Materials and Methods: This study was performed in two parts: included development and standardization of the test and the second part was the evaluation stage. In the first section, Watson&aposs crieria fpr valid speech recognition tests for children was considered. In order to balance the lists phonemically, it was necessary to determine Persian phonemes&apos frequency -of- occurences. Thus, the frequency -of- occurences for 29 phonemes of Persian language in children&aposs and adults&apos speech were separately determined. There were significant differences between some phonemes&apos frequencies in the two samples. So&apos their frequencies in children&aposs speech was used to design the test. It should be mentioned that each list could contains only 25 vowels, while almost 32 ones were meeded according to the phonemically balancing procedure. Therefore, vowels and consonants were separately balanced. The required monosyllabic words were extracted from the books written for 4 to 6 years old children. Finally, four closed set (3- picture matrix) 25 word lists were prepared. The lists were recorded on magnetic cassette in one of the IRIB studios.To assess the test validity and reliabity, 33 normal hearing children were randomly selected from kindergartens over the city of Tehranand were tested at the Audiology Clinic of the Rehabilitation Faculty, Tehran University of Medical Sciences in 1998. The tests included: otoscopy, pure tone & immittance audiometry, establishing speech reception threshold, and speech recognition test - retest by these lists.
Findings: 1- Normal hearing children obtained 92-100 percent scores for each list at their most comfortable loudness levels through test - retest.
2- No significant difference was observed in test - retest scores in each list (p>0.05).
3-No significant difference obtained between the lists test or retest scores (p>0.O5).
4-No significant difference was observed between children&aposs scores in terms of their age and gender (p>O.OS)
Conclusion: this study, therefore, is reliable and valid. The lists are phonemically balanced and equal in difficulty. Due to the conditions under which the test was designed (including, phonemic balance, necessity of using the words that could be pictured and of the presence of tow other word in children&aposs vocabulary which is similar in auditory aspects), only the content validity for word familiarity decreased a little that could be overcome by introducing them through pictures prior to the start of the test.

Method and Materials: This research is carried out for development and evaluation of 25 phonemically balanced word lists for Persian speaking adults in two separate stages: development and evaluation.In the first stage, in order to balance the lists phonemically, frequency -of- occurrences of each 29phonems (6 vowels and 23 Consonants) of the Persian language in adults speech are determined. This section showed some significant differences between some phonemes&apos frequencies. Then, all Persian monosyllabic words extracted from the Mo ‘in Persian dictionary. The semantically difficult words were refused and the appropriate words choosed according to judgment of 5 adult native speakers of Persian with high school diploma.12 openset 25 word lists are prepared. The lists were recorded on magnetic tapes in an audio studio by a professional speaker of IRIB.In the second stage, in order to evaluate the test&aposs validity and reliability, 60 normal hearing adults (30 male, 30 female), were randomly selected and evaluated as test and retest.Findings:1- Normal hearing adults obtained 92-1 0O scores for each list at their MCL through test-retest.2- No significant difference was observed a/ in test-retest scores in each list (‘P>O.05) b/ between the lists at test or retest scores (P>0.05), c/between sex (P>0.05).
Conclusion: This research is reliable and valid, the lists are phonemically balanced and equal in difficulty and valuable for evaluation of Persian speaking adults speech recognition.

