With modern improvements to hearing aids and cochlear implant (CI) technology, and consequently improved access to speech, there has been greater emphasis on listening-based therapies for children with hearing loss, such as auditory-verbal therapy (AVT). Speech and language, speech perception in noise, and reading were evaluated before and after…

Few studies have examined the ability of individuals with learning disabilities, in general, or with Down syndrome, specifically, to discriminate speech. The purpose of this study was compare the speech discrimination abilities of eight children with Down syndrome (aged 5.7 to 12.8 years) to seven nonverbal mental-age matched controls (aged 4.0 to…

Performance of 32 children with language impairment and 22 without, on perception and imitation of synthesized syllables, found that phoneme perception ability of children with only expressive impairment fell between that of controls and expressive-receptive impaired children. Both groups of subjects had difficulty with phonological memory, but…

A model of language abilities in matrix form is described in which areas of language ability are defined in terms of the effects of receptive and expressive language processes on four linguistic levels: phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics. (Author)

Research on reading has tried, and failed, to account for wide disparities in reading skill even among children taught by the same method. Why do some children learn to read easily and quickly while others, in the same classroom and taught by the same teacher, don't learn to read at all? In "Language Development and Learning to Read", Diane…