Poor speech intelligibility in noise is a major problem for persons afflicted by a sensorineural hearing loss, and this problem is generally not alleviated by a hearing aid. For a typical hearing loss the effective signal-to-noise ratio is degraded by 10 - 15 dB, predominantly due to impoverished frequency selectivity. ...

In this article the problem of pitch period detection is discussed. The following statements concerning the nature of the problem are made: (1) Pitch period detection is a segmentation problem (in the technical sense of segment). (2) 'Significant points' are required as boundary points for the definition of segments. (3) ...

The effect of different treatment programs in audiological rehabilitation was evaluated. The speech intensity at which subjects with high frequency hearing loss correctly perceived 50% of the key words in sentences was measured in quiet and in noise, with and without a hearing aid and with and without simultaneous speech ...

In the Army, as in civil industry, there are many noise sources where the noise can not be reduced to safe levels except by use of hearing protectors, such as ear plugs, ear muffs or noise-excluding helmets. This paper shows how the effectiveness of hearing protectors can be determined for ...

Oesophagus speakers cannot raise their voices. This seems to be the biggest trouble in daily life for them. Therefore, a handy amplifier has been produced by way of trial experiment to alleviate their trouble. This instrument is made up of a microphone, amplifier and speaker. The amplifier and speaker is ...

Sound pressure measurements at the tympanic membrane in the aided ear were performed with application of the probe either through a 2 mm ventilation canal in the ear mould or in the space between the mould and the auditory canal. For frequencies above 500 Hz, concordant results were obtained by ...

The interaction of the head with a sound impinging upon it has a direct effect on the sound as it is seen at the port of the hearing aid microphone. While other investigators have evaluated this effect in terms of changes in the frequency response of the hearing aid, this ...

Voice complaints of serious singers are usually not imaginary, and rational diagnosis and treatment can be achieved through systematic inquiry and analysis based on anatomy, physiology, psychology and psychoacoustics of voice production. Good vocal habits should be encouraged from childhood. Measures to aid in voice conservation include avoiding singing in ...

The totally deafened adult, unable to make use of a hearing aid, has no alternative to lipreading for everyday communication. Lipreading, however, is no substitute for hearing speech. Many lipreaders have great difficulty in ideal conditions and even the best lipreaders find the task demanding and tiring. Prosthetic attempts to ...

This investigation was designed to survey a sample of 650 speech-language pathologists providing services in elementary schools and to obtain information on the concomitant problems of stutterers in their caseloads. The results of the survey revealed that 32% of all the young stutterers were free of any other problems. The ...

It is evident that evaluation of communication aids in a functional situation is a necessary part of their development, because of various psychological, social and practical factors related to their acceptability. This is indicated by many unexpected findings in the trial results of one such aid "SPLINK", presented here. This ...

An informal sketch is given of the background and current status of research on electronic aids designed to convert speech into visual or tactile patterns in order to alleviate problems of speech reception and speech production by the hearing-impaired. The functions and problems of the major types of such aids ...

Connected discourse was processed by a master hearing aid via two channels that were independently adjusted to seven discrete settings of low-cutoff frequency. Signals were tape-recorded and played back in a paired-comparison format to 12 listeners with gradually sloping sensorineural hearing loss, who selected the speech channel preferred for its ...

Aphasia is a disorder that is not generally known to the nonmedical profession. It is therefore difficult for attorneys unfamiliar with aphasic deficits to comprehend the full extent of the problem. Too often the speech-language pathologist's knowledge of the patient's communication abilities is not utilized by the legal community. This ...

There is a large population of individuals whose speech impairments are so severe that they are unable to communicate effectively or fully through the speech mode alone. For these individuals, augmentative communication techniques which can supplement their speech (if any) should be implemented to provide them with a fully functional ...

In 1978, 12 million flights arose from nations where English is a foreign language. From these, crash-deaths averaged 200 per million flights. The Aerospace Linguistic Foundation is incorporated to further cooperative evolution of a suitable speech for universal air use as envisaged by I.C.A.O. The language is called UNIGEN, an ...