The major focus of this research is on the differential disruption of language abilities subsequent to brain damages as they relate to site and size of lesion, especially left hemisphere lesions which disrupt the production and processing of "Nouns" vs. "Verbs" as two functionally different lexical categories. Several clinical as well as experimental studies reported on different language have shown that nouns and verbs can be independently disrupted due to brain damage. A prevalent impairment in naming actions (Producing verbs) is reported in non-fluent aphasic patients, with lesions involving left frontal lobe, whereas a selective in naming objects (Producing nouns) has been observed in amnesic patients, with lesions involving the temporal lobe and the temporal lobe and the posterior association aresas. This research is a theoretical and fundamental based on descriptive and analytical method. The aphasic data in this research were obtained by assessing each patient&aposs aphasic symptoms using a standard Persian aphasia test (Paradis, Nilipoure, Paribakht, 1989) as well as post-test analysis of each patient&apos connected descriptive speech. The subjects were selected form among aphasics who referred to speech therapy centers in Tehran during a pe5iod of one year since autumn 1999. The subjects selected in the study were a homogenous group with left hemisphere lesions due to CVA. They were educated adult right handed. Speakers of Persian without any risk factor such as nicotine, alcohol or any addiction and diabetes with no gross depression or anxiety problems or face and oral paralysis and hemiaopsia. The subjects in this study comprised to adults ranging between 33 and 76 years of age. The results indicated that there are significant correlation between: 1) The production of nouns and left hemisphere lesion. 2) The production of verbs and left hemisphere lesion. 3) Brain lesion and language deficits. 4) The site of lesion and language abilities. Although the data are limited and the generalization of the study has certain restrictions, the present data indicate some specific and reliable avidence on the selective impairment of nouns and verbs due to different lesions in the left hemisphere.

Background and Aim: Assessment of central auditory processing skills needs various behavioral tests in format of a test battery. There is a few Persian speech tests for documenting central auditory processing disorders. The purpose of this study was developing a dichotic test formed of one-syllabic words suitable for evaluation of central auditory processing in Persian language children and reporting its preliminary results in a group of normal children.
Materials and Methods: Persian words in competing manner test was developed utilizing most frequent monosyllabic words in children storybooks reported in the previous researches. The test was performed at MCL on forty-five normal children (39 right-handed and 6 left-handed) aged 5-11 years. The children did not show any obvious problem in hearing, speech, language and learning. Free (n=28) and directed listening (n=17) tasks were investigated.
Results: The results show that in directed listening task, there is significant advantage for performance of pre-cued ear relative to opposite side. Right ear advantage is evident in free recall condition. Average performance of the children in directed recall is significantly better than free recall. Average row score of the test increases with the children age.
Conclusion: Persian words in competing manner test as a dichotic test, can show major characteristics of dichotic listening and effect of maturation of central auditory system on it in normal children.

Background and Aim: Agrammatism is a phenomenon of neuropsychological relevance which has been recently investigated from conceptual and empirical aspects. The present study focuses on grammatical deficit in agrammatic aphasia. We evaluated the impairment of correct use of tenses of Persian verbs in agrammatic Broca&aposs aphasia.
Methods: Eight patients (mean age 57 years) participated in this descriptive - analytic study. They were classified as agrammatic Broca&aposs aphasia according to the Persian aphasia test, their CT Scan and MRI reports and other inclusion criteria. All patients but one were monolingual native speakers of Persian (Farsi). The other individual was bilingual whose dominant language was Persian. All subjects had a left unilateral brain lesion for at least one year after the onset of brain damage. The written sentence completion and picture sentence completion tests were designed and performed.
Results: Results do not indicate significant difference between Past Tenses of verb however, comparison of means showed best scores in Simple Past, Past Continuous, Present Perfect and Past Perfect, respectively. A main result of this study was significant difference between the mean of responses to Past Tense in comparison with Present Tense and Future (p=0.02).
Conclusion: Use of tense is impaired in agrammatic Broca&aposs aphasia in Persian. Our findings point out that use of Past Tense is impaired significantly more than the other tenses of verb.

Background and Aim: Understanding and defining developmental norms of auditory comprehension is a necessity for detecting auditory-verbal comprehension impairments in children. We hereby investigated lexical auditory development of Persian (Farsi) speaking children.
Methods: In this cross-sectional study, auditory comprehension of four 2-5 year old normal children of adult&aposs child-directed utterance at available nurseries was observed by researchers primarily to gain a great number of comprehendible words for the children of the same age. The words were classified into nouns, verbs and adjectives. Auditory-verbal comprehension task items were also considered in 2 sections of subordinates and superordinates auditory comprehension. Colored pictures were provided for each item. Thirty 2-5 year old normal children were randomly selected from nurseries all over Tehran. Children were tested by this task and subsequently, mean of their correct response were analyzed.
Results: The findings revealed that there is a high positive correlation between auditory-verbal comprehension and age (r=0.804, p=0.001). Comparing children in 3 age groups of 2-3, 3-4 and 4-5 year old, showed that subordinate and superordinate auditory comprehension of the former group is significantly lower (p<0.05) than the others . Intra-group comparisons revealed no significant difference between nouns, verbs and adjectives (p>0.05), while the difference between subordinate and superordinate auditory comprehension was significant in all age groups (p<0.05).
Conclusion: Auditory-verbal comprehension develop much faster at lower than older ages and there is no prominent difference between word linguistic classes including nouns, verbs and adjectives. Slower development of superordinate auditory comprehension implies semantic hierarchical evolution of words.

