Objective: The aim of this study was to collect the normative values of nasalance for Egyptian Arabic speakers in different age groups, using Arabic speech samples in order to compare patients with disturbed nasality. Material and Methods: This study included 300 normal Egyptian volunteers divided into three groups according to their ages: group I = children (n = 92; age 3 years, 3 months to 9 years), group II = teenagers (n = 76; age 9–18 years) and group III = adults (n = 132; age above 18 years). The Nasometer II 6400 was used for the analysis of speech samples. All subjects were asked to perform four speech tasks that were based on the MacKay-Kummer SNAP Test-R and modified to be applicable to the Arabic language, especially to the Egyptian dialect. Results: The normative values for nasometric assessment in the different age groups were studied. The results demonstrated nasalance score variations according to age and gender. Most of the nasalance score norms of the Egyptian children demonstrated statistically significant differences when compared with the norms of children for the MacKay-Kummer Test-R. Conclusion: The Egyptian Arabic SNAP test is an easy, noninvasive and objective procedure that is suitable for all age groups.

OBJECTIVE:Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder that includes deficits in socialization, communication, and adaptive functioning. The mismatch negativity (MMN) is a component of evoked response potentials that reflects pre-attentive change detection. The purpose of this study was to determine whether a group of autistic school-age children had abnormal changes in auditory MMN and to analyze and compare the results with an age-matched group of normal children. MATERIALS and METHODS:This prospective study was carried out on 31 autistic school-age children. Thirty age-, gender-, and IQ-matched children served as a control group. The children were evaluated through diagnostic procedures that included psychometric and speech language tests and audiological assessments. Auditory MMNs were recorded from all participants, and the peak amplitudes and latencies were measured. RESULTS:The mean ages were 11.3±2.8 and 11.2±3.2 years for the autistic and normal children, respectively. The MMN amplitudes obtained from the two groups were found to be statistically significantly different. The MMN amplitudes were reduced, and latencies were prolonged in autistic versus normal children. CONCLUSION:Our results suggest that children with autism do have auditory changes at the level measured by MMN, mainly pre-attentive response, which argues for a doubt on affection of the supposed origin of auditory MMN in those children. KEYWORDS:Auditory mismatch negativity, mismatch negativity, event-related potentials, autistic children, autism, auditory evoked potentials INTRODUCTION Autism was first described by Kanner, and since that time, extensive efforts have been made in describing the behaviors that define autism and to elucidate the underlying neural circuitry involved in autism through structural and functional neuroimaging [1] . It is a pervasive developmental disorder that includes deficits in socialization, communication, and adaptive functioning [2] .Its etiology has not yet been fully identified, but a variety of pathological events affecting brain development could be the cause [3] . Genetic factors might be incriminated for its etiology [4] . Children with autism often exhibit abnormalities in auditory processing and receptive language functioning [5] . It has been postulated that the deficits in attention processing contribute to many of the clinical features of autism [6] . Mismatch negativity (MMN) is a component of event-related potentials that reflects novelty discrimination. Although modulated by attention, it can be elicited, even if attention is not being paid to the stimulus; therefore, it reflects pre-attentive change detection [1] . MMN response has been elicited by changes in a variety of acoustic features, such as intensity, frequency, duration, and perceived location, and by changes in auditory patterns [7] . It can be reliably elicited in children, and the characteristics of the MMN elicited in simple paradigms from children are generally similar, although often somewhat longer in latency, to those elicit...

Objective: The aim of this study was to develop an Arabic articulation test using familiar and visually transparent words in order to be used as a criterion for comparing phonemes of both normal and phonologically disordered Arabic-speaking children. Material and Methods: A picture-naming test was designed for the Mansoura Arabic Articulation Test (MAAT) to elicit spontaneous single-word responses representing all possible consonant positions and vowels of Colloquial Egyptian Arabic. Three expert phoniatricians were asked to review MAAT and complete a questionnaire. The MAAT was presented to 100 normal Arabic-speaking Egyptian children randomly selected from the first- and second-grade kindergarten. They were 52 males and 48 females with ages ranging between 42 and 70 months. Children’s responses were converted to a percent correct score for sound utterances and picture identification. Results: Statistically non-significant differences were found among experts’ opinions reflecting approval for the MAAT items. A statistically highly significant adequate correlation was found between correct word utterances and picture identification which proved the content validity of MAAT. Test-retest reliability proved the consistency of MAAT. Conclusion: MAAT is a valid and reliable test that can be applied to collect the phonetic inventory of Arabic-speaking young children.

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