Syllable Repetition Research Articles

Comparing diadochokinetic performances of stuttering and non-stuttering children between 7–12 ages

Introduction: It is important to evaluate oral motor skills, make appropriate diagnosis and develop appropriate intervention plans for individuals who stutter. One of the measures used to evaluate oral motor skills is diadochokinesia (DDK). Diadochokinesia or diadochokinesis is the ability to make antagonistic movements in quick succession, alternately bringing a limb into opposite positions, as of flexion and extension or of pronation and supination. Diadochokinetic analysis examines the speed, accuracy and continuity measures of speech production in monosyllabic /pΛ/, /tΛ/, /kΛ/and multisyllabic /pΛtΛkΛ/ sequences.Purpose: This study aimed to compare the diadokinetic performance of children aged 7–12 with and without stuttering. Method: Participants were composed of girls and boys with and without stuttering from each age group. The data of the diadokinetic measurements of stuttering children were compared to the data of the typically developing children.Results: It was found that there was a significant difference in favor of children who do not stutter during production of /pΛ/ and /kΛ/ syllables. Syllable repetition rates are quicker in these syllables. Results of the research between the genders found there was a significant difference in favor of girls. The average of girls is higher than males. In addition, there was a significance in favor of 10–12 age groups for /pΛ/ syllable that syllable repetition rate is slower in these groups.

무의미 음절 따라말하기(nSRT)를 통한 말소리장애아동과 일반아동의 음운인출 및 배열 처리능력 비교

무의미 음절 따라말하기(nSRT)를 통한 말소리장애아동과 일반아동의 음운인출 및 배열 처리능력 비교

Vocal Tone Analysis for Identification of Stuttering Levels based on Tamil Syllable

Speech is the most unique feature of humans and it is the basic mode of verbal communication. Among all, a few people face hurdles in producing normal speech because of various types of speech disorders. Stuttering is one of the disorder types mainly characterized by repetition of syllables or words and involuntary interruption during the speech. One of the unsolved problems in the realm of fluency disorder is the level identification, based upon the patient’s utterance before and after the speech therapy. The main objective of the paper is to perform analysis of vocal tone to identify the major differences between a normal, moderate and severely stuttered speech, particularly for the Tamil spoken language. The stutter speech vocal tone analysis involves envelope detection based on Hilbert transform has been computed from the input of normal and stuttered speech waves in which by applying normalization to the spectrum and cepstrum of the obtained signal considering only Tamil syllable as input. The experimental outcomes are given as subjective evaluation in three categories of speech signals which results people affected by severe stuttering having low vocal tone than moderate and normal stuttering speech.

Speech Fluency in Acquired Apraxia of Speech During Narrative Discourse: Group Comparisons and Dual-Task Effects.

Purpose Slowed speech and interruptions to the flow of connected speech are common in aphasia. These features are also observed during dual-task performance for neurotypical adults. The purposes of this study were to determine (a) whether indices of fluency related to cognitive-linguistic versus motor processing would differ between speakers with aphasia plus apraxia of speech (AOS) and speakers with aphasia only and (b) whether cognitive load reduces fluency in speakers with aphasia with and without AOS. Method Fourteen speakers with aphasia (7 with AOS) and 7 neurotypical controls retold short stories alone (single task) and while simultaneously distinguishing between a high and a low tone (dual task). Their narrative samples were analyzed for speech fluency according to sample duration, speech rate, pause/fill time, and repetitions per syllable. Results As expected, both speaker groups with aphasia spoke slower and with more pauses than the neurotypical controls. The speakers with AOS produced more repetitions and longer samples than controls, but they did not differ on these measures from the speakers with aphasia without AOS. Relative to the single-task condition, the dual-task condition increased the duration of pauses and fillers for all groups but reduced speaking rate only for the control group. Sample duration and frequency of repetitions did not change in response to cognitive load. Conclusions Speech output in aphasia becomes less fluent when speakers have to engage in simultaneous tasks, as is typical in everyday conversation. Although AOS may lead to more sound and syllable repetitions than normal, speaking tasks other than narrative discourse might better capture this specific type of disfluency. Future research is needed to confirm and expand these preliminary findings. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.8847845.

