Part of the importance of the problem can be seen through the value of speech contests. One of the various means of realizing the purposes of speech education is through the speech contest, the practice of getting together with others for the comparison of formal speaking activities. The value of the speech contest was recognized centuries ago by the Greeks. “Speech contests are old devices; that stimulate a student to his greatest endeavors by a desire to win approval or victory over his fellows in not a product of this mad, modern naturalistic age.” From that early beginning contests have had an eventful history, hitting many rough spots on the way. From the depression to the post-war period of World War II there was a trend toward abandoning speech contests.

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The phonological awareness skills of children with language disorders has been well addressed throughout the literature. Research into the phonological awareness skills of children with highly unintelligible speech, however, is still in its infancy. One published study has looked at the relationship between phonological awareness skills in children with persistent phonological impairments and in children with normal phonology (Webster & Plante, 1992). Significantly higher scores were recorded on three of the four phonological awareness measures for the children with normal phonology As phonology improved, so did the children's phonological awareness skills. The purposes of the present study were to determine if there is an improvement in phonological awareness skills of children with highly unintelligible speech who receive speech sound intervention services, and to determine if there is a difference in phonological awareness skills between children who receive a phoneme-oriented treatment approach and those who receive a phonological cycling treatment approach. Children who took part in a larger study (Buckendorf, 1996) in which the effectiveness of the two treatment approaches was examined, were given the Assessment of Metaphonological Skills-Prekindergarten (Hodson, 1995) early in the course of treatment and again 2 to 3 months later. The following specific questions were addressed: 1. Is there an increase in phonological awareness skills for children who receive articulation/phonological intervention? 2. Is there a difference in the amount of improvement of phonological awareness skills for children who receive a phoneme-oriented treatment approach as compared with children who receive a phonological cycling treatment approach? To test if the subject's phonological awareness skills improved from pretest to posttest, a one tailed !-test for paired differences, and the Wilcoxon Matched-Pairs Signed-Ranks test were performed. Results on both of these analyses indicated a statistically significant improvement between pretest and posttest scores. To test if there is a difference in the improvement of phonological awareness skills between the two groups, a !-test for independent samples of group and the Mann-Whitney LI-Wilcoxon Rank Sum W-Test were performed on pretest, posttest, and pretest-to-posttest. Results on both analyses indicated no statistically significant differences between the two groups on any of these variables.

This single-subject study was designed to compare the effectiveness of two phonological-based treatment approaches with a preschool male with unintelligible speech characterized by multiple deficient phonological patterns. Four phonological patterns were chosen as targets based on results of the Assessment of Phonological ProcessesRevised (APP-R} (Hodson, 1986), as analyzed by the Computer Analysis of Phonological Deviation (CAPO) (Hodson, 1992a). The subject participated in 60-minute intervention sessions three times a week over an 8-week period. The phonological cycling approach (Hodson & Paden, 1991) was the focus of 4 weeks of intervention, and the minimal pairs approach (Tyler, Edwards, & Saxman, 1987) was the focus of 4 weeks of intervention. Remediation programs were alternated every 2 weeks, and began with the phonological cycling approach. Results were measured through pretests and posttests of the APP-R, as well as baseline and generalization probes that were administered periodically. Results of the CAPD indicated minimal changes between pretest and posttest scores for all of this subject's targeted phonological patterns (i.e., consonant sequences I stridents, velars, liquid /1/, and liquid /r/). In addition, no significant differences in scores were noted between remediation programs. Results of probe measurements indicated little, if any, generalization to targeted and non-targeted words in an imitated word probe task for any of the targeted patterns, except for the target phonological pattern of consonant sequences I stridents after the phonological cycling approach. This finding may suggest that the phonological cycling approach was more effective for this subject than the minimal pairs approach.

Hearing aid users often complain of poor speech understanding in the presence of background noise. There have been many attempts to overcome this problem by hearing aid manufactures and dispensers. The purpose of the present study was to determine if differences existed between three different styles of hearing aids (i.e. in the ear (ITE), in the canal (ITC), and completely in the canal (CIC)) in the presence of a multi-talker babble. Five sensori-neural hearing impaired subjects were selected from the Portland State University audiology clinic. The subjects were required to listen to a recording of the California Consonant Test (CCT) against a background noise of multi-talker babble. Stimuli were presented through headphones in the sound booth. The stimuli were recorded through three different hearing aids placed on KEMAR's left ear and adjusted to a 10 dB signal-to-noise ratio. Once the speech samples were recorded and digitized, they were routed through a GSl-16 audiometer to the listener. In order to determine performance differences across the three hearing aid configurations from within a single-subject design, each subject's performance was compared in a pairwise fashion between the hearing aid configurations. An analysis of the data was completed using the Randomization test. Using this statistical model, no significant difference was found between the individual scores. Further research is warranted to determine if a better measure exists that qualitatively defines the effect of microphone placement on speech understanding ability in hearing aid users.

