Volume 7, Issue 4 (pdf)

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CANADIAN ACADEMY OF AUDIOLOGYPO Box 62117 777 Guelph Line, Burlington ON, L7R 4K2 T: 905-633-7114/1-800-264-5106 F: 905-633-9113 E: [email protected]

BOARD OF DIRECTORS / CONSEIL DE DIRECTION

Victoria LeePresident/PrésidenteAuditory Outreach Provincial Program Burnaby, BC

Steve Aiken President-Elect /Présidente-DésignéeDalhousie University Halifax, NS

Rex BanksPast President/Présidente-SortantCanadian Hearing SocietyToronto, ON

Joy GauvreauDirector/DirecteurCostco Saskatoon, SK

Harpreet GrewalDirector/DirecteurCanadian Hearing SocietyToronto, ON

Bill HodgettsDirector/DirecteurUniversity of AlbertaEdmonton, AB

Isabelle Anne PleauDirector/DirecteurCanadian Hearing Society Toronto, ON

Glynnis TidballDirector/DirecteurSt. Paul’s HospitalVancouver ,BC

Erica WongDirector/DirecteurMount Sinai HospitalToronto, ON

Susan Nelson-OxfordSecretary/SecrétaireVancouver Island Health AuthorityVictoria, BC

Petra SmithTreasurer/TrésorièreHastings Hearing CentresSteinbach, MB

Susan English-ThompsonDirector/DirecteurSackville Hearing CentreSackville, NS

Ilove to have tribute issues dedicated to specialpeople in our field – a contributor is askedonce with no arm twisting, and the article arriveson time as if by magic. And it is especially easywhen someone else is the guest editor who doesall of the real work. This is where Dr. Kim L.Tillery comes in. Kim was Dr. Jack Katz’s last PhDstudent at SUNY Buffalo in the 1990s and it wasKim who pulled this all together. All I really didwas to notice that 2012 is 50 years after 1962,when Dr.Katz first published his SSW test. Forthe reprinted articles and the foreword to theHandbook of Clinical Audiology, the publishers have all graciouslyagreed to allow us to reprint these in this special issue of theCanadian Hearing Report.

I first met Jack when I was asked to introduce him as thekeynote luncheon speaker at a CAA conference about 5 yearsago. I believe it was in Niagara Falls, Ontario, just a quick hopover the border from Buffalo. I had never met him before butlike most people, I knew all about him through his Handbook,known colloquially as the Katz Handbook (my first copy wasthe second edition and he is now up to the 6th edition).

I had five minutes to prepare my introduction – I can’t recallwho was supposed to do the introduction but for whateverreason I was called in as a last minute pinch hitter. For a longtime I had this sneaking suspicion that Jack Katz wasn’t reallyjust one person, but a team of very prolific writers andresearchers all publishing under the name of “Jack Katz.” Ibegan by asking how many people had ever heard of Jack Katzand all of the hands went up. I then asked how many peoplehad actually met him and only about a third of the hands wentup – my suspicion was confirmed.

Jack Katz is indeed a team of very talented andprolific writers and researchers all publishingunder the name of Dr. Jack Katz. How can justone person do everything that Jack has done. Andhe seemed to be everywhere at once and atvirtually every conference. I suspected that theman who was about to take the podium was ahighly paid actor who poses as Jack Katz forevents such as the CAA.

Well, paranoia aside, Dr. Jack Katz is indeed justone person, and what a person he is. I had the

chance to take him out to dinner that evening (along with mycolleague and ex-boss Tani Nixon, who also had her doubts)and we chatted for hours. I believe that his family came fromthe same Slavic village on the steppes of Russia as did myancestors. His great-great-ancestor may have known my great-great ancestor as they toiled along-side the other peasants of theera.

I never had Jack as a teacher but many of the contributors tothis issue in honour of the 50th anniversary of the SSW testdid. This issue brings together his contributions in the field, thedevelopment and importance of the many editions of theHandbook for Clinical Audiology, his role as a wonderful teacher,and amazing clinician, and the love that is bestowed upon himby his many colleagues and ex-students.

Marshall Chasin, AuD, M.Sc., Aud(C), Reg. [email protected] Hearing Report 2012;7(4):3.