Developmental modulation and predictability of age-dependent vocal plasticity in adult zebra finches

Predicting the nature of behavioral plasticity can provide insight into mechanisms of behavioral expression and control. Songbirds like the zebra finch rely on vocal signals for communication, and the performance of these signals demonstrate considerable plasticity over development. Traditionally, these signals were thought to be fixed in adulthood, but recent studies have revealed significant age-dependent changes to spectral and temporal features of song in adult songbirds. A number of age-dependent changes to song resemble acute changes to adult song performance across social contexts (e.g., when an adult male sings to a female relative to when he sings in isolation). The ability of variation in social context-dependent changes to predict variation in age-dependent plasticity would suggest shared mechanisms, but little is known about this predictability. In addition, although developmental experiences can shape adult plasticity, little is known about the extent to which social interactions during development affect age-dependent change to adult song. To this end, we systematically analyzed age- and context-dependent changes to adult zebra finch song, and then examined the degree to which age-dependent changes varied across birds that were social or non-socially tutored birds and to which social context-dependent changes predicted age-dependent changes. Non-socially tutored birds showed more dramatic changes to the broad structure of their motif over time than socially tutored birds, but non-socially and socially tutored birds did not differ in the extent of changes to various spectral and temporal features of song. Overall, we found that adult zebra finches produced longer and more spectrally stereotyped songs when they were older than when they were younger. Moreover, regardless of developmental tutoring, individual variation in age-dependent changes to song bout duration and syllable repetition were predicted by variation in social context-dependent changes to these features. These data indicate that social experiences during development can shape some aspects of adult plasticity and that acute context-dependent and long-term age-dependent changes to some song features could be mediated by modifications within similar neural substrates.

Higher-Faster-Farther: Maximum Performance Tests in the Assessment of Neurogenic Speech Impairment

Background: Maximum performance tests are widely used in dysarthria assessment. From a theoretical perspective, the motor demands of such tasks differ from those of speaking. Therefore, their validity as measures of dysarthric impairment needs to be established empirically. Patients and Methods: Maximum phonation time (MPT) and maximum syllable repetition rate (MRR) were compared with sentence reading/repetition tasks. In study 1, 130 patients with neurologic movement disorders and 130 healthy control participants were examined. Presence/severity of dysarthria was measured using psychometrically standardized auditory scales. In study 2, 16 healthy volunteers participated in an experiment designed to examine the intraspeaker variability of MPT, MRR, and sentence repetition across eight trials. Results: Study 1: MPT made no reasonable contribution to the diagnosis of dysarthria or of any specific dimension of perceived speech impairment. MRR correlated with overall speech impairment but turned out to be an insensitive and highly unspecific statistical marker, afflicted with aetiology-specific errors. Study 2: compared with sentence repetition, both MPT and MRR demonstrated highly increased within-subject inconsistencies. Conclusion: The validity of MPT and MRR tasks as measures of dysarthria is still unsettled.

Signal Interpretation Considerations When Estimating Subglottal Pressure From Oral Air Pressure.

Purpose Oral air pressure measurements during lip occlusion for /pVpV/ syllable strings are used to estimate subglottal pressure during the vowel. Accuracy of this method relies on smoothly produced syllable repetitions. The purpose of this study was to investigate the oral air pressure waveform during the /p/ lip occlusions and propose physiological explanations for nonflat shapes. Method Ten adult participants were trained to produce the "standard condition" and were instructed to produce nonstandard tasks. Results from 8 participants are included. The standard condition required participants to produce /pːiːpːiː.../ syllables smoothly at approximately 1.5 syllables/s. The nonstandard tasks included an air leak between the lips, faster syllable repetition rates, an initial voiced consonant, and 2-syllable word productions. Results Eleven oral air pressure waveform shapes were identified during the lip occlusions, and plausible physiological explanations for each shape are provided based on the tasks in which they occurred. Training the use of the standard condition, the initial voice consonant condition, and the 2-syllable word production increased the likelihood of rectangular oral air pressure waveform shapes. Increasing the rate beyond 1.5 syllables/s improved the probability of producing rectangular oral air pressure signal shapes in some participants. Conclusions Visual and verbal feedback improved the likelihood of producing rectangular oral air pressure signal shapes. The physiological explanations of variations in the oral air pressure waveform shape may provide direction to the clinician or researcher when providing feedback to increase the accuracy of estimating subglottal pressure from oral air pressure.

