Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

5-1995

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Speech and Hearing Science

Major Professor

Carl W. Asp, Anna K. Nabelek

Committee Members

Harold Peterson, Esteban Walker

Abstract

The Speech Perception In Noise (SPIN) test, Auditory Sequential Memory (ASM) test, and the Hall Auditory Rhythm Test (HART) were used to assess listening and imitation skills of third grade children. The third graders were identified as children with learning disabilities (subsequently called LD) and children with normal-learning abilities (subsequently called NL). There were thirty-five LD and fifteen NL from Knox County Public Elementary Schools, Knoxville, Tennessee. All children satisfied the following criteria; (1) enrolled in third grade; (2) normal hearing; (3) type A tympanograms; (4) IQ scores of 85 or above; (5) intelligible conversational speech; (6) English as the primary language; (7) normal social behavior; and (8) not taking medication for attention or behavior problems. The LD children were identified by Knox County school personnel using the criteria for learning disability from the 1993 Tennessee State Special Education Manual. In addition, the LD were enrolled in a resource program a minimum of five hours a week. All subjects were seen individually during two separate test sessions. Each session lasted approximately 25 minutes. During the first test session each subject was administered the SPIN and the ASM tests. During the second test session each subject was administered the HART. The HART was developed for the present study to assess children's ability to imitate various syllable rhythm patterns. The test consisted of 5-6 syllable rhythm patterns versus 7-9 syllable rhythm patterns at either a normal speaking rate or a slow speaking rate. Results of analyses of variance revealed a significant interaction between the two groups (LD and NL) and three tests scores (SPIN, ASM, and HART). For all three tests, the LD group performed poorer than the NL group, but the difference in scores were the greatest for the HART. Ward's Method of Hierarchical Clustering Analysis revealed that the LD separated into two subgroups; an upper level (LD-UL) and a lower level (LD-LL). The mean scores for the three groups, NL, LD-UL, and LD-LL, and for all three tests were compared with a three-factor analysis of variance. For the SPIN test, the mean scores for the LD-UL and LD-LL subgroups were not significantly different. However, for the HART and the ASM test, the mean scores for the LD-UL and LD-LL were significantly different. In summary, the results from this study indicated a significant difference in listening skills of children with learning disabilities and normal-learning abilities for word identification in noise, recall of digits, and imitation of syllable rhythm patterns. In addition, the LD group separated into two distinct subgroups based on listening skills. The separation of the two groups on the HART is an important finding, because the HART is a non-linguistic test that can be used with pre-school and school-age children. Of the three tests, the SPIN and ASM were established tests; the HART was a new test. All three tests utilized in the present study can be used by appropriate public school personnel to evaluate children with learning disabilities. The implications of these findings are discussed. The implications for treatment of children with learning disabilities were reviewed.

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