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Show ' ,. . til hilh:H :' . ' ; ' j ? -! .r ' ' " ; t . ' I 1 'v:A ". . ' 'Wv v: j , v , - '"" ? fcT"-- .,A LINING UP colored blocks to form different combinations of sounds during a reading and spelling test is Pyper Pittsenbargar. Bev Martinez Mar-tinez administers the test. Reading and spelling i testing finds disabilities i Dc you hear what I hear?" According to Bev Martinez, reading and spelling clinician about a third of Z oeople in the world have auditory Jriptual dysfunction-"they don't bar what 1 hear." Although the ability to judge the sounds and order of sounds in words Mops without special training for many people, for a significant j proportion of the population, it does not. "This dysfunction is not a learning disability,' Miss Martinez said. "There are many professional people who have it." People with a severely underdeveloped un-derdeveloped level of auditory perception per-ception may perceive a word with several sounds as only one sound. With a more moderate disability they may i Ihink a sound was added to a word when me was omitted, or that a sound was substituted when one was added, and so lath, Miss Martinez said. A test procedure developed by diaries and Patricia Lindmood, a linguist and speech pathologist of San Luis Obispo, Calif., makes it possible to identify this previously unrecognized I auditory problem. Last Friday and Saturday. Miss I Martinez" was at the'A'efnal Kiwanis" Scout house and tested 12 Vernal youths for the dysfunction. The test is a simple procedure which takes about fifteen minutes to give. It involves using different colored blocks to represent sounds. The blocks are arranged by the students in a specified order, depending on the sounds he hears. We also administer a vocabulary and spelling test to determine if the student can spell most of the words he uses when speaking, Miss Martinez said. Following initial screening and diagnosis, if a person is found to have a dysfunction, a weekly clinic is offered on a one-to-one basis for five to six months to help overcome the dysfunction. dysfunc-tion. Miss Martinez said that the program is offered in only a few public schools because most teachers are unaware of the program and can't offer it on a one: to-one basis. The first clinic offering the program was in Ft. Collins, Colo., where about 100 persons participated. The clinic is functioning in Rangely, Colo., but is only in the testing stages in the Vernal area. The program is being sponsored by Epsilon Sigma Alpha (EAS) who began the project a year ago in Vernal under the direction of Linda Pitt-'senbafgar. Pitt-'senbafgar. ' ' "M 3C -'1 ri |