Language Monitoring in Brain Surgery Under General Anesthesia.

Awake surgeries for cerebral lesion resection have several limitations including patient fear, discomfort, or pain. This study aimed to determine whether components of language function could be measured under general anesthesia. In this study, the occurrence of mismatch negativity (MMN) was searched in evoked potentials for phonological sounds. Five normal hearing, French native speaker, awake volunteers participated in evaluating the phonological task (4 females and 1 male). Eleven normal-hearing, French native speaker patients (6 left and 5 right hemisphere lesions) participated at the time of their tumor neurosurgery (3 females and 8 males). Repetitions of the standard syllable /pa/ with the insertion of 1 deviant /po/ were presented through earphones. The difference between averaged epochs of standards and deviants syllables determined the MMN. During surgery, total intravenous anesthesia was performed with propofol and synthetic opioid sufentanil. The bispectral index was targeted (40 to 60). The MMN was found in all awake volunteers and validated by an N250 component. In the patient group, the electroencephalogram analysis was not possible in 4 of 11 patients because of anesthesia being too deep, burst suppression, or a high level of noise (>40 μV). Significant N250 response was obtained in 5 of 7 (71.4%) patients under general anesthesia. The 2 other patients also showed MMN which did not reach significance. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration that phonological processing can be measured during brain surgery under general anesthesia, suggesting that some language processing persists under the condition of unconsciousness. These results encourage further study of language processing under general anesthesia with the goal of making intraoperative neuromonitoring.

DeepDDK: A Deep Learning based Oral-Diadochokinesis Analysis Software.

Oromotor dysfunction caused by neurological disorders can result in significant speech and swallowing impairments. Current diagnostic methods to assess oromotor function are subjective and rely on perceptual judgments by clinicians. In particular, the widely used oral-diadochokinesis (oral-DDK) test, which requires rapid, alternate repetitions of speech-based syllables, is conducted and interpreted differently among clinicians. It is therefore prone to inaccuracy, which results in poor test reliability and poor clinical application. In this paper, we present a deep learning based software to extract quantitative data from the oral DDK signal, thereby transforming it into an objective diagnostic and treatment monitoring tool. The proposed software consists of two main modules: a fully automated syllable detection module and an interactive visualization and editing module that allows inspection and correction of automated syllable units. The DeepDDK software was evaluated on speech files corresponding to 9 different DDK syllables (e.g., "Pa", "Ta", "Ka"). The experimental results show robustness of both syllable detection and localization across different types of DDK speech tasks.

Cortical Tracking of Speech-in-Noise Develops from Childhood to Adulthood.

In multitalker backgrounds, the auditory cortex of adult humans tracks the attended speech stream rather than the global auditory scene. Still, it is unknown whether such preferential tracking also occurs in children whose speech-in-noise (SiN) abilities are typically lower compared with adults. We used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to investigate the frequency-specific cortical tracking of different elements of a cocktail party auditory scene in 20 children (age range, 6-9 years; 8 females) and 20 adults (age range, 21-40 years; 10 females). During MEG recordings, subjects attended to four different 5 min stories, mixed with different levels of multitalker background at four signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs; noiseless, +5, 0, and -5 dB). Coherence analysis quantified the coupling between the time courses of the MEG activity and attended speech stream, multitalker background, or global auditory scene, respectively. In adults, statistically significant coherence was observed between MEG signals originating from the auditory system and the attended stream at <1, 1-4, and 4-8 Hz in all SNR conditions. Children displayed similar coupling at <1 and 1-4 Hz, but increasing noise impaired the coupling more strongly than in adults. Also, children displayed drastically lower coherence at 4-8 Hz in all SNR conditions. These results suggest that children's difficulties to understand speech in noisy conditions are related to an immature selective cortical tracking of the attended speech streams. Our results also provide unprecedented evidence for an acquired cortical tracking of speech at syllable rate and argue for a progressive development of SiN abilities in humans.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Behaviorally, children are less proficient than adults at understanding speech-in-noise. Here, neuromagnetic signals were recorded while healthy adults and typically developing 6- to 9-year-old children attended to a speech stream embedded in a multitalker background noise with varying intensity. Results demonstrate that auditory cortices of both children and adults selectively track the attended speaker's voice rather than the global acoustic input at phrasal and word rates. However, increments of noise compromised the tracking significantly more in children than in adults. Unexpectedly, children displayed limited tracking of both the attended voice and the global acoustic input at the 4-8 Hz syllable rhythm. Thus, both speech-in-noise abilities and cortical tracking of speech syllable repetition rate seem to mature later in adolescence.

