R. A statistically significant difference between the z-scores of the a year old subjects was not found.

While there is general agreement among researchers in the field of language and learning disabilities upon the language hypothesis for reading failure, little research has been explored concerning the relationship between the phonological production skills of preschool children and the same children's prereading abilities in kindergarten. This study examined two aspects of phonological skill (a) the relationship of early phonological production errors and later success on phonological awareness and general prereading skill, and (b) determining if prereading deficits in a group of children with a history of lanquage delay reside specifically in the phonological awareness items or the prereading score in general. The subjects used for this study included 29 "normal" talkers and 30 "late talkers", as determined by the Language Development survey (Rescorla, 1989) when the subjects were between 20-34 months. When the subjects were three years old, a language sample was obtained and later phonemically transcribed from audio tape and entered into the PEPPER computer program to compute the percentage consonants correct (PCC) for each child. The subjects were later evaluated during their kindergarten year for reading readiness, using the Developmental Skills Checklist. This study found that Late Talkers have significantly lower PCCs than there normal talking peers at age three, but their PCCs do not predict their prereading or phonological awareness skills at kindergarten. Phonological awareness was further investigated in terms of supraseqmental and segmental levels of phonological awareness, there was no significant difference between the groups on either level of phonological awareness. However, there was a nonsignificant trend (p

This thesis examines the reporting of AIDS-related news in both mainstream and alternative newspapers. This research suggests that mainstream newspapers, such as the New York Times, frame news stories in certain ways. Specifically, this study suggests that news about AIDS will be framed in ways which trivialize and/or marginalize those most affected by AIDS. The thesis also posits that the mainstream press will frame AIDS-related news in ways which support their own interests. Additionally, this research suggests that alternative presses, such as the Advocate, will frame their reporting of AIDS-related news in ways which support their interests. The mainstream newspaper articles for this study were taken from the New York Times, and the Oregonian. The alternative press articles were taken from the Advocate, the New York Native, Christopher Street, outlook, and the San Francisco Bay Area Reporter. The news stories focus on four individuals: Magic Johnson, Rock Hudson, Kimberly Bergalis, and Mark Woodley. The results of this thesis reveal that some mainstream reporting of AIDS-related news is framed in ways which trivialize and/or marginalize those affected by AIDS. The study also shows that the alternative presses frame reporting of AIDS-related news in ways which not only support their interests but in ways which appear to react to the reporting of the mainstream presses. Finally, there is evidence of hegemony as an underlying principle for the way news about AIDS is framed.

This thesis explores the interactions between women and men who work in highly-skilled blue-collar trades. The aim of this research is to describe women's perceptions and responses to their on-the-job communicative interactions with male co-workers, supervisors and union officials. small focus groups were conducted to produce rich narrative data that was audio recorded for later use by the researcher. The researcher met with the four subjects for three sessions. The interviews lasted three hours each. The researcher also conducted follow-up interviews by phone to clarify subjects' responses. The subjects were provided with an interview schedule of questions prior to the interview. This thesis seeks to identify women's perceptions of male and female differences in communication, perceived problematic communicative interactions and women's responses to perceived differences. This thesis also explores the possible correlation between women's sense of self-esteem and interactions with males on the job. Finally, subjects were interviewed to determine what strategies, if any, are used by women to work more effectively in a predominately male work environment. It was found that this sample of women reported several perceived differences between male and female communication styles and that some differences are problematic. The subjects reported that difficult interactions may result in feelings of anger, frustration, anxiety, hostility or sadness. Finally, the subjects offered several strategies for coping in nontraditional jobs.