Message froM the editor-in-Chief |

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Official publication of the Canadian Academy of Audiology

Publication officielle de l’académie canadienne d’audiologie

www.canadianaudiology.caEDITOR- IN-CHIEF / ÉDITEUR EN CHEF

Marshall Chasin, AuD., MSc, Reg. CASLPO, Director of Research, Musicians’ Clinics of Canada

ASSOCIATE EDITORS / ÉDITEURS ADJOINTS

Alberto Behar, PEng, University of Toronto

Leonard Cornelisse, MSc, Unitron Hearing

Joanne DeLuzio, PhD, Audiologist, University of Toronto

Lendra Friesen, PhD, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre

Bill Hodgetts, PhD, University of Alberta

Lorienne Jenstad, PhD, University of British Columbia

André Marcoux, PhD, University of Ottawa

MANAGING EDITOR / DIRECTEUR DE LA RÉDACTION

Scott Bryant, [email protected]

CONTRIBUTORS

ART DIRECTOR/DES IGN / DIRECTEUR ART IST IQUE/DES IGN

Andrea Brierley, [email protected]

SALES AND CIRCULATION COORDINATOR. /COORDONATRICE DES VENTES ET DE LA DIFFUSION

Brenda Robinson, [email protected]

ACCOUNTING / COMPTAB IL ITÉ

Susan McClungGROUP PUBL I SHER / CHEF DE LA DIRECT ION

John D. Birkby, [email protected]____________

Canadian Hearing Report is published six times annually by Andrew JohnPublishing Inc. with offices at 115 King Street West, Dundas, On, CanadaL9H 1V1.

We welcome editorial submissions but cannot assume responsibility orcommitment for unsolicited material. Any editorial material, including pho-tographs that are accepted from an unsolicited contributor, will becomethe property of Andrew John Publishing Inc.

FEEDBACKWe welcome your views and comments. Please send them to AndrewJohn Publishing Inc., 115 King Street West, Dundas, ON, Canada L9H 1V1.Copyright 2012 by Andrew John Publishing Inc. All rights reserved.Reprinting in part or in whole is forbidden without express written con-sent from the publisher.

INDIVIDUAL COPIESIndividual copies may be purchased for a price of $19.95 Canadian. Bulkorders may be purchased at a discounted price with a minimum order of25 copies. Please contact Ms. Brenda Robinson at (905) 628-4309 [email protected] for more information and specificpricing.

Revue canadienne d’audition_______________________

Vol. 7 No 4 • 201237

Vol. 7 No 4 2012 |

10

30

Calvin Staples, MSc, Conestoga College

Rich Tyler, PhD, University of Iowa

Michael Valente, PhD, Washington University

Kim L. Tillery, PhD, State University of New York, at Fredonia

Publications Agreement Number 40025049 • ISSN 1718 1860

Return undeliverable Canadian Addresses to:Andrew John Publishing Inc. 115 King Street West, Dundas, ON, Canada L9H 1V1

89

Moe Bergman, Marshall Chasin, Judith Duchan,Donna Geffner, Linda Hood, Irene Hoshko,

Jay Lucker, Larry Medwetsky, Kim Tillery, Maxine Young

32

34

DEPARTMENTS

Message from the Editor-in-Chief Message du L’editeur en chef

Message from the Guest Editor Message du rédactrice en chef invité

FOREWORD TO HANDBOOK OF CLINICAL AUDIOLOGYMoe Bergman’s Foreword to the Handbook of Clinical Audiology 6th Edition

INTERVIEW WITH DR. JACK KATZBY KIM L. TILLERY, PhD, CCC,-A

The Use of Staggered SpondaicWords for Assessing the Integrityof the Central AuditoryNervous System BY DR. JACK KATZ, PhD

COLUMN

ALL THINGS CENTRALThe Staggered Spondaic Word (SSW) Test – 50 Years YoungBY KIM L. TILLERY, PhD, CCC-A

contents

Gael Hannan, Hearing Loss Advocate

Sheila Moodie, PhD, University of Western Ontario

12

17

Follow us on Twitter @chr_infor

FEATURES

In Celebration of Jack Katz and the 50th Anniversary of the SSW TestBY IRENE HOSHKO, MSC.(A) AUD(C) OOAQ, AUDIOLOGIST

A Story of Sixth Editions: The Katz Handbook of Clinical AudiologyBY LINDA J. HOOD, PhD

Celebrating Jack Katz and the Handbook of Clinical AudiologyBY LARRY MEDWETSKY, PhD