Perfil de la fluidez del habla en niños de 8 y 9 años en Santa Anita

Speech Fluency in children aged 8 and 9 years of the Educational Institution No. 108 “Santa Rosa de Quives” of the Santa Anita district of Metropolitan Lima. The method used was a simple non-experimental descriptive type with a transverse research design. The sample was applied to 37 students, using the protocol of the Speech Fluency Assessment (Furquim de Andrade), to measure the types of fluctuations, speech speed and rupture frequencies. The results established the most frequent types of dysfluences in the 8-year group are hesitations, interjections, extensions and pauses, and in the 9-year group they are: hesitations, word repetitions, unfinished words and syllable repetitions. In speech speed, the 9-year-old group has a higher speed than the 8-year-old group. It was determined as conclusions that in relation to the profile of speech fluency there are no significant differences between the age groups with the type of dysfluences, rupture frequencies and the speed of speech.

Development and Application of Nonsense Syllable Repetition Test for Evaluating Phonological Retrieval and Sequencing Abilities

배경 및 목적: 본 연구에서는 타당도와 신뢰도를 검증한 무의미 음절 따라말하기 검사(nSRT)를 개발한 후, 이를 학령전기 일반아동들 에게 적용하여 대상자들의 인출능력과 배열능력을 연령 간 비교해 보고자 하였다. 방법: 3-5음절로 구성된 nSRT 예비 항목에 대해 탐색적 요인분석을 통해 최종 nSRT 항목을 도출하였고, 이에 대해 Cronbach’s...

Tavallista sujumattomuutta: Aikuisten puheen sujuvuuden kvantitatiivinen analyysi

Tutkimus käsittelee suomenkielisten aikuisten puheen tyypillisiä sujumattomuuksia ja niiden normaalivariaatiota. Henkilöt (N = 70) olivat neurologisesti terveitä, eikä heillä ollut diagnosoituja puheen tai kielen häiriöitä. Heidän sarjakuvakerrontaan perustuvien audioaineistojen transkriptioista analysoitiin puhenopeuden ja artikulaationopeuden lisäksi 10 puheen sujuvuutta kuvaavaa muuttujaa. Tutkimuksessa tarkasteltiin muuttujien yleisyyttä, niiden keskinäisiä suhteita sekä sujumattomuuksien vaikutusta sujumattomuusprosenttiin. Sujumattomuusprosentin keskiarvo oli koko aineistossa 2,3 % (vv = 0,0–7,8 %), ja sitä selittivät vahvimmin muuttujat korjaus ja sanan toisto sekä epäröinti, joka oli myös yleisin sujumattomuustyyppi. Sujumattomuusprosentin mukaan jaetuissa puhujaryhmissä sujumattomuuden tyyppi muuttui sujumattomuusprosentin kasvaessa. Sujumattomuuksista muodostui neljä faktoria: sujumattomuudet, jotka liittyivät 1) kielelliseen muotoiluun, 2) viestin suunnitteluun, 3) viestin jatkuvuuden ylläpitoon ja 4) artikulaatioon. Sujumattomuusprosenttia selittivät parhaiten sujumattomuudet, jotka liittyivät kielelliseen muotoiluun sekä ilmaisun jatkuvuuden ylläpitoon. Tulokset vahvistivat ajatusta puheen sujuvuudesta jatkumona sekä toivat esiin sujumattomuuksien laajan variaation niin määrällisesti kuin laadullisestikin. Tämän aineiston normaalivariaatiota voidaan käyttää sekä häiriödiagnostiikan että kuntoutustavoitteiden asettamisen tukena. Lisäksi tutkimuksen tulokset toimivat vertailupohjana tuleville tutkimuksille.

口吃者加工汉语歧义短语的神经过程

口吃者加工汉语歧义短语的神经过程

Clinical Assessment of Dysarthria in Children with Cerebellar Syndrome Associated with PMM2-CDG.

