The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between live and recorded determinations of most comfortable loudness levels (MCL's) and to determine if a relationship existed between MCL's, tolerance levels (TL's), and acoustic reflex thresholds so that further research might be conducted regarding the use of acoustic impedance measures in hearing aid fitting.Thirty normal hearing female subjects were tested in this investigation. MCL's using live and recorded stimuli, TL's, and contralateral and ipsilateral acoustic reflex thresholds were obtained for each subject. Correlation coefficients were computed to determine if a relationship existed between any of the measurements.It was concluded that live voice stimuli yielded highly equivalent results to recorded stimuli in finding MCL's. Acoustic reflex thresholds were found to be poor predictors of MCL's and TL's. Before acoustic reflex measurements can be used in hearing aid fitting procedures, further research is warranted.

The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the California Consonant Test by manipulating selected variables to determine whether it would be a reliable and valid alternative to the presently used CID W-22 word lists with the sensorineural hearing loss population. This study also looked at the scores obtained on the two discrimination tests and the scores obtained on the Profile Questionnaire for Rating Communicative Performance. In this way, a closer look was taken to determine how much difficulty hearing impaired individuals were reportedly experiencing in understanding speech as compared to their actual performance on the two discrimination tests.The test population consisted of 16 male and 16 female subjects with bilateral symmetrical, sensorineural hearing losses. The CID W-22 Auditory Test and the California Consonant Test (live voice and recorded presentations) were administered to each subject under aided and unaided conditions. At the end of each testing session, each subject was asked to answer the Profile Questionnaire for Rating Communicative Performance in a Home Environment.Pearson's Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient and t-tests for independent measures were calculated to determine if significant correlations existed.It was concluded from this investigation that the California Consonant Test is a more sensitive indicator of the phoneme difficulties experienced by the individuals with &high frequency sensorineural hearing loss than is the' CID W-22 Auditory Test. Although significant correlations were not obtained between the two discrimination tests and the questionnaire, a question by question analysis indicated that all the individuals had at least some difficulties in all situations proposed in this questionnaire. It would therefore seem that the California Consonant Test is a more accurate indicator of the individual's problems in the communicative situation.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the performance of young elementary children with differing auditory language abilities on tests of central auditory functioning (central deafness). Language abilities were based on the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities (ITPA) and Slosson Oral Reading Test (SORT) level vs. Reading Expectancy level performances. Group A, the control group, scored in the normal range on both the ITPA and the SORT. Groups B and C were both deficient in reading skills by at least one year. The difference between these groups was their ITPA performance. Group C displayed average ITPA profiles while Group B scored significantly lower in auditory skills.Four central deafness tests designed by Willeford and the Sound Mimicry Test of the Goldman-Fristoe-Woodcock Auditory Skills Test Battery were administered to all subjects. A One Way Analysis of Variance was used to analyze differences in performance between groups on all test variables.Pearson Correlation Coefficients were used to study relationships between the ITPA and the central deafness tests and the Sound Mimicry Test. Group B, subjects with poor ITPAauditory subtest scores, also scored significantly lower on two of the central deafness tests. Group C scored significantly lower than the control group only on the Sound Mimicry Test.Great disparity among individual scores within groups detracts from possible conclusions to be drawn from this study. It appears, however, that the two central deafness tests designed to assess brainstem integrity (Binaural Fusion and Alternating Speech) correlate with performances on the ITPA auditory subtests. Scores on the ITPA Auditory Memory subtest appear to correlate with the Sound Mimicry Test suggesting that these subjects experience difficulty with temporal order sequencing tasks. A larger testing population would be necessary to substantiate trends noted in this research.