One preschool male who was highly unintelligible was enrolled in two cycles of direct intervention utilizing the phonological cycling approach (Hodson & Paden, 1991). Prior to treatment in cycles 1 and 2, the Assessment of Phonological Processes-Revised (APP-R) (Hodson, 1986) was administered to the subject to assess phonological deficiencies and to determine the target phonological patterns. A continuous speech sample was collected prior to cycle 1 to rate speech intelligibility. Based on the results obtained from the APP-R, target patterns, target words, and an individualized treatment plan were developed for each cycle. For the first cycle of intervention, the subject participated in 60 minutes of direct intervention twice a week for 5 weeks, and in cycle 2, the subject participated in 60 minutes of direct intervention twice a week for 4 1/2 weeks. Each treatment session followed the procedures as outlined by Hodson and Paden (1991). Baseline measures were administered at the beginning of each session and probes were administered once a week. At the conclusion of both cycles, the APP-R was re-administered and a 100-word speech sample was collected. The results of the pre- and post-tests for cycles 1 and 2, baseline measures, weekly probes, and the intelligibility ratings were analyzed to determine the effectiveness of the phonological cycling approach in achieving a decrease in severity level of unintelligibility after two cycles. Results from the APP-R indicate that the subject's severity interval rating decreased from profound to severe. A comparison of pre- and post-intelligibility ratings showed an increase in intelligibility of 1.5 points on a 7-point rating scale. Based on the probes, generalization to nontreatment words in targeted and nontargeted patterns was noted in both cycles for some patterns. Overall, the phonological cycling approach was effective in achieving a decrease in severity level of intelligibility after two cycles of intervention for this subject.

In observations of steady-state nucleate boiling, fluctuations in the temperature and heat flux might initially appear to be completely random. However, it was shown that, for a vertically mounted platinum wire in liquid nitrogen, the fluctuations about the steady-state exhibit an average counterclockwise circulation when the heat flux is plotted versus the superheat temperature. An area associated with the average circulation was proposed as a numerical measure of stability for steady-state nucleate boiling. The mechanisms for the generation of these fluctuations are thought to be the feedback of the bubbles rising past the wire and the differential heating and cooling that this engenders. Data similar to the data on the vertical wire have been obtained using the same wire mounted horizontally. Although the counterclockwise circulation mentioned above is still seen, the measure of stability as proposed earlier, is less useful for prediction of the transition to film boiling. This reduced sensitivity can be attributed to the fact that the possibility of feedback through the rising bubbles has been eliminated.

The early selection and use of an appropriate amplification system may be the most important aspect in the aural! rehabilitation of children who are hearing impaired. The main goal guiding the selection of hearing aids for children is to maximize their residual hearing through amplification in order to facilitate speech and language development. Seewald, Ross, and Stelmachciwicz (1987) have developed a speech-spectrum based procedure for selecting hearing aid characteristics for children referred to as the Desired Sensation Level Procedure (DSL) approach. This is an objective method which has been developed specifically for use with young pre-verbal children. I The purpose of the present study was to determine how closely the previously fitted amplification systems of profoundly hearing-impaired children approximated the amplification targets that would be prescribed for their hearing losses by the DSL method. The data were used to examine the feasibility and appropriateness of the DSL method for prescribing amplification for children with profound hearing impairments. Twenty amplification systems worn by profoundly hearing-impaired children were electroacoustically evaluated to discover how closely they approximated the DSL fitting criteria. Hearing thresholds were obtained for each subject for the frequencies 250, 500, 1000, 2000, and 4000 Hz using puretone audiometry. The DSL computer program was used to generate prescribed 2 cc. coupler targets at each frequency. The subjects' amplification systems were electroacoustically analyzed to determine the measured 2 cc. coupler response. Means and standard deviations were reported for prescribed and measured gain values at each frequency. Two-tailed t-tests were computed to determine if a difference exists between prescribed and measured gain. The tests were considered significant at the .05 level. A significant difference between the means was found at 2000 and 4000 Hz. Correlation coefficients were calculated at each frequency to determine if a predictable relationship between prescribed and measured gain existed. Correlation coefficients showed weak relationships between the two groups of data. These results showed the difficulty of meeting prescribed amplification targets, particularly in the high frequencies for children with profound hearing impairments.