Changes in the Staggered Spondaic Word (SSW) Test over Its 50 Year HistoryBY JUDITH FELSON DUCHAN, PhD

A Personal Journey with Auditory Training and Jack KatzBy Jack King, PhD

My Tribute to Dr. Jack KatzBY DONNA GEFFNER, PhD, CCC-SP/A

The Gentle Giant: A Tribute to JackBY MAXINE YOUNG, AuD

“Were We Ready?” A Tribute to My Mentor: Dr. Jack KatzBY JAY LUCKER, Ed.D., CCC-A/SLP, FAAA

15th Anniversary of CAA – Musings of a Past President BY ANN FOLLOWS

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J’adore ces numéros hommage dédiés à despersonnes très spéciales de notre domaine –on ne sollicite les contributeurs qu’une seule foiset sans leur torde la main, et l’article arrive àtemps comme par magie. Encore mieux, quandc’est quelqu’un qui est l’éditeur invité et qui faitsomme toute le vrai travail. C’est là que Dr. KimL. Tillery entre sur scène. Kim était la dernièreétudiante doctorale de Dr. Jack Katz au SUNYBuffalo dans les années 90 et c’est Kim qui a tiréles ficelles de tout ceci. Vraiment, tout ce que j’aifait c’est remarquer que 2012 est 50 ans après1962, quand Dr. Katz a publié pour la première fois son testSSW. Pour les articles réimprimés et l'avant-propos auHandbook of Clinical Audiology, les éditeurs ont généreusementtous consentis à ce que nous réimprimons ceux-ci dans cenuméro spécial de la Revue Canadienne d’Audiologie.

J’ai rencontré pour la première fois Jack quand on m’a demandéde le présenter comme conférencier invité à la conférence del’ACA il y a 5 ans. Je crois que c’était à Niagara Falls, dansl’Ontario, juste un pas au-delà de la frontière de Buffalo. Je nel’avais jamais rencontré auparavant mais comme la plupart, jesavais tout à son sujet par son manuel, connu en langagecourant comme le manuel de Katz (ma première copie était ladeuxième édition et il en est déjà à sa 6eme édition).

J’avais cinq minutes pour préparer ma présentation – je ne merappelle plus qui devait le faire mais pour une raison ou uneautre, on m’a demandé de le faire à la dernière minute, disonscomme bouche trou. Pendant très longtemps, j’avais ce douteinsidieux que Jack Katz n’est en réalité pas juste une personne,mais plutôt une équipe de rédacteurs et chercheurs trèsprolifiques qui publient tous sous le nom de “Jack Katz.” J’aicommencé par demander combien de personnes avaiententendu parler de Jack Katz et toutes les mains se sont levées.J’ai alors demandé combien de personnes l’avaient rencontré en

personne et seulement le tiers des mains se sontlevées– mon doute s’est confirmé.

En réalité, Jack Katz est une équipe de rédacteurset chercheurs très talentueux et prolifiques touspubliant sous le nom de Dr. Jack Katz. Commentest-ce possible qu’une seule personne puisse fairetout ce que Jack a fait. Plus, on a l’impression qu’ilest partout au même temps et virtuellement àchaque conférence. J’avais la suspicion quel’homme qui allait faire son apparition sur lepodium était un acteur aux honoraires très élevés

qui prétend être Jack Katz aux évènements comme L’ACA.

Au-delà de la paranoïa, Dr. Jack Katz est en fait juste une seulepersonne, et quelle personne. J’ai eu la chance de souper aveclui ce soir la (avec ma collègue and mon ex patronne TaniNixon, qui avait aussi ses doutes) et nous avons bavardépendant des heures. Je crois que sa famille vient du mêmevillage slave dans les steppes de la Russie comme mes ancêtres.Son arrière arrière ancêtre aurait peut-être connu mon arrièrearrière ancêtre quand ils chevauchaient avec d’autres paysansde l’ère.

Je n’ai jamais eu Jack comme professeur mais plusieurs descontributeurs de ce numéro hommage au 50 nième anniversairedu test SSW l’ont eu. Ce numéro met ensemble sescontributions au secteur, le développement et l’importance deséditions de Handbook for Clinical Audiology, son rôled’enseignant extraordinaire, de clinicien étonnant, et l’amourque lui porte beaucoup de ses collègues et ses ex étudiants.

