The perceptions of stutterers by people who stutter.

Twenty-five persons who stutter completed a questionnaire asking respondents to list adjectives describing four hypothetical stutterers: a female child, male child, female adult and male adult stutterer. The majority of reported adjectives concerned negative stereotypical personality traits, indicating descriptions of stutterers by a group of persons who stutter that were similar to descriptions given by fluent subject groups. Implications of these findings are discussed.

A comparative study of adolescents' perceptions of normal-speaking and dysarthric children.

The purpose of this investigation was to compare adolescents' perceptions of the nonspeech characteristics of dysarthric and normal speakers. Recordings of six three-word phrases produced by 16 speakers, eight cerebral palsied and eight normal-speaking children, were presented to 19 students for judgments of nonspeech characteristics on a semantic differential scale containing 22 bipolar adjective pairs. Results of their ratings indicated that for all 22 adjective pairs the normal speakers were judged more positively than the dysarthric speakers. Moreover, the differences in listeners' ratings between the two speaker groups were statistically significant for all adjective pairs. Implications of these findings and their comparison to the judgments of peer and adult listeners are discussed.

Survey of speech-language pathologists' training, experience, and opinions on nasopharyngoscopy.

A questionnaire on nasopharyngoscopy was completed by 93 speech-language pathologists randomly selected from the Directory of the American Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Association. Although the majority rated nasopharyngoscopy as important in the assessment of velopharyngeal function, and believed that it should be performed by speech-language pathologists, the majority do not perform nasopharyngoscopic examinations. Moreover, 40% had no academic preparation and 20% had no clinical experience in nasopharyngoscopy. Implications of these findings concerning exposure to nasopharyngoscopy in speech-language pathology graduate training programs and in continuing education programs for practicing speech-language pathologists are discussed.

Medical students' knowledge of and exposure to cleft palate.

To compare the knowledge and experience of medical students in 1989 with that of those surveyed in 1973, a questionnaire about the various aspects of cleft palate was completed by 209 medical students from West Virginia University and the Louisiana State University Medical Center at Shreveport and New Orleans. Results revealed that 1989 students were more familiar with the embryology of cleft palate, racial and gender differences, and intellectual and psychologic issues (p less than .05). In contrast, the 1973 students were more able to define cleft palate, submucous cleft palate, and pharyngeal flap. There was no difference between the two groups of students in the amount of clinical exposure to cleft palate. These findings support the need for greater emphasis on cleft palate at the pre- and postdoctoral levels, as well as within continuing education programs. As part of current programs, the standard of practice of multidisciplinary team management for an individual with cleft palate should be underscored.

Survey of services and practices of cleft palate-craniofacial teams.

Questionnaire data about services and practices of cleft palate-craniofacial teams were obtained from 63 teams in 35 states. Findings indicate the following: (1) research was the least frequently conducted activity, although 73 percent of the teams indicated that they conducted research; and (2) the majority of those responding regarded cinefluoroscopy, endoscopy, perceptual assessment, oral examination, and videoendoscopy as important procedures, yet most patients (90%) seen by these teams did not receive instrumental assessment of velopharyngeal function.

Adolescents' perceptions of normal and voice-disordered children.

The purpose of this investigation was to compare adolescents' perceptions of the nonspeech characteristics of voice-disordered and normal speakers. Recordings of six three-word phrases produced by 16 speakers, eight voice-disordered and eight normal-speaking children, were presented to 19 adolescent students for judgments of nonspeech characteristics on a semantic differential scale containing 22 bipolar adjective pairs. Results of their ratings indicated that for 15 of the 22 pairs (68.2%) the normal speakers were judged more positively than the voice-disordered speakers. Moreover, for 9 of the 22 pairs (40.9%) the differences in listeners' ratings between the two speaker groups were statistically significant. Implications of these findings concerning developmental trends in the perception of voice disorders and their potential impact on mainstreaming in schools are discussed.

Dental students' knowledge of an exposure to cleft palate.

A questionnaire was administered to 108 dental students from West Virginia University to assess their knowledge of cleft palate. Results revealed areas of deficiency in basic knowledge and exposure to clefting. When these data were compared to those from an earlier study (Lass et al., 1973) differences were found of varying type. A comparison between dental and medical students revealed that the basic knowledge of cleft palate and associated problems were not different between the two groups. However, the dental students had done more reading than the medical students and had the topic of cleft palate included in their coursework.

Speech-language pathologists' opinions on the management of velopharyngeal insufficiency.

A 16-item questionnaire designed to survey opinions on the management of velopharyngeal insufficiency (VPI) was distributed to all members (N = 296) of the American Cleft Palate Association who were speech-language pathologists. Questionnaires were completed by 173 respondents (58.4 percent). There were differences of opinion among speech-language pathologists on various management issues related to VPI, including the value of instrumental assessment of VPI, the importance of oral examination of velopharyngeal function, and the effectiveness of speech therapy in the treatment of VPI. The implications of these findings for clinical training in VPI are discussed.

Listeners' perceptions of nonspeech characteristics of normal and dysarthric children.

The purpose of this investigation was to compare listeners' evaluations of nonspeech characteristics of dysarthric and normal speakers. A total of 16 speakers, eight cerebral-palsied and eight normal children ranging in age from 6 to 11 years, recorded six three-word phrases. The cerebral-palsied speakers were judged to have disorders in at least two of the three areas of articulation, phonation, and resonance, and all were judged to have an articulation disorder as one of the two disordered areas. All normal speakers were found to have normal speech characteristics. A master tape containing the 16 speakers' recordings was presented to 25 listeners, who were asked to rate each of the speakers on a 24-item semantic differential scale that contained polarized adjective pairs concerned with personality and physical-appearance traits. Results of their ratings indicated that for all but two of the 24 adjective pairs, the normal speakers were judged more favorably than the dysarthric speakers, and for all but one of the 24 adjective pairs there were significant differences in judges' ratings between the normal and dysarthric speakers. It appears, therefore, that dysarthric speech adversely affected listeners' perceptions of the dysarthric speakers' personality and physical-appearance characteristics.

The prevention of noise-induced hearing loss in the school-aged population: a school educational hearing conservation program.

A questionnaire assessing knowledge of hearing and hearing loss, and planned hearing conservation practices, was collected from 71 high school students before and after an educational hearing conservation program (HCP) consisting of a film, a lecture and a handout. An average increase of 16.7% correct responses from pre- to postexposure to the HCP was found. Moreover, substantial percentages of respondents stated that they now plan to use hearing protection devices and procedures, when appropriate, and about 80% stated they found the HCP helpful to them.

Variable speech control vs Varispeech: does newer mean better?

Normal-hearing volunteers (N:30, aged 19-28 yrs) yielded intelligibility scores for W-22 word lists and CID sentences at 40 db re each S's SRT, and judgments on a 7-pt scale ("very pleasant"----"very unpleasant") for Sentence 3 of Fairbanks' "Rainbow Passage". Normal and time-altered speeds (60%: compression; 140%: expansion) were compared between the widely-used but obsolescent Lexicon Varispeech (VSp) unit vs the commercially available Variable Speech Control Model A-7 which incorporates a time-sampling technique similar to the VSp. With both VSp and VSC, intelligibility was nearly perfect at all three speeds, and thus both appear equally suitable for intelligibility studies, but at the 60% and 140% speeds the signal clarity was significantly preferable for the VSp system (p less than .01 in both cases), by .6 of a scale interval at 60% and 1.8 interval at 140%. Furthermore, the VSC does not operate beyond the 60-140% range, as occasionally may be desirable in research on the effects of time alteration on speech reception.