Average intelligibility scores for a group of 37 hearing-impaired and 2 normally hearing adolescents were determined by 50 normal listeners and were compared with nine acoustically measured speech variables, including measurements of consonant production, vowel production, and prosody. (Author/DLS)

Argues that while spoken language has received a great deal of attention during the past decade, the methods of its examination have received too little. (AA)

In a comparison of expressive language in different settings, 20 economically disadvantaged students in a Head Start program were divided into four groups: single-object picture, toy, multi-object picture, and adult-child conversation. (CL)

The Fluharty Preschool Speech and Language Screening Test was examined in terms of construct validity. Analysis of test results for 260 children (ages three to six) found that results for internal consistency, discriminant analysis, and item difficulty analysis raised questions about the usefulness and appropriateness of many test items.…

To date, appropriate diagnostic instruments for preschool children have been insufficient to fill the demands. Since the majority of published test instruments for preschoolers address speech (verbal) development, the following discussion is limited to the problems and techniques of speech diagnosis. (PN)

Examines results of a study of samples of babbling production of 6, 8, and 10-month-old infants from French, Arabic, and Cantonese backgrounds. Various judges were asked to identify those infants from their own linguistics community, with the intention of supporting hypothesis of an early influence on babbling of metaphonological characteristics…

Prompted by a lack of materials to test students' discrimination and production of minimal pairs and similar words, a teacher developed a technique that uses actual production of words in sentences. Students' reactions have been very positive, and the test is brief and simple to administer. (MSE)

Describes oral tests for different teaching levels that can be used by regular classroom teachers with normal size classes. At the beginning levels, oral assessment is done through role playing or "talk cards," and at the advanced levels, an oral interview is the major part of a mixed skill task. (EKN)

To examine assumptions underlying the scoring system of Arizona Articulation Proficiency Scale (Revised), 21 children (ages 4 to 7) were given the test. Results suggested that Ss' production of sounds in only two contexts is not necessarily accurate for other contexts and that weightings assigned on basis of frequency overestimated the extent of…

An examination of the extent to which scores on the Stuttering Severity Instrument (SSI) for Children and Adults, Third Edition, accurately reflect 10 judges' observations of stuttering behaviors found that SSI scores obscured the wide range of judges' raw counts and did not accurately reflect the observational data from which they were derived.…

The severity of phonological involvement of 20 phonologically impaired children (ages 5-9) was compared using 5 measures: phonological deviance scores, percent consonants correct based on either connected speech or single words, and perceptual ratings from elementary education majors and graduate students in speech-language pathology. All five…

Children with developmental speech disorders may have additional deficits in speech perception and/or short-term memory. To determine whether these are only transient developmental delays that can accompany the disorder in childhood or persist as part of the speech disorder, adults with a persistent familial speech disorder were tested on speech…

This investigation was motivated by observations that when persons with dysarthria increase loudness their speech improves. Some studies have indicated that this improvement may be related to an increase of prosodic variation. Studies have reported an increase of fundamental frequency (F0) variation with increased loudness, but there has been no…

This report provides suggestions on how a language arts speaking skills assessment program could be structured to ensure that school districts meet the Common Curriculum Goals of the public elementary and secondary schools in Oregon. This report includes: (1) a list of common curriculum goals that relate to speaking; (2) general implications for…

Partial results are presented of a study investigating the relationship between an oral interview and a cloze test in Hebrew and focusing on issues related to the oral interview procedure. An oral interview speaking test and cloze tests were administered to 106 students of Hebrew at the University of Minnesota. The taped interviews were rated by…