When cultural values differ, it is difficult for people not to judge one another's behavior on the basis of their own individual and/or cultural values. Given the profound differences in Russian and American culture, the question of what happens when these two cultures interact comes to mind. The purpose of this study was to describe the relationship of culture specific orientation, coupled with a two week sojourn in Russia on the sojourners' perceptions of cultural values. The sojourners were high school athletes participating in the first part of a Russian - American Track and Field Exchange. In order to ascertain the students' value orientations, each student completed six Value Orientation Worksheets. Before the pre-departure orientation the students' completed two worksheets composed of fifteen questions, one according to their own cultural values, and one for their perception of Russian cultural values. The students completed two additional worksheets after the pre-departure orientation sessions, and two worksheets ten months after the sojourn. Analysis of the post-orientation worksheets suggests that the orientation sessions had a greater impact on the students' reported perceptions of their own cultural values than in changing their reported perceptions of Russian values. Unlike the post-orientation responses, an analysis of post-sojourn responses indicated that the sojourn experience appears to have had a comparable affect on the students' reported perceptions of their own cultural values and their reported perceptions of Russian cultural values. Post-sojourn worksheets revealed that agreement among the students after the shared orientation sessions was not a reliable predictor of agreement after the sojourn. In many cases, the individuality of the sojourn experience appears to have overcome the shared informational orientation training. Continued research in this field is needed to determine whether or not the tendencies uncovered in this study can be generalized to include a wider population, specifically - American high school student/athletes traveling abroad for a short term sojourn.

It is commonly argued that silence is an important Japanese communication strategy, with the goal of making oneself understood without words; on the other hand, in the U.S., silence tends to be filled by speaking, and speaking up clearly and the facilitation of talking is preferred. However, our knowledge about how silence is interpreted in the U.S. and Japan is weak and based on anecdotal evidence. Therefore, this study examines how people in the U.S. and Japan interpret silence according to contexts, examining what kinds of social rules underlie their interpretation. Interpretation is guided by how people connect ideas. One of the ways to observe how people connect ideas is to have subjects sort words related to silence and compare the way they arrange the words into groups. Multidimensional scaling was used to estimate the underlying dimensions in the way each group sorts the words, and then these dimension were compared. In the comparison of how Japanese and the U.S. associate words related to silence, the most significant difference between Japanese and U.S. subjects was found in the way subjects associate groups of words with contexts. The U.S. subjects had a tendency to interpret silence more positive than Japanese in most contexts. Japanese revealed the tendency to interpret silence more active than the U.S. subjects in most contexts. For Japanese, silence has particular symbolic meaning, and the communicator is often expected to figure out the underlying meaning of silence. When silence is used to intentionally communicate something, it can create uncertainty if the listener is unable to figure what underlies the silence. In U.S., silence is interpreted as positive and less active, that is to say, more internal and reflective. In conclusion, the findings suggest that Japanese interpret silence as a communicative symbol that must be actively interpreted, and this is consistent with most literature, however, they emphatically contradict the stereotype of "vocal Americans", commonly depicted in the literature.

Hearing assessment techniques, and counseling for the pediatric population are different from those used on adults. Parents will often not have any prior knowledge of how their child's hearing will be assessed. Therefore, many questions may pertain to the mechanics of the evaluation. Audiologists may find the questions take away some of their counseling time and they have less time to discuss the diagnosis and prognosis of the child. The purpose of this study was to determine if a computer program developed with information about pediatric evaluations could be used to educate individuals about this process. Twenty subjects were involved with this study. Eighteen volunteers were attending Portland State University, and two were volunteers from the general population. Ten subjects were selected to come to Portland State University to view a computer program about pediatric hearing evaluations. The other ten were part of the control group and did not view the computer program. Immediately following each subject answered the questionnaire. The questions on the questionnaire covered information about: otoscopy, behavioral observation audiometry, visual reinforcement audiology, play audiometry, tympanometry and speech testing. The results were tabulated and percentages calculated. The results of this study indicated that, in general, the computer program did educate the participants about pediatric evaluations. In some areas such as tympanometry, otoscopy, and testing procedures the computer program was extremely strong. The information obtained in this study would indicate that a computer program might be used to educate parents about the techniques used in a pediatric evaluation prior to their child's appointment. In some areas such as the information regarding speech testing, and some questions relating to different behavioral techniques, there appears to be a need for further development and expansion, so the parents will be able to retain the information in these areas.