Phosphomannomutase deficiency (PMM2-CDG) causes a cerebellar syndrome that has been evaluated using the International Cooperative Ataxia Rating Scale (ICARS). However, no particular dysarthria tests have been used. Speech ICARS subscore subjectively assesses fluency and clarity of speech with two items. Repetition of syllables, traditionally used for characterization of ataxic speech, was validated in early-onset ataxia conditions. We assess the validity of the PATA test (SCA Functional Index [SCAFI]) in PMM2-CDG patients.PATA rates from 20 patients were compared with a control population were and correlated with ICARS and neuroimaging.There was a difference between the PATA rate in patients and controls. PATA rate increased with age in controls. In patients, the improvement of PATA rate with age was not significant. In patients, the PATA rate was negatively correlated with the total ICARS score and the Speech ICARS subscore. Regarding neuroimaging, midsaggital vermis relative diameter was positively correlated with PATA results. These last differences were also significant when the results are corrected by age.PATA rate provides an easy measure for a quantitative assessment of dysarthria that may help clinicians to monitor patients' evolution in a regular consultation. It could also be used in PMM2-CDG clinical trials implementing ICARS speech subscore information.

Parálisis supranuclear progresiva: estudio longitudinal a partir del análisis acústico del habla

El objetivo de este estudio es medir de forma objetiva y cuantitativa los distintos parámetros del habla en un caso de Parálisis Supranuclear Progresiva durante un periodo de cuatro años. Se realizó un análisis acústico de la vocal sostenida /a/, del automatismo “1,2,3,4” y de la repetición rápida de las sílabas /pa/, /ta/, /ka/ y /pataka/. Se consideraron diversos parámetros: la frecuencia fundamental (F0), el tiempo máximo fonatorio (TMF), la intensidad, los formantes, el shimmer, el jitter, el ruido en relación con los armónicos (NHR), la duración y el número de sílabas, el “Voice Onset Time” (VOT), la tasa de habla, la tasa de silencios y los aspectos prosódicos del habla. Las alteraciones en la voz y en el habla evolucionan hacia la imprecisión articulatoria, una pobre calidad vocal, reducido TMF, reducida tasa del habla, disminución de la variabilidad de la entonación y pausas prolongadas en las diadococinesias. El análisis reveló la coincidencia en el tiempo entre el deterioro progresivo del habla en general y el elevado porcentaje de cierres incompletos en el VOT, con la disfagia

Towards an automatic evaluation of the dysarthria level of patients with Parkinson's disease

BackgroundParkinson's disease (PD) is a neurological disorder that produces motor and non-motor impairments. The evaluation of motor symptoms is currently performed following the third section of the Movement Disorder Society – Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS-III); however, only one item of that scale is related to speech impairments. It is necessary to develop a specific scale such that considers those aspects related to speech impairments of the patients. Aims(i) To introduce and evaluate the suitability of a modified version of the Frenchay Dysarthria Assessment (m-FDA) scale to quantify the dysarthria level of PD patients; (ii) to objectively model dysarthric speech signals considering four speech dimensions; (iii) to develop a methodology, based on speech processing and machine learning methods, to automatically quantify/predict the dysarthria level of patients with PD. MethodsThe speech recordings are modeled using features extracted from several dimensions of speech: phonation, articulation, prosody, and intelligibility. The dysarthria level is quantified using linear and non-linear regression models. Speaker models based on i-vectors are also explored. Results and conclusionsThe m-FDA scale was introduced to assess the dysarthria level of patients with PD. Articulation features extracted from continuous speech signals to create i-vectors were the most accurate to quantify the dysarthria level, with correlations of up to 0.69 between the predicted m-FDA scores and those assigned by the phoniatricians. When the dysarthria levels were estimated considering dedicated speech exercises such as rapid repetition of syllables (DDKs) and read texts, the correlations were 0.64 and 0.57, respectively. In addition, the combination of several feature sets and speech tasks improved the results, which validates the hypothesis about the contribution of information from different tasks and feature sets when assessing dysarthric speech signals. The speaker models seem to be promising to perform individual modeling for monitoring the dysarthria level of PD patients. The proposed approach may help clinicians to make more accurate and timely decisions about the evaluation and therapy associated to the dysarthria level of patients. The proposed approach is a great step towards unobtrusive/ecological evaluations of patients with dysarthric speech without the need of attending medical appointments.