Communication is an integral part of all relationships. The intent of this study was to discover if certain individual preferences for approaching conflict occur in a significant fashion between the partners of particular types of marriages. In addition, this study meant to better understand how conflict is perceived and responded to, in marriage and/or long term relationships. Fitzpatrick's (1977) Relational Dimensions Inventory (RDI), was used for this study to characterize three dimensions of marriage: interdependence, ideology, and conflict engagement/avoidance, resulting in the following marital types: Traditionals, Independents, Separates, and Mixed. Rahim's (1983) instrument, the Rahim Organizational Conflict Inventory (ROCI), was also used to measure five independent patterns of handling interpersonal conflict: Integrating, Dominating, Compromising, Avoiding, and Obliging. Based on prior work of Fitzpatrick (1975, 1983, 1988) and Rahim (1983), this study asked: Do conflict styles vary across marital types? Individual hypotheses examined occurrences of particular conflict styles within specific marital types. The data represent 103 couples. Data were derived from a Likert type survey instrument of Fitzpatrick's RDI and Rahim's ROCI-II, with a total of 65 questions. Chi-square and cross-tabulation were used to reveal associations between marital type and conflict style. Bonferroni procedure for multiple hypotheses was applied. Cross-tabulation did not indicate a relationship between marital types and conflict styles. One hypothesis was statistically supported. As couple level data produced few significant results, post hoc analysis at the individual level was conducted. Conflict styles were conceptually divided into concern for self and concern for other. ANOVA was run on marital type, other orientation, and satisfaction. Significant results are reported for wives.

Intelligibility refers to how recognizable a speaker's words are to the listener. Severity, a broader but closely related concept, incorporates intelligibility, disability, and handicap. Many factors influence intelligibility, including speech sound production, voice, and prosody, as well as a number of linguistic and contextual factors. Clinicians and researchers in the field of speechlanguage pathology require accurate measures of intelligibility and severity to assess and describe communicative functioning and to measure change over time. Determining the most accurate and efficient measurement approaches has been the focus of recent attention in the field. This study was a preliminary investigation of the relationship between the Articulation Competence Index (ACI), a severity metric, and the percentage of words understood in continuous speech, the standard measure of intelligibility. Specifically, the study addressed the research question: Is there a significant correlation between the Articulation Competence Index (ACI) and percentage of words understood in samples of continuous speech of 4- and 5-year-olds with varying levels of phonological competence? Subjects were thirty 4- and 5-year-olds from the Portland metropolitan area. Four listeners calculated percentage-of-words scores for each child's 100-word speech sample. These scores were compared to ACI scores calculated by the investigator for each of the samples. The data were analyzed using the Pearson productmoment correlation (Pearson£). A moderately strong correlation (£ = .71 to .81) was found between the ACI and percentage of words understood. Squaring the correlation coefficients resulted in values for £ 2 of .50 to .66, indicating that the ACI accounts for more than half the variability of continuous speech intelligibility.

Industrial workers who have sustained hearing losses often wear hearing aids on the job in order to hear their co-worker's speech. However they risk damaging their hearing further by amplifying the high levels of background noise typical of such environments. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has established guidelines to protect workers' hearing. A maximum allowable level of 90 dBA averaged over a period of eight hours is considered safe. Wearing hearing aids on the job may expose an individual to a considerably higher levels, however no guidelines as to maximum allowable levels of amplified noise exist at this time. This study evaluated the performance of four hearing aids in noise to determine which would provide appropriate amplification without exceeding the OSHA maximum. The instruments were adjusted to provide 14 different frequency responses and placed on the Knowles Mannequin for Acoustic Research (KEMAR). A microphone in the position of KEMAR's eardrum recorded amplified levels of taped industrial noise. A sound level meter integrated the levels to give the OSHA Time Weighted Average (TWA), simulating the acoustic effect of an 8-hour noise exposure on an industrial worker. Amplified noise remained below the OSHA maximum (90 dBA) in 2 of the 14 hearing aid conditions studied. Noise amplified by the Argosy Expander, an experimental noise-reducing hearing aid, remained below the OSHA maximum when the instrument was set to provide minimum gain and maximum noise reduction. The Argosy 3-Channel Clock also maintained amplified noise at a safe level when adjusted to provide gain only in a limited frequency region. Noise amplified by the Danavox Aura X programmed to provide a TILL response remained within one dB of the OSHA maximum. This study demonstrated that it is possible to use amplification in environments with constant background noise without risking additional noise-induced hearing loss. Two hearing aids were proven effective in maintaining amplified industrial noise at safe levels, however determining their effect on speech intelligibility in noise is beyond the scope of this study. Further research is needed to address this issue.

The middle ear system is a vital component in the propagation mechanism of otoacoustic emissions. As such, investigation of the effect of variation in middle ear impedance on the measurement of emissions is warranted. Distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs) have gained recognition as a means of gaining frequency specific information on auditory function. As the effects of changes in middle ear impedance will vary as a function of frequency, a clear definition of the relationship between middle ear impedance and DPOAE amplitude across the frequency spectrum is needed. Twenty adults (ages 20-37) with normal hearing and normal middle ear function were selected as subjects. Commercially available equipment (Virtual 330) was used to measure the DPOAEs on all subjects. The unit was modified to change canal pressure by coupling the probe to the pressure pump of a clinical acoustic immittance system. One ear from each subject was randomly selected for measurement and each subject was tested under five pressure conditions: +200, O, -200, -300, -400 daPa. The mean frequency of the fl/f2 tone pairs swept from 500 to 8000 Hz. Results indicate that changes in ear canal pressure can effect the amplitude of DPOAEs. Alteration of ear canal pressure resulted in decreased emission amplitude. This effect was found to differ as a function of eliciting frequency with the greatest reduction in amplitude with the mean of the primaries at 500 Hz. Less variation was noted across the ear canal pressures with the higher frequency stimuli. These results are consistent with previous findings reported regarding the effects of impedance changes on spontaneous and transiently evoked otoacoustic emissions.