Background and Aim: Asking questions is one of the basic skills for getting information. "What", "Who", "Where", "Why", "How much", "How, etc. are question words frequently used for asking questions. Studies on the sequence of acquisition of question words in English speaking children follow a unique sequence. "What" is the first question word used by these children. We aimed to study whether Persian speaking children follow a unique pattern in the acquisition and use of question words as well.
Case: Two normal Persian speaking children (a boy and a girl) who were sent to the kindergarten of Faculty of Rehabilitation Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences by their parents were investigated. Children's spontaneous speech from 12 to 36 months was videotaped, and question words were extracted from phonetic transcription of both children's speech. In order to ask a question, both children initially used rising tone with /m/ or /hum/ before saying the first question word. Two first question words were "what" and "where" in both children's speech samples. Asking about the time with the question word /when/ was not appeared in their speech samples until 36 months. These two Persian speaking children also used Wh-question sequentially.
Conclusion: The result of this study was consistent with the results of other studies on English speaking children.

Background and Aim: The voice of human being changes during lifetime with different patterns in males and females. In addition to assessment of changes due to aging, some studies examined the voice changes among various languages and ethnical groups. This study is performed to evaluate the fundamental frequency changes in normal 9-50 year-old Persian (Farsi) speaking individuals.
Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 320 voice samples in normal voiceless environment were recorded. The mean of fundamental frequency of vowels and counting is measured by Dr Speech software (real analysis program). Data analysis was performed by MANOVA test and the profiles of their changes were plotted.
Results: The profile of mean of fundamental frequency changes was different in males and females. The mean of fundamental frequency was equal in both genders until 13 years old and the samples of voice had low pitch (Mean: higher than 200 Hz). MFF after 13 years old significantly decreased in males specially in vowels (p<0.001). The changes in vowels and counting were similar. The mean of fundamental frequency in both genders, between 20-40 years old had  relative constancy.
Conclusion: The mean of fundamental frequency changes of vowels and counting in females and males result from diverse dimensions of larynx and other anatomical differences. Significant changes of mean of fundamental frequency in both genders after 13 years old result from puberty in males. The proportional consistence of mean of fundamental frequency between 20-40 years old is probably due to the uniformity of body in this age range.

Background and Aim: Rhyme awareness is an important criterion for speech, language and writing processing. In Iran, there is no auditory tasks of rhyme awareness available for assessment of 5-6 year-old Persian-speaking children. The aim of this study was to develop and to evaluate Persian rhyme awareness tasks in 5-6 year-old Persian-speaking children.
Methods: A hundred normal 5-6 year-old Persian-speaking children (50 girls and 50 boys) were randomly selected. The two rhyme awareness tasks of this study were rhyme detection and rhyme production. The validity and reliability of these tasks were studied by content validity index, intraclass correlation coefficient, and standard error of measurement. The correlation between tasks was studied by Pearson correlation and the mean scores of two sections were compared by easiness level method. The comparison of mean scores of girls and boys were evaluated by independent t-test.
Results: The results showed that the proposed tasks had appropriate validity and reliability. The ability of children in production section was significantly more than in detection section. The correlation of each of two sections with total tasks was significant (p<0.05). In addition, the mean scores of girls and boys were not statistically different (p>0.05).
Conclusions: The proposed tasks are appropriate for assessment of rhyme awareness skills with appropriate validity and reliability in both genders. Two Sections of the tasks had significant correlations and influence on together. The abilities of girls and boys were the same.