Marshall Chasin, AuD, M.Sc., Aud(C), Reg. CASLPOÉditeur en [email protected] Hearing Report 2012;7(4):7

8 CANADIAN HEARING REPORT | REVUE CANADIENNE D’AUDITION

Once upon atime there

was a man namedJack who built adichotic auditoryprocessing test.Fifty years later itcontinues to beused as a diagnos-tic tool for central

auditory dysfunction either specific to asite of leison or to evaluate different typesof auditory processing disorders. How-ever, the Staggered Spondaic Word(SSW) test was just the beginning of thehouse that Dr. Jack Katz built for the pro-fessions of audiology and speech-lan-guage pathology.

Jack teaches his students that we are nota “clinician” by administering hearingtests to the massive population, butrather by being able to assist theindividuals who have challenges thatonly the skilled clinician can assist with.Like some of you, I was most fortunateto be one of those students, too. As a newPhD student, I remember walking intoJack’s office one day with a list of 14 itemsthat I wanted to learn from him duringmy doctoral training. He responded withhis genuine, broad Jack Katz smile, andsaid, “Pick one on this list for thissemester.” I immediately knew that mychoice had to be in the neighborhood ofauditory training to assist the clients whowere being diagnosed with auditoryprocessing problems. One case inparticular stands out among many.

Imagine working with a young man inhis 30s who has a verbal intelligencequotient of 40 to 60. He utters the sametwo sounds for his every response in hisdaily life. Then Jack Katz arrives with histools to broaden the auditory skills of thisyoung man. Eventually, this individual

learns to speak with more clarity andawareness of true words due to Jack’sknowledge, patience, and expertise in theuse of repetitious auditory training. Manyof us have seen these illustrated caseswhen attending one of Jack’s workshopsor as his student learning the specifictypes of auditory training that improvesauditory processing disorders, auditorydiscrimination, and the basic awarenessof sounds.

If we did not attend a workshop thenperhaps we learned some of the toolsfrom reading one, two or maybe even allsix editions of the Handbook of ClinicalAudiology. What would we do withouthaving this book to turn to for a quickreview of a test before seeing a uniqueclient or when we are being interviewedfor our first job? Thanks to Jack’sforesight and curiosity, which you willread more about in my interview withhim, this book was first written in 1972,supporting our skills, whether studentsor veteran audiologists.

This special issue assists in recognizingthe 50 year young test, the SSW test, andthe works of Jack Katz. There are severalshort articles by colleagues with whomJack worked in a variety of ways over thepast several decades. All testimoniesinclude a history of a particularinnovation and in many cases describethe honour of knowing Jack and theappreciation of what he does to inspireus in becoming a skilled clinician inauditory training, and the evaluation andtreatment of auditory processingdisorders.

Thank you, Jack.

Kim L. Tillery, PhDCanadian Hearing Report 2012;7(4):8.

| Message froM the guest editorCALENDAR OF EVENTS

oCtoBer 2012October 5 – 6

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October 10 –12

Acoustics Week in Canada Banff Conference

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October 24 –27

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Message de L’éditeur invité |


Il était une fois un homme du nom de Jack qui aconçu un test pour les traitements desinformations auditives dichotiques. Cinquante ansplus tard, ce test continue d’être utilisé comme unoutil de diagnostic des disfonctionnements duprocessus auditif central spécifique au site de lalésion ou pour évaluer les différents types detroubles des traitements des informationsauditives. Toutefois, le test SSW était juste le débutde la fondation que Dr. Jack Katz a bâti pour lesprofessions de l’audiologie et de l’orthophonie.

Jack enseigne aux étudiants qu’on n’est pas “clinicien” parcequ’on administre des tests auditifs à une population massive,mais plutôt par notre capacité à assister les gens qui font faceà des défis auxquels seul un clinicien compètent peut faire face.Comme certains d’entre vous, j’ai la chance inouïe d’avoir étéune de ces étudiants, aussi. Nouvelle étudiante inscrite auprogramme de doctorat, je me rappelle entrant dans le bureaude Jack un jour avec une liste de 14 sujets que je voulais qu’ilm’enseigne durant ma formation doctorale. Il m’a réponduavec son large, authentique sourire, et a dit “Choisit un sujetde la liste pour ce semestre.” J’ai immédiatement compris quemon choix devait être autour de la formation auditive pourassister les clients qui sont diagnostiqués avec des problèmesdes traitements des informations auditives. Un cas surtout sedistingue parmi beaucoup d’autres.