Effects of a Variably Occluded Face Mask on the Aerodynamic and Acoustic Characteristics of Connected Speech in Patients With and Without Voice Disorders

This study reports on experiments designed to examine the effects of a variably occluded face mask (VOFM) on (a) estimated subglottal pressure (Psub) in normophonic participants and (b) aerodynamic and acoustic characteristics of voice in dysphonic participants. A prospective design was used for experiment 1, and a prospective, randomized cohort design was used for experiment 2. The outlet ports of disposable anesthesia face masks were fitted with plastic caps with variable diameter drilled openings (9.6, 6.4, 3.2, and 1.6 mm) to create a series of mask openings. In experiment 1, Psub was measured in normophonic participants using the face mask during syllable repetitions in unoccluded and variable diameter opening conditions. In experiment 2, aerodynamic and acoustic measures were obtained in a group of dysphonic speakers before and after syllable and speech repetition tasks using the VOFM. In experiment 1, mean PSub was observed to decrease while using the VOFM in all occlusion conditions versus nonocclusion, with a significant reduction in Psub observed between the baseline and the 6.4 mm condition. In experiment 2, standardized mean differences showed that many dysphonic participants produced reduced Psub, increased airflow, and improved acoustic measures after the use of the VOFM in at least one occlusion condition. Beneficial changes in both aerodynamic and acoustic characteristics of voice may be obtained in dysphonic speakers using a VOFM. By moving the place of occlusion outside of the oral cavity, therapeutic stimuli options may be extended beyond vowel and humming elicitations to syllable and speech contexts and assist with generalization of voice therapy targets to conversational speech.

Construction of The Arabic Phonological Short Term Memory Test on Egyptian Children

Background: Phonological short-term memory is a part of working memory, as working memory consists of four components: the central executive, the phonological loop, the visuo-spatial sketchpad and the episodic buffer. Aim of the work: To construct a valid and reliable test for assessment of phonological short-term memory, which can be applied in language child disorders as on specific language impaired children. This might help to clarify more points in their diagnosis and therefore to guide a better management. Subjects and methods: The subjects of the study were 2 groups: The first group consisted of 102 normal children between the ages of 4 to 8 years old, with average number of 25 children in each with 1 year age range. The second group included 31 specific language impaired children that were selected to match the control group as regard age and IQ level. The constructed test items were 17 in number. The test included the following items: digit span, syllable repetition ( for 1,2,3,4 syllables ), non-sense word repetition (NSWR) of (1,2,3 and 4 syllables),dissimilar word set recall (short word set recall of 1 and 2 syllables, long word set recall of 3 and 4 syllables) and lastly similar word set recall (of 1,2,3 and 4 syllables). Results: Reliability of the test was measured by test re-test, alpha Cronbach and split half method. Validity of the test was also measured using internal consistency, contrasted group validity and factorial validity. Conclusion: The constructed test for measuring phonological short-term memory (PSTM) showed high reliability and validity and could be used on Arabic speaking children from 4 years to 8 years of age.

Construction of The Arabic Phonological Short Term Memory Test on Egyptian Children

Background: Phonological short-term memory is a part of working memory, as working memory consists of four components: the central executive, the phonological loop, the visuo-spatial sketchpad and the episodic buffer. Aim of the work: To construct a valid and reliable test for assessment of phonological short-term memory, which can be applied in language child disorders as on specific language impaired children. This might help to clarify more points in their diagnosis and therefore to guide a better management. Subjects and methods: The subjects of the study were 2 groups: The first group consisted of 102 normal children between the ages of 4 to 8 years old, with average number of 25 children in each with 1 year age range. The second group included 31 specific language impaired children that were selected to match the control group as regard age and IQ level. The constructed test items were 17 in number. The test included the following items: digit span, syllable repetition ( for 1,2,3,4 syllables ), non-sense word repetition (NSWR) of (1,2,3 and 4 syllables),dissimilar word set recall (short word set recall of 1 and 2 syllables, long word set recall of 3 and 4 syllables) and lastly similar word set recall (of 1,2,3 and 4 syllables). Results: Reliability of the test was measured by test re-test, alpha Cronbach and split half method. Validity of the test was also measured using internal consistency, contrasted group validity and factorial validity. Conclusion: The constructed test for measuring phonological short-term memory (PSTM) showed high reliability and validity and could be used on Arabic speaking children from 4 years to 8 years of age.