Background and Aim: Cued speech as a kind of communication method, is a system which utilizes several hand configurations and locations to supplement the normal visible manifestations of speech. This study was aimed to investigate the effects of Persian cued speech on the speech discrimination scores of hearing impaired children.
Methods: Sixteen 9-12 years old profoundly hearing impaired children were divided into two matched-groups of cases and controls. Cases were taught cued speech in a five-month period of 45-60 minutes daily therapy. Speech discrimination score test was tested pretest, post-test and three-week follow-up test in both groups. Mixed repeated measurement was used to analyze the repeated measures data.
Results: There was a significant difference between pretest (without cued speech) and the other two tests of post-test and follow-up (both with cued speech) in cases. The speech perception scores of the cases were almost completed (p=0.001) after cued speech practicing but no significant difference was seen in speech perception scores of control group.(p>0.05)
Conclusion: The results indicate that Persian cued speech is an efficient tool to increase speech discrimination scores of hearing impaired children.

Background and Aim: Hearing aid users complain about a phenomenon called "occlusion effect". The aim of this study was to compare the occlusion effect in normal hearing individuals and those with slight and mild sensory neural hearing loss via Real Ear Measurement.
Methods: Sixty volunteers (30 male, 30 female) aged 18-55 years were enrolled in this study. Subjects were instructed to vocalize /e/ and /i/ for 5 seconds. Sound pressure level was measured by a probe- microphone and recorded in the ear canal. Occlusion effect and the frequency in which maximum occlusion effect occurs were obtained for each individuals for further analysis.
Results: The peak of occlusion effect for /e/ was 10.25 dB and 9.77 dB respectively in 751.9 Hz and 542.98 Hz frequencies in female and male individuals. The maximum occlusion effect occurred with 19.03 dB and 19.10 dB for /i/ and in 518.88 Hz and 440.28 Hz in female and male individuals, in respect. In addition, no significant difference was seen among hearing levels and between genders.
Conclusion: The peak of occlusion effect varies significantly among hearing aid users so that the hearing aid must be tuned. Probe-microphone measures will assist in determination where frequency- specific adjustments are needed.

Background and Aim: valid identification, prevention, and treatment of language disorders are a high priority for the speech and language professionals. One method for studying language development is sentence repetition that is faster to implement and analysis than other procedures. The aim of this project was constructing sentence repetition test as a quick measure of grammatical potency in 2.5 to 4 year old children.
Methods: Sentences appropriate for 2.5 to 4 year old children were selected during several stages by speech and language pathologist and linguists. The validity of sentences was assessed by professional masters in this theme. Subsequently, 41 sentences including those with 80% high validity were selected as the test sentences. Appropriate pictures were also provided with sentences. The test was administrated to 72 children in 3 groups (2.5-3, 3-3.5, and 3.5-4 year olds, gender matched). The reliability was administered with a test-retest design across a 2 weeks interval.
Results: Content validity Index for this test was 80%. "Test-retest reliability" was used for reliability of this test. The Interclass correlation coefficient for this test was 0.95 and standard error measurement was 7.45. The average of scores for sentence repetition, between groups was significant (p<0.001, p<0.001, p= 0.014).
Conclusion: This sentence repetition test has the appropriate validity and reliability as well as the capability of proper and quick assessment (screening) of grammatical development in 2.5 to 4 year old Persian speaking children.

Background and Aim: Formant structure and vowel space are the most important acoustic characteristics of speech sounds. The purpose of this study was to determine formant frequency and vowel space in six Persian vowels.
Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive-analytic study was performed on 60 Persian students of Tehran University of Medical Sciences (30 males, 30 females) with their age ranging from 18 to 24 years. The subject articulated six Persian vowels in isolation and data was recorded by real-analyzer software. Then, the first three formant frequency of each vowel was determined for each subject. Vowel formant frequency averages were measured separately for each vowel and each gender. Vowel space was plotted. The difference between F0 in two groups was compared by Leven and independent sample t tests.
Results: Maximum and minimum values of F0 in both group was related to /æ/ and /a/ (135 Hz in males and 239 Hz in females) and /i/ (146 Hz in males and 239 Hz in females). Besides, F0 in females was significantly higher than males (p<0.001). Maximum and minimum values of F1 were related to /æ/ and /i/. Furthermore, maximum and minimum values of F2 were related to /i/ and /u/. Maximum and minimum values of F3 were related to /i/ and /u/.
Conclusion: The lowest vowels were /æ/ and /a/ and the highest was /i/. The frontest was /i/ and the backest was /u/. the spreadest vowel was /i/ and the roundest was /u/.