Imaginez que vous travaillez avec un jeune homme dans latrentaine qui a un quotient intellectuel verbal de 40 à 60. Ilutilise les mêmes deux sons pour chacune de ses réponses dansson quotidien. Alors arrive Jack Katz avec ses outils pourétoffer les compétences auditives de ce jeune homme.Éventuellement, cette personne apprend à parler avec plus declarté reconnaissant les vrais mots grâce au savoir, patience etexpertise de Jack dans l’utilisation de la formation auditiverépétitive. Plusieurs d’entre nous avons vu ces exemples

illustrés quand on a participé aux ateliers de Jackou quand on a été son étudiant apprenant les typesspécifiques des formations auditives quiaméliorent les troubles des traitements desinformations auditives, de discrimination auditiveet les bases de la mémorisation et reconnaissancedes sons.

Si nous n’avons pas participé à un atelier, alorspeut-être avons-nous appris quelques outils en

lisant un, deux, ou peut-être même toutes les six éditions duHandbook of Clinical Audiology . Que ferions-nous si nousn’avions pas ce livre pour une vérification rapide d’un testavant de voir un client particulier ou quand on a à passer unentretien pour un premier emploi ? C’est grâce à laclairvoyance et curiosité de Jack, dont vous aurez un aperçudans mon entrevue avec lui, que ce livre a été écrit pour lapremière fois en 1972, soutenant nos compétences, que voussoyez étudiant ou audiologiste chevronné.

Ce numéro spécial se veut une reconnaissance de ce test jeunede 50 ans, le test SSW, et les travaux de Jack Katz. Voustrouverez plusieurs articles courts par des collègues aveclesquels Jack a travaillé d’une manière ou d’une autre surplusieurs décennies. Tous les témoignages incluent l’histoired’une innovation particulière et dans plusieurs cas , les articlesmontrent le privilège qu’est de connaitre Jack et l’appréciationde ce qu’il fait pour nous inspirer à devenir des clinicienscompétents dans la formation auditive, l’évaluation et letraitement des troubles des traitements des informationsauditives.

Merci, Jack.

Kim L. Tillery, PhDCanadian Hearing Report 2012;7(4):9.


| foreWord to handBooK of CLiniCaL audioLogY

From our pre-technology beginningsto today’s complex and

sophisticated field of audiology; a briefhistorical account.

In preparation for this assignment, Ifirst scanned my decades in this field,beginning with the experiences Iparticipated in and the technology Iused in the early and mid-20th century.Prior to World War II, we did not yethave a name for the field which wasoften referred to simply as “auralrehabilitation.” As that name implied; itcentered mainly on the learning of lip(speech) reading, with additionalattention on improving theinterpretation of auditory signals(auditory training). In short, in the

absence of effective amplification theburden of rehabilitation for auditoryproblems was shifted onto the hearingimpaired individual, who was expectedto work hard to develop newcommunication skills. We teachers oflip reading were always discouraged byour apparent lack of success at this taskin teaching deaf children, even whenthe teacher was the brilliant therapist,Louis Di Carlo. Lou’s classes wereelectric, but it would be hard todocument the improvedcommunication abilities of his“students” in their everyday lives.

The raison d’etra of the field and its non-medical practitioners of that time, wasclearly to augment the defectiveauditory channel for verbalcommunication by enhancing the visualinformation available on the face of thetalker.

In diagnostics we had not yet emergedfrom the tuning fork period. They hadbeen used routinely for medicaldiagnosis since the late 19th century todifferentiate middle ear from inner earpathology. In time, we pre-audiologistsproudly employed the new “pure toneaudiometer,” either for screening or forfollow-up threshold audiometry. (Ilugged a 68-pound “portable” version,the WE 2A audiometer, from school toschool to test children’s hearing, airconduction only.) Some time later we

began to use the bone conduction unitof the audiometer, as the controlledversion of tuning forks. The time ofquantification and calibration forhearing tests had arrived, but the mainpurpose remained for diagnostic site-of-lesion, rather than assessment ofauditory function.