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relation among speech-language dissociations, one attentional processspecifically, distractibilityand childhood stuttering. Participants included 202 monolingual, English speaking preschool-age children (3;05;11 years of age) who do (82 CWS; 65 males) and do not stutter (120 CWNS; 59 males). Speech-language dissociations were identified using a correlation-based statistical procedure (Bates, E., Appelbaum, Salcedo, Saygin, & Pizzamiglio, 2003), which was applied to participants scores on five standardized speech-language (sub)tests. Distractibility was measured by the distractibility subscale of the Behavioral Style Questionnaire (BSQ; McDevitt & Carey, 1978). Between-group analyses were conducted to determine whether: (1) more CWS exhibited speech-language dissociations than CWNS; and (2) CWS exhibited poorer distractibility scores than CWNS. Within-group correlations assessed the relation between CWSs and CWNSs distractibility and speech-language dissociations. Generalized linear modeling (GLM) assessed whether interactions between distractibility and speech-language dissociations predict childrens frequency of stuttered, nonstuttered, and/or total disfluencies. Findings indicated that more preschool-age CWS exhibited speech-language dissociations than CWNS, and that more boys exhibited dissociations than girls. Additionally, CWS boys scored lower on the BSQs distractibility subscalesuggesting less distractibilitythan CWS and CWNS girls. Furthermore, CWSs, but not CWNSs, distractibility scores were associated with two out of four measures of speech-language dissociations. That is, for preschool-age CWS, greater attention (i.e., being less distractible) was associated with greater frequencies of dissociations. Lastly, findings showed that interactions between distractibility and frequency of speech-language dissociations were not predictive of childrens speech fluency breakdowns (i.e., stuttered, nonstuttered, and total disfluencies). In conclusion, more preschool-age CWSparticularly boysexhibit speech-language dissociations than their normally fluent peers, and, for CWS, there is a relation between greater attention (i.e., more non-distractibility) and speech-language dissociations. The latter finding appears to suggest that attentional processes are associated with speech-language dissociations exhibited by preschool-age CWS. However, precise understanding of this association must await future empirical study.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to empirically assess whether preschool-age CWSs emotional diathesis (vulnerability), emotional stress, and their interaction are associated with these childrens stuttered disfluencies and whether those associations are mediated by sympathetic arousal (the latter indexed by tonic skin conductance level, SCL). Method: Participants were 49 preschool-age CWS (38 male). Each participant was exposed to relatively neutral (i.e., baseline), positive and negative emotion-inducing child-appropriate video clips and then performed age-appropriate narrative tasks. Measurement of participants emotional diatheses (e.g., emotional reactivity) was based on parents report (i.e., Childrens Behavior Questionnaires, CBQ), with their percentage of stuttered disfluencies and sympathetic arousal (i.e., SCL) measured during a narrative after viewing each baseline, positive and negative video clip. Results: Among the salient findings, the first finding indicated that preschool-age CWSs positive emotional reactivity was significantly positively associated with their percentage of stuttered disfluencies regardless of emotion stress condition. The second finding indicated that preschool-age CWSs negative emotional reactivity was more positively correlated with their percentage of stuttered disfluencies during narratives after positive, compared to baseline, emotion stress condition. The third finding indicated that preschool-age CWSs mean length of utterances (MLU) was positively associated with their positive emotional reactivity as well as percentage of stuttered disfluencies. Conclusions: Findings addressed whether, when and how the association of emotional processes and stuttering exists for preschool-age CWS. Regarding whether the relation exists, the first finding suggests that such an association exists, at least for positive emotional reactivity. Relative to when the relation exists, the second finding suggests that preschool-age CWSs negative emotional reactivity is more associated with their percentage of stuttered disfluencies under positive, compared to baseline, emotional stress. In terms of how emotional processes impacts childhood stuttering, the third finding was cautiously taken to suggest that positive emotional reactivity is associated with stuttering through MLU, rather than sympathetic arousal. Overall, present findings appear to support the notion that emotional processes play a role and that emotion warrants inclusion in any truly comprehensive account of childhood stuttering.