Background and Aim: The words are the symbolic tools for communication. Nouns are the initial and the most frequent components of language that children acquire and use during the procedure of language development. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the noun perception and expression abilities in Persian-speaking children, as well as gathering the normative data for two picture-pointing and picture-naming tests.
Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 110 normal Persian-speaking children (54 girls and 56 boys), 2.5 to 4 year-old in four groups, were selected randomly throughout Arak kindergartens. Two pictorial perception and expression tests were performed in this study.
Results: Mean scores of perception and expression was statistically different between all age groups, except 3 and 3.5 year-old groups (p<0.05). There was no statistically difference between mean scores of girls and boys. In addition, a significant positive correlation between mean scores of perception and expression was shown (p=0.001, r=0.896).
Conclusion: The perception and expression abilities are different in 4 age groups. The two picture-pointing and picture-naming tests can show these differences. Regardless of rapid development of perception, perception and expression abilities develop in parallel, and the ability of girls and boys shows similar trends.

Background and Aim: The communication process includes both verbal and nonverbal elements. Nonverbal behavior or body language includes facial expression, eye contact, posture and prosody. Prosody conveys semantic or affective information to a listener. Nonetheless, so far in Iran no report on assessment of speech prosody comprehension in patients has ever been published. The aim of this study was to measure the validity and reliability of the prosody comprehension test specifically designed for the Persian language and culture.
Methods: This study is a type of test development. 73 sentences were orated by 22 professional vocalists in eight different prosodies. A total of 6582 voices were prepared which were listened by 200, 18-30 year-old students and a voice specialist. Having the content validity calculated for all voices, 1473 voices were found to be unanimously agreed upon by all participants in terms of emotional status which were analyzed by a voice specialist. Eventually, 169 voices were selected for developing the prosody comprehension test including the following four subtests: none motional prosody discrimination, emotional discrimination, naming of prosody and naming conflicts. Reliability of the test was determined by performing the test on 32, 18-60 year-old normal people.
Results: The designed test of comprehension prosody had 100% content validity ratio and 94% reliability and the correlation of test of prosody was 89% (p=0.001).
Conclusion: This test in Persian language has appropriate validity and reliability and is appropriate for assessment of prosody comprehension.

Background and Aim: prosody is a very important factor in communication and includes such parameters as: duration, intonation, pitch, stress, rhythm etc. Intonation is the pitch variation in one sentence. Duration is the time taken to utter a voice. The aim of the present study was to evaluate some parameters of prosody such as duration and intonation curve in interrogative sentences among normal Farsi speaking adults in order to determine the characteristics of this aspect of language with an emphasis on laboratory testing.
Methods: This study was performed as a cross-sectional one. The participants included 134 male and female Farsi speaking individuals aging between 18-30 years. In this study two interrogative sentences with open and closed answers were used. The voice samples were analyzed by Dr.speech -real analysis software. Data analysis incorporated unilateral analysis of variance and an intonation curve was drawn for each sentence.
Results: The parameter of duration among men and women was significantly different (p≤0.001). Duration in open questions was significantly longer than yes/no questions (p≤0.001). The intonation curve of the two groups were similar.
Conclusion: Men and women use duration changes, for making difference in prosody. On the whole, duration among women is longer than men. In open questions, the duration of sentences is mostly due to the question word. The intonation curve in open questions has more amplitude. Women show much more changes in basic frequency for transferring interrogative state in their expressions.