These modest beginnings, in what Ithink of as the pre-technology periodof our field, carried over into themilitary “aural rehabilitation” clinics(referred to in one soldier patient’sletters home as “rural rehabilitation”[sic]), but the remarkable infusion inthose clinics of personnel who had beenuniversity-trained and active in speechcommunication research brought aboutan almost instant metamorphosis. Therevised view of diagnosis and the“selection” of hearing aids spurred theappearance of new equipment, with anemphasis on calibration, measurabilityand repeatability. The die was cast.Importantly we included intensiveauditory training with speechrecordings and also generated soundstimuli for identification and tolerancetraining. We integrated much adviceand explanation in these trainingsessions. I recall that Grant Fairbanksattempted to quantify the programefficacy for the Oklahoma clinic and Ibelieve that Bill Hardy did the same forthe navy program. Regardless, it wasreadily apparent that in contrast to our

Moe Bergman’s Foreword to the Handbook

of Clinical Audiology 6th Edition

Reprinted with permission.

pre-war experiences a high percentageof our soldier patients left our hospitalsusing their new hearing aids and, by allaccounts, for years afterwards.

After the war the new instrumentation-based concepts were quicklyintroduced in college-level courses atleading universities, under the recently-coined term “Audiology,” and our fieldtook off! Increasingly complextechnology began to reveal detailedinformation about physiologicaldysfunction, while rehabilitative effortscentered on the rapidly improving and,at the same time, shrinking hearing aid.

The “new” audiology expanded – nayexploded – quickly, and very soon itwas the inspiration for numerouspublications, the most comprehensive

of which was the Handbook of ClinicalAudiology. Suddenly there was enoughmaterial for authoritative presentationsin dozens of chapters, as the writtenexpression of a lively and excitingnewcomer among the universitydisciplines and professions. Thetraining for such a flourishing science-based profession was on thepost-baccalaureate level, and soonwarranted a doctoral level degree formany audiologists. Today, the Doctor ofAudiology (Au.D.) degree is accepted asthe education and training level forentry into clinical practice in this field.

As with all vibrant professions theirfocus and responsibilities are dynamic.New areas of interest emerge, requiringnew knowledge to replace or augmentprevious areas. This revised edition of

the “bible” for audiologists indicatesthat our specialty continues to evolve,including, logically the rest of thehearing and balance organs in thevestibular system, and updating ourinformation about the rehabilitation ofadults.

The breadth and sophistication of“Clinical Audiology” in this 21stcentury, which is only one workinglifetime away from our humblebeginnings that I found so stimulatingearly in our history, is encapsulatedmore than ever in this new edition ofthe Handbook of Clinical Audiology.

Moe Bergman, EdDCanadian Hearing Report 2012;7(4):10-11.

|



hoW did You get into the

fieLd of audioLogY?

Miss Carlin was a wonderful Englishteacher at Erasmus Hall High School inBrooklyn. One day she told us that shehad many years of experiencecounselling students and that weshould write an essay about ourselvesand from that she would give us somesuggestions for what we might study forthe future. I wrote that I was lazy, butliked people and didn’t like to do thesame thing over and over again. I amnot sure what else I wrote, but on mypaper at the top was written, “SpeechCorrection.” I had no clue what thatmeant so I asked my older brother andhe didn’t either, but he said that hisfriend’s girlfriend was going into thatfield. So I called her and liked what Iheard but was still not very clear whatit was. When I got to Brooklyn Collegeand said that I was thinking of majoringin speech therapy they told me that Icouldn’t because my speech was notgood enough. I had to take three classesto improve my speech so I went to theSpeech and Hearing Clinic and there Ilearned more and more about the field.In those days we trained in both speechand hearing so in grad school (whenpolitics threatened my continuation inspeech) I simply switched to audiology

in which I was doing quite well.

the ssW test is 50 Years oLd –

hoW did it Begin?

