Auditory and visual discrimination skills of normal and articulation-defective children.

Abstract

4 tests of auditory and visual perception were presented to 102 children, Grades 1 through 3, screened for normal IQ and hearing acuity, and absence of neurological impairment and/or emotional disorders, using school records and teachers' judgments as criteria. Children were selected from elementary schools representing 3 different socio-economic levels in Bloomington and Normal, Illinois. The tests used were: (1) the Wepman Test of Auditory Discrimination, (2) a self-monitoring discrimination test designed for this study, (3) an auditory, tapping, temporal-sequencing test, and (4) a visual spatial-sequencing test. Four different analyses consistently revealed that the self-monitoring test of auditory discrimination was by far the most sensitive instrument for discriminating between normal and articulation-defective children in Grades 1 through 3. On only one analysis, the t test of the differences between means, did the Wepman test show a significant difference ( p = .05) for first grade only. The auditory and visual modality tests showed significant F ratios among grade levels but not between normals and articulation-defective groups.