The ability of infants to recognize their mothers as distinct from others was investigated by presenting 6 boys and 6 girls at two age levels (5 weeks and 13 weeks) with the following six sequential stimulus conditions: (1) mother's face (MO); (2) stranger's face (SO); (3) mother's face with stranger's voice (MS); (4) stranger's face with mother's…

False recognition responses of high and low SES kindergarten subjects to associatively and acoustically related words were measured. Acoustic attribute dominance for all subjects, and relatively greater acoustic attribute dominance for low SES subjects was predicted. Results indicated that subjects encoded on both attribute dimensions, with low…

This study investigated at the age at which infants become able to discriminate between their mothers and females strangers, as measured by differential patterns of pauses during the infants' crying while being spoken to by their mothers and female strangers. The subjects, 14 infants ranging in age from 7 to 20 days, were fed, burped, and changed,…

The results of recent studies are presented which show that traditional auditory discrimination tests for children which require the examinee to distinguish one speech sound from another are ill-conceived and consequently of little practical value. Linguistic variables requiring attention in designing useful speech sound discrimination instruments…

This study was designed (1) to determine if the Wepman Auditory Discrimination Test and a group modification of the test would produce the same measure of auditory discrimination ability, (2) to determine if either the individual or group version of the test can be used to predict reading achievement, and (3) to obtain information relating…

The relationships between Southern Negro dialect exposure, age, reading ability, and auditory discrimination were studied. The subjects were 112 students randomly selected from grades 2 and 4 from two elementary schools in Richmond and Martinez, California. The predominant speech pattern at one school was Southern Negro dialect; at the other…

Tests were administered to 209 educable mentally handicapped children (mean age 10.8, mean IQ 77) to determine factors related to speech hearing. Results indicated that mental age, intelligence quotient, physiological age, institutionalization, and organic bases for retardation were not significantly related either to speech reception threshold or…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences and relationships among reading comprehension, conservation ability, auditory discrimination, and the visual-motor development of third grade pupils. Of 510 third grade subjects, 96 remained after exclusions were made for intelligence, vision, hearing, and age range. Twenty-four boys and…

This handbook, written in a conversational tone, is to help the teacher of very young children work effectively with the child who evidences a high risk for a learning disability. Based upon the theories of child development of Gesell, Piaget, and Kephart, this manual attempts to provide prescriptive activities for specific learning problems in…

Two factors of predicted learning disorders were investigated: (1) inability to maintain appropriate classroom behavior (BEH), (2) perceptual discrimination deficit (PERC). Three groups of first-graders (BEH, PERC, normal control) were administered measures of impulse control, distractability, auditory discrimination, and visual discrimination.…

The assumption that the learning of letter names in their proper sequence is a prerequisite for literacy can be questioned. There is disagreement over the value of early letter-name training. It is variously said to aid in letter or word discrimination, to aid in attaching sounds to letters, and to interfere with both of these tasks. An analysis…

The study summarized in this book was an intensive, detailed analysis of young fluent readers, their strengths, and the weaknesses in spite of which they learned to read early and fluently. Specifically, the study investigated two aspects of learning to read: the extent to which certain characteristics may appear crucial because of the particular…

Two experiments involving listening preferences of autistic and normal Ss were conducted to test the hypothesis that the right cerebral hemisphere is more active than the left in autistic children. (Author/BD)

The study was designed to survey the noise characteristics in residence halls housing approximately 60 young mentally retarded children and to test the effects of this noise on speech-discrimination performance of the residents. (Author/SBH)

Investigated auditory word discrimination skills in children diagnosed as having minimal brain dysfunction (MBD) because a lack of auditory discrimination skill seems relevant to learning deficiency in language acquisition, a typical sign of MBD. (Editor/RK)