Background and Aim: Auditory memory plays an important role in developing language skills and learning. The aim of the present study was to assess auditory verbal memory and learning performance of 18-30 year old healthy adults using the Persian version of the Rey Auditory-Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT).
Methods: This descriptive, cross-sectional study was coducted on seventy 18-30 year old healthy females with the mean age of 23.2 years and a standard deviation (SD) of 2.4 years. Different aspects of memory, like immediate recall, delayed recall, recognition, forgetting rate, interference and learning, were assessed using the Persian version of RAVLT.
Results: Mean score increased from 8.94 (SD=1.91) on the first trial to 13.70 (SD=1.18) on the fifth trial. Total learning mean score was 12.19 (SD=1.08), and mean learning rate was 4.76. Mean scores of the participants on the delayed recall and recognition trials were 13.47 (SD=1.2), and 14.72 (SD=0.53), respectively. The proactive and retroactive interference scores were 0.86 and 0.96, respectively. The forgetting rate score was 1.01 and the retrieval score was 0.90.
Conclusion: The auditory-verbal memory and learning performance of healthy Persian-speaking females was similar to the performance of the same population in other countries. Therefore, the Persian version of RAVLT is valid for assessment of memory function in the Persian-speaking female population.

Background and Aim: Valid identification, prevention, and treatment of language disorders have a high priority for the clinicians. Story retelling is a method for studying language development which is faster than other procedures in implementing and analyzing, and has a reliable scoring system. The aim of this project is to construct story retelling test for assessing language structure in 6-7 year old, Persian children.
Methods: An appropriate story for 6-7 year old children was written by the help of a speech pathologist, a linguist, and a novelist. The validity of the constructed story was checked by 14 experts. Then related pictures were design and their validity was examined. The test was conducted on 72 children (36 girls, 36 boys) of 6-7 years. The reliability was administered with a test-retest design with a two week interval. The reliability of the scoring system was evaluated with inter-rater method.
Results: Content validity index for this test was 89%, interclass correlation was 83%, and standard error of measurement was 2.76. The interclass correlation for scoring system was 93% and Pearson&aposs correlation was 90%. Correlation of the test-retest scores was statistically significant (p<0.01).
Conclusion: This story retelling test has appropriate validity and reliability. It is suitable for quick assessment of language structure in 6-7 year old, Persian children.

Background and Aim: Verb is one of the most important aspects of a sentence, and verb deficit is a noticeable part of developmental language disorders. In Iran, there is no standard test for evaluating this aspect of language in children. This study aimed to develop and evaluate a picture verb test for 36-54 month-old normal Persian-speaking children, and assess its ability to differentiate between children.
Methods: A list of verbs that could be depicted was collected and content validity was assessed by seven speech therapist. 55 verbs were selected. Then, three pictures were prepared for each verb and one of those pictures was chosen by the same seven specialists. 106 children aged 36-54 months participated in this study. They were divided into three groups (36-42, 42-48, and 48-54 months). Reliability of this test was assessed by Spearman&aposs correlation and internal consistency. Correlation between children&aposs scores and their age was calculated.
Results: Content validity index of all verbs were 1. Spearman&aposs correlation of 0.89 and internal consistency of 0.60 was obtained. By deletion of item method, the Kuder-Richardson score was enhanced to 0.71. There was a significant correlation between children&aposs ability to respond and their age (r=0.76, p < 0.001).
Conclusion: This test is a suitable tool for assessment of verbs in 36-54 month-old Persian-speaking children and can differentiate between three groups under study.

Background and Aim: The current study has been designed based on the framework of the Stress Deafness Model (SDM), and aims at investigating native listeners&apos general perceptual sensitivity to the acoustic correlates of stress in Persian, a language with predictable stress. According to SDM, more regularity in a language implies poorer perceptual sensitivity of its native speakers, as regular stress patterns will not require lexical encoding.
Methods: The experiment was a modified method of adjustment task where subjects had to simulate stimuli played to them. A total of thirty five Persian speakers took part in the experiment and were placed in three groups based on their linguistic background. In addition to overall perceptual sensitivity, the effect of exposure to English and phonetic knowledge were also tested.
Results: Persian speakers showed a weak perception of stress correlates. It was found, however, that exposure to English will improve stress deafness among Persian natives (p<0.0001). However, the results failed to show any significant effect by phonetic knowledge. It was also shown that the duration had the most erroneous perception by participants (p=0.0001), while there was no statistically significant difference between understanding fundamental frequency clues and intensity perception by listeners.
Conclusion: Since Persian speakers showed an overall weak perception of stress correlates, the results support the predictions made by SDM.