The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether five different brands of directional hearing aids would perform with the same efficiency. Using fifteen normal hearing subjects, the efficiency of the directionality of the aids was first evaluated by obtaining pure tone and. speech reception thresholds from both in front and behind each listener. To evaluate the hearing aids' effects on subjects' word discrimination ability, discrimination scores were obtained both in quiet and noise. Finally, each subject expressed his feelings regarding the performance of each aid using a rating scale.The results indicated there was a significant difference in the overall attenuation abilities of the aids, and the aids significantly attenuated some threshold conditions pore efficiently than others. The overall discrimination scores for the aids did not differ significantly, but all five aids provided a significantly higher score in quiet as compared to noise. The results of the subjective ratings indicated no significant differences among the five aids.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to better understand problem behaviors in young children with hearing loss (HL) who use listening and spoken language. Method: Children with HL were compared to same-aged peers with language impairment (LI) and typical language (TL). Participants included 45 children and their parents (13 in the HL group and 16 in the LI and TL groups); the mean age was 43 months (SD 12.2). Results from the preschool version of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL/1.5-5) were compared across groups as well as language level. This study also compared the results of the parent-reported CBCL/1.5-5 to the teacher version, the Caregiver-Teacher Report Form (C-TRF) for children with HL to look for any inter-rater differences and differences across settings. Results: As a group, children with HL did not have significantly different internalizing or externalizing problem behavior composite scores on the CBCL/1.5-5 than children with LI or TL. Internalizing problem behavior scores were moderately associated with language level across all groups. Therefore, internalizing problem behaviors appear to be at least partially attributed to language across multiple populations of young children. It was also found that for children with HL, parent and teacher reported problem behavior scores were in concordance. Conclusion: In this sample of young children there were no significant group differences in internalizing or externalizing composite scores on the CBCL/1.5-5 between children with HL, LI, and TL. Internalizing problem behavior scores were moderately correlated with language level across all three groups, which is consistent with previous research. For children with HL, parent and teacher reported problem behavior scores were concordant.

Children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) can present with deficits in receptive, expressive, or both modalities of vocabulary. Although typically developing children demonstrate vocabulary generalization from the receptive to expressive modality, the extent to which children with SLI can generalize between modalities has not yet been determined. Three male children with SLI (age 3;1 - 5;5) were taught separate sets of receptive and expressive vocabulary in a single subject multiple baseline multiple probe design. During each probe condition, vocabulary growth in both taught and untaught modalities was probed. Results demonstrated that all three children learned target vocabulary words in the taught modality. However, only the two oldest children (ages 5;4 and 5;5) demonstrated consistent cross-modal generalization from the expressive to receptive modality. Most generalization was maintained. The findings suggest that, in children with SLI, cross-modal generalization of vocabulary is most likely to occur from the expressive to the receptive modality.

In the future, audiological rehabilitation of adults with hearing loss will be more available, personalized and thorough due to the possibilities offered by the internet. By using the internet as a platform it is also possible to perform the process of rehabilitation in a cost-effective way. With tailored online rehabilitation programs containing topics such as communication strategies, hearing tactics and how to handle hearing aids it might be possible to foster behavioral changes that will positively affect hearing aid users. Four studies were carried out in this thesis. The first study investigated internet usage among adults with hearing loss. In the second study the administration format, online vs. paper- and pencil, of four standardized questionnaires was evaluated. Finally two randomized controlled trials were performed evaluating the efficacy of online rehabilitation programs including professional guidance by an audiologist. The programs lasted over five weeks and were designed for experienced adult hearing-aid users. The effects of the online programs were compared with the effects of a control group. It can be concluded that the use of computers and the internet overall is at least at the same level for people with hearing loss as for the general age-matched population in Sweden. Furthermore, for three of the four included questionnaires, the participants’ scores remained the same across formats. It is however recommended that the administration format remain consistent across assessment points. Finally, results from the two concluding intervention studies provide preliminary evidence that the internet can be used to deliver education and rehabilitation to experienced hearing aid users who report residual hearing problems and that their problems are reduced by the intervention; however the content and design of the online rehabilitation program requires further investigation.

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