Language stimulation of hearing impaired children is discussed from an acoustic point of view in two situations, 1) when the child is wearing a hearing aid, 2) when the child is not wearing a hearing aid but is spoken to directly at the ear (ad concham). Particularly the long-term spectrum ...

The Most Comfortable Loudness Level (MCL) was measured for 24 normal-hearing subjects, using narrow bands of speech having centre frequencies of 0.25, 0.5, 1.2 and 4kHz. MCL's were equivalent for octave band and one-third octave band stimuli. The sensation levels (SL) for various frequencies closely matched the SL of the ...

The main task of re-education in aphasia is the restoration of speech communicative function, which is characterized by activity, directionness and intentionality. These features can appear only in a society, with the best medium for its realization being a group or a society. Group lessons profit from the dynamics of ...

The study is a description of communicative strategies employed by three types of aphasics in varying conversational situations. The research focuses on the aphasics' ability to formulate requests and the propositional adequacy of their speech acts. The results indicate that regardless of etiology or degree of linguistic impairment present, aphasics ...

This paper describes a new, simple technique for instantaneously rating velopharyngeal competency during speech. The instrument, designed on the basis of data obtained from aerodynamic studies, provides an index of palatopharyngeal closure. Results from model studies and 75 cleft palate subjects demonstrate how the instrument is used to differentiate between ...

In spite of considerable reasearch over many years in the field of automatic speech recognition (Underwood, 1977), practical devices capable of recognising unrestricted speech remain as science fiction rather than fact. Simultaneous display of speech as an aid for the deaf has however, been accomplished using manual data input devices ...

Fifty (58%) unilaterally deaf patients responded to a contralateral routing of signals (CROS) hearing aid usage questionnaire. Their actual usage in communicative environments was quite variable, with 50% to 60% of the time being the avarage in most of these situations. Mean communicative usage was essentially similar when the ambient ...

Hearing-aid-processed speech recorded in reverberant and nonreverberant environments was ranked utilizing quality judgment and speech discrimination tasks. 21 normally hearing and 20 hearing-impaired listeners ranked the hearing-aid-processed speech. Quality judgments in reverberant environments may yield important information with respect to hearing aid selection. In contrast, speech discrimination rankings in a ...

In the absence of any clearly identifiable pathologic condition, the prosthodontic patient demonstrating speech problems after insertion of complete dentures is having difficulty with loss of turbulence, because of the diminution of tactile location skills in speaking, or both. Potential aids to speech improvement are a nonanatomic papilla placed on ...

A larger external ear replica for use on a KEMAR manikin has been developed to meet the needs of hearing aid designers and other manikin users. The ear was selected from the 24 subject sample used by Burkhard and Sachs (1975) as the basis for the original ear development. Ear ...

A dental-palatal prosthetic device, which had been demonstrated to aid laryngectomees who use the glossal press method of esophageal speech, was used on a patient whose primary method of air charging was bilabial plosive injection and who had a right hemiparesis of the tongue. Cointervention of a prosthodontist and a ...

The sound fields in which hearing aid evaluations are performed with tests of speech discrimination are far from standardized. This investigation was concerned with the nature of the sound field in terms of separation of speech and noise sources as related to the optimal setting of a master hearing aid ...

A variable that has received little attention in the psychoacoustic evaluation of the hearing aid is the position of loudspeakers with respect to the listener, particularly the azimuth of the loudspeaker, which is used for presenting the competing message. In the past, a variety of locations have been used, some ...

To find a way of improving the results of ossicular reconstruction in ears that were rendered hard of hearing by chronic otitis media, the suitability of two biocompatible materials has been investigated. After three years' experience with Proplast and two years with Plastipore, it is concluded that for ears which ...

Many severely hard of hearing and profoundly deaf persons seem to get very little help from an ordinary hearing aid. This observation has prompted the development of tactile speech processing aids. These aids should however only be used if it can be shown that the subject has no useful residual ...

Regardless of the physical and mental health of any elderly person, verbal communications tend to deteriorate with advancing years. A significant loss of hearing occurs in 30-50 percent of persons over age 65, and voice changes are virtually inevitable after the age of 60. These alterations in the organs of ...

Two severely dysarthric speakers who had previously spelled entire messages on an alphabet board were taught a system in which they pointed to the first letter of each word as they spoke. Rate and intelligibility of speech produced with (aided) and without (unaided) the communication system were judged by observers ...

A protocol for the evaluation of the effects of changes in hearing aid electroacoustic parameters was developed and evaluated. The protocol called for the creation of a matrix with as many dimensions as there are parameters to be evaluated. The protocol also called for each dimension to have as many ...

A spectral analysis of Australian speech is reported for 30 speakers, 15 males and 15 females. When expressed in one-third octave band levels, or critical band levels, the spectrum is essentially flat from 1kHz to 8KHz and shows approximately 15dB greater energy at 0.5kHz and lower frequencies. Although the results ...

Aided speech reception thresholds were obtained from 20 hearing-impaired listeners with three hearing aids adjusted to confort settings, and with the aids adjusted to deliver 40 dB of acoustic gain. The aided speech reception threshold under each condition was substracted from the unaided speech reception threshold to yield a measure ...

The development and use of frontal and base-view fluorography have increased the value of cinefluorography in the evaluation of velopharyngeal closure. This paper discusses problems in the fluorographic examination of the closure mechanism, the need for other measures of velopharyngeal closure, and the validation of closure measures. Reliability data are ...

Aided speech discrimination scores were obtained for 18 patients with sensorineural hearing loss. Monosyllabic word discrimination lists with a competing message of connected discourse at a signal-to-noise ratio of +10 dB were used as the test stimuli, and measurements were made at four hearing aid gain settings for each subject. ...

An improved electrolarynx is described. It provides handcontrolled fundamental frequency which enables the user to approximate natural intonation patterns, thus overcoming the monotony of speech with conventional aids. Training experiments with normal and with laryngectomized subjects have given promising results. A voice amplifier has been developed. Special care has been ...

The present paper is an English translation of the chapter of Otology in Preuss's classic book Biblisch-Talmudische Medizin. Described in the Talmud are a variety of anatomical ear abnormalities such as double ear, pierced ears, small ears, cut off ears, and pendulous ears. A slave whose ear was wounded had ...

The advantages and problems of fistula speech in post-laryngectomy vocal rehabilitation are discussed. A pilot study of laryngectomees has shown the practical advantages and low risk of a primary one-stage external vocal fistula construction at the time of laryngectomy, allowing very early fistula speech. These results indicate the need for ...

The gain of hearing aids is conventionally measured in a hard-walled 2-cc coupler. It has become increasingly apparent, however, that many interacting variables can affect the aid's behavior in an individual ear quite significantly. Therefore it is desirable that any departure from coupler response be known. A number of methods ...

The Tokyo, or Japanese, artificial larynx is a pneumatic speech aid with superior sound production used in the rehabilitation of laryngectomized patients. Although there are some difficulties with its use, modifications have been developed that eliminate the major problems. Three brief case reports demonstrate the effectiveness of this speech aid ...

Teachers frequently deal with unusual and perplexing behavioral problems in their classes. This study demonstrates how spontaneous and prompted speech were produced in a six-year-old mute by a first-grade teacher and her aide. A reinforcement system for peer-prompted speech and spontaneous speech was employed in three separate school classes in ...

Speech and language therapists are involved in the care of a wide range of pathogies. Recent changes have been marked by an increased involvement in feeding and swallowing work with premature babies, and oropharyngeal cancer sufferers. Changes have also occurred in assessment and management of communication problems resulting from acquired ...

Two aspects of team communication, speech acts and communication problems, and their relation to team performance in a team air combat simulator were studied. The purpose was to enhance the understanding of how team performance is related to team communication. Ten Swedish fighter pilots and four fighter controllers of varying ...

Laboratory studies suggest that an interviewer can influence the speech duration of an interviewee by modifications in his own speech duration. What appears to be a related association between the speech duration of communicators on the ground and an astronaut in orbital flight was found.