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This study investigated the effect, on conversational speech, of a training task that included correct sound production of words as a subject read a word list at increasing rates of speed. Five children participated in a 10-day program designed to automatize articulation of a target souncf. The /s/ was the target for three children and the /r/ for two. At each training session a subject was required to read a list of 60 words, 25 times. The child was rewarded each time he read the list within a prescribed time period while producing every target sound correctly. Probes of conversational speech were recorded each day in school, at home, and in a third setting at the conclusion of the program. Analyses of these tapes indicated that four of the five children showed varying degrees of carryover. Complete carryover, however, was not achieved. Subjects who made the greatest improvement tended to have the highest number of correct readings, as well as the most rapid readings of the word list. Recordings made in the home, school, and in a third environment reflected similar trends of carryover.

A study was conducted to measure the relationship between auditory discrimination, articulation stimulability, and consistency of misarticulation. Data were based on the Carter-Buck Nonsense-Syllable Imitation Test for stimulability of /s/, the McDonald Deep Test of Articulation which measured consistency of misarticulation of /s/, and the Farquhar-Bankson In-depth Test of Auditory Discrimination which measured external and internal auditory discrimination of /s/. Ss were 25 kindergarten and first grade children with normal hearing and intelligence. No S had received any speech therapy. Each S misarticulated a minimum of three /s/ items on the McDonald Screening Test of Articulation. No more than one phoneme was misarticulated in addition to misarticulation of /s/. A significant correlation between the child's ability to discriminate his own production of /s/ (internal or self-monitoring) and the consistency of misarticulation of /s/ was obtained, as well as one between the consistency of misarticulation of /s/ and the stimulability of /s/. No statistically significant correlations were found between the other variables. A low nonsignificant correlation was found between the stimulability of /s/ and internal discrimination abilities. Different types of discrimination tasks were of varying difficulty. Performance on external discrimination items was better than for internal discrimination items.

A study was conducted to determine the efficacy of utilizing Leach's interrogation model as a means for analyzing question types used by mothers and their children's responses to various interrogative forms. Data analyzed consisted of language samples obtained from three preschool children and their mothers during mother-child interactions plus each child's responses to a 90-item probe containing questions representing the 15 question forms delineated by the model. The interrogation model was an effective and reliable tool in the analysis of data. The question forms most frequently used by the mothers were (1) wh- interrogative nominal segment, (2) auxiliary + no infinitive, and (3) tag questions. All three subjects displayed similarities of performance in response to wh- interrogative nominal segment and auxiliary + no infinitive questions. Two of the subjects appeared capable of appropriately answering all of the question forms tested during the interrogative probe. Similarities of performance during the mother-child interaction and the interrogative probe were found to exist for two of the three subjects in certain categories. A high percentage of the questions posed by the mothers during the mother-child interactions were of forms which their children consistently answered appropriately during the interrogative probe.