I already had an MS in audiology andspeech but I still had to take practicumin the PhD program. The audiologist atMercy Hospital of Pittsburgh told methat she was going on vacation andwould I like to replace her for a month.I jumped at the chance because Irmaand I just had our first child. One dayone of the young ENTs asked me if Iwas aware of the work they were doingin Germany to identify brain tumoursusing hearing tests. I could not believewhat I was hearing because we weretaught that you cannot assess theauditory system above the level of theVIII N because there is too muchdecussation. I said I did not knowabout it and he said that he would bringin the article. The next day he showedme a two-paragraph description of thework of Joseph Matzker, an ENTdoctor, who divided a word into a high-frequency band to the one ear andlow-frequency band to the other ear. Ifthe person could combine the bandscentrally they could get the word, butthose with temporal lobe tumourscould not. I was fascinated becauseaudiology had only gotten to the level

of the VIII N at that time. But the lastline was a downer. It said unfortunatelythe test did not work if the person hada hearing loss. Out of my mouth I heardmyself say “Why don’t they usespondees?” When I realized what I hadsaid, I exclaimed, “You know that’s agood idea. Would you like to work onthat with me?” He said, “No, no you goahead.” That night I had the midnightand 2 AM feedings for my infant sonwho was recovering from surgery andhad to be fed every two hours throughthe day and night. As I was feeding himI started to get excited about the ideaspopping into my head. I could not dowhat Matzker had done because I hadno equipment so I thought of havingone spondee to one ear and another oneto the other ear. Then I thought, “Wow,what if they were staggered so thesecond and third monosyllables wouldbe competing in time in opposite ears?That would give us all sorts ofcomparisons. When my son was fed Istarted writing feverishly. I thought itwould look more scientific thanMatzker’s approach if we counter-balanced items starting in the right andthen the left ear. Then I thought to havethe first word and the last word to formthe third spondee. In that way if aperson missed one competing word

Interview with Dr. Jack Y.Y. KatzBy Kim L. Tillery

What a special moment it was to ask some pointed questions to Jack Katz. As always,he shared some professional and personal views that are inspiring and insightful. - Kim Tillery

they could fill it in with another wordincorrectly. After the 2 AM feeding Imade a list of 36 of the 40 items.Interestingly, all the little things thatwere used to make it look morescientific turned out to be valuableauditory processing disorder (APD)measures or helpful in other ways.

THE HANDBOOK OF CLINICALAUDIOLOGY is in its 6th

edition – What Was the

initiaL iMpetus?

It was about 1968 when we went on afamily vacation. As usual I brought ayellow pad to write down any ideas thatcame to me, as I surely would notremember them when I got home. Oneday when things were quiet I took outthe pad and started to write out an ideafor a study. But then I got stymiedbecause I did not have some basicinformation. So I turned the page andstarted working on another idea. But,then I needed other information andcould not progress with that projecteither. I thought, “What we need is ahandbook where all the basicinformation is contained in one place.”Then I wondered, if there were ahandbook, whose chapters would I liketo read. My first two choices were NeilGoetzinger for a chapter on wordrecognition and Bill Hodgson onevaluation of young children. Prettysoon I had a list of chapters and quite afew authors whose chapters I wouldlove to read. The title came next. Whenmy brother was in college he camehome one day with the Handbook ofChemistry. He was so excited and heldonto it like a brick of gold. So I thoughtthe book should be a “Handbook.” Thetitle is “Clinical Audiology” instead of“Audiology” because I have alwaysloved the practice of audiology andwanted that to be the focus.

What is Your opinion as to

Whose roLe it is to

adMinister auditorY

training?

Up until now this was a moot point.Audiologists have been slow to get intothis work so probably 90% or more ofthe training was by SLPs. But in a verybrief period there has been such a spikeof interest from all quarters in APD andeven therapy that there is reason tothink about who should really be doingthis therapy. I think that bothaudiologists and SLPs have importantstrengths when it comes to auditorytraining. SLPs have a strongerbackground in phonetics, articulation,language, and in therapy. But for anumber of years as language hasbecome so dominant in SLP training Iunderstand that articulation andphonetics have been de-emphasizedboth in training and in services. Whileaudiologists have not generally hadmuch therapy training in recent years;their knowledge of the auditory systemand function, as well as otitis media,and central testing, has given them animportant understanding of theprocesses. Other advantages foraudiologists are in areas such asdichotic listening and speech-in-noisetraining as well as audiologicequipment. On the third hand SLPs cando speech-in-noise work withoutbenefit of an audiometer and may bemore comfortable in providing memorytraining.

Both groups and teachers of the hard-of-hearing could do a proper job ofauditory training for APD. Right nowwith the huge demand I am trulygrateful for any trained person who willhelp to serve the many people who arenot receiving services. We see what adisaster the lack of services has been forso many children and adults with APD

and hope we can do better in thefuture.

What is Your adviCe to

upCoMing or neW

professors