This study investigated the link between expressive phonological impairments, phonological awareness, and literacy. Previous investigations of literacy skills in children with speech impairments have given mixed results; here we considered whether presence of additional language impairments or severity of the speech impairment was an important prognostic factor. Thirty-one children with expressive phonological impairments were compared with control children matched on age and nonverbal ability on three occasions, at mean ages of 70, 79, and 91 months. On each occasion they were given three tests of phonological awareness: one involved rime-matching and two involved onset-matching. At assessments 2 and 3 literacy skills were assessed. Children with phonological impairments scored well below their controls on phonological awareness and literacy, independent of whether or not they had other language problems. Although many of them knew letter sounds, they were poor at reading and writing nonwords as well as real words. It is suggested that both the speech impairment and the literacy problems arise from a failure to analyze syllables into smaller phonological units. The severity of the phonological problems in relation to age is an important determinant of literacy outcome; children who have severe expressive phonological impairments at the time they start school are at particular risk for reading and spelling problems.

. Acquired unilateral sensorineural hearing loss reduces the ability to localize sounds and to discriminate in background noise. . Four controlled trials attempt to determine the benefit of contralateral bone anchored hearing aids over contralateral routing of signal (CROS) hearing aids and over the unaided condition. All found no significant improvement in auditory localization with either aid. Speech discrimination in noise and subjective questionnaire measures of auditory abilities showed an advantage for bone anchored hearing aid (BAHA) > CROS > unaided conditions. . All four studies have material shortfalls: (i) the BAHA was always trialled after the CROS aid; (ii) CROS aids were only trialled for 4 weeks; (iii) none used any measure of hearing handicap when selecting subjects; (iv) two studies have a bias in terms of patient selection; (v) all studies were underpowered (vi) double reporting of patients occurred. . There is a paucity of evidence to support the efficacy of BAHA in the treatment of acquired unilateral sensorineural hearing loss. Clinicians should proceed with caution and perhaps await a larger randomized trial. . It is perhaps only appropriate to insert a BAHA peg at the time of vestibular schwanoma tumour excision in patients with good preoperative hearing, as their hearing handicap increases most.

The results indicate that IF settings are inadequate, at least for the model of hearing aid used in the present study; however, significant discrepancies remained, even after adjustment.

Individuals with severe to profound hearing loss are likely to present with complex listening needs that require evidence-based solutions. This document is intended to inform the practice of hearing care professionals who are involved in the audiological management of adults with a severe to profound degree of hearing loss and will highlight the special considerations and practices required to optimize outcomes for these individuals.

S Fourteen phonologically impaired children and 14 normally speaking controls were given tests of speech discrimination, in which they had to distinguish between similar phonemes, and tasks of rhyme judgement and matching words on the basis of their initial phoneme, which require the child to identify the same sounds across differing word contexts. Compared to the control group, children with phonological impairment were poor on the phoneme discrimination tasks, but there was wide variation in performance and seven of these children scored near ceiling levels. All children showed some ability to discriminate contrasts they could not produce. Substantial deficits were found in the ability of phonologically impaired children to identify phoneme constancy across differing word contexts. It is difficult to explain such findings in terms of impaired auditory discrimination. Results are discussed in relation to normal phonological development, and it is suggested that phonologically impaired children do not progress to the stage of analysing words at the level of the phoneme. Des tests de discrimination orale ont été administrés à quatorze enfants souffrant de déficiences phonologiques ainsi qu'à un groupe de contrôle de quatorze sujets jouissant de facultés de langage normales. Il s'agissait de faire des distinctions entre des phonèmes semblables, d'apprécier certains rimes, et de regrouper des mots en fonction de leurs phonèmes initiaux; ces tâches nécessitent que l'enfant identifie les mêmes sons dans des contextes différents de mots. Par rapport au groupe de contrôle, les enfants atteints de déficiences phonologiques se sont mal tirés des tâches de discriminations de phonèmes, mais les résultats ont été en fait très inégaux et sept d'entre eux ont obtenu des notes près du maximum. Tous les enfants ont montré qu'ils étaient capables dans une certaine mesure de faire la différence entre des contrastes qu'ils ne pouvaient pas produire. Par contre il y a eu de gros échecs lorsqu'il s'est agi d'identifier des phonèmes inchangés dans des contextes différents de mots. Il est difficile de rendre compte de ces résultats en termes de déficiences de discrimination auditive. Les résultats sont discutés en comparaison avec le développement phonologique normal, et il est suggéré que les enfants souffrant de déficiences phonologiques ne parviennent pas jusqu'au stade de l'analyse des mots au niveau du phonème. Vierzehn phonologisch gestörte Kinder und vierzehn normalsprechende Kontrollkinder wurden mit Tests der Sprechdiskriminierung geprüft, in denen sie zwischen gleichartigen Phonemen unterscheiden mussten, und erhielten Aufgaben der Reimbeurteilung und Wortanpassung auf Grund des anlautenden Phonems, wobei das Kind denselben Laut in verschiedenen Wortzusam‐menhängen erkennen musste. Im Vergleich zu der Kontrollgruppe waren die Kinder mit phono‐ logischer Beeinträchtigung bei den Phonemdiskriminationsaufgaben schwach, aber es zeigten sich grosse Leistungsunterschiede und sieben von diesen Kindern erreichten eine Punktza...