The National Adult Reading Test (NART), the Schonell Graded Word Reading Test (SGWRT), and the Wechsler Memory Scale, Form I (WMS) were administered to 65 healthy subjects aged 65 to 89 years. Regression equations were derived which allowed total raw score on the WMS to be predicted from the subject's age and from the number of errors on the NART alone or on the NART and SGWRT combined. The distribution of discrepancies between obtained and predicted WMS scores for each equation did not depart significantly from normality and the percentage of subjects at each discrepancy score is provided. The standard error of prediction for each equation is slightly less than that for predicting WAIS IQ from the NART. Sixteen patients with clinical diagnoses of senile dementia of the Alzheimer type obtained discrepancies as large or larger than the most discrepant 2% of normal subjects. These results suggest that this procedure may provide a brief but effective assessment of cognitive deterioration in the elderly and may be capable of assessing dementia earlier than the NART/WAIS combination.

This paper reports on a controlled study investigating the language outcomes of previously tracheostomied children in their mid-to late-primary school years. The language and cognitive functioning of twenty children who had tracheostomy in infancy was compared with that of age-matched controls. Language abilities were found to be commensurate with intellectual functioning. There were no significant differences in receptive language functioning. However, the study identified difficulties with expressive language and a relationship between the duration of cannulation and higher-level language tasks. The results of these findings will be discussed with reference to the existing literature and future recommendations for research.

Clients who are unable to attend regular therapy sessions over an extended period present a challenge for treatment. This paper describes a brief intensive program of cognitive therapy for depression that was designed for four residents of country towns. Effects were highly consistent with the impact of group treatments delivered on a more traditional schedule. If confirmed in a controlled group study, these results suggest that cognitive therapy may be applied more economically and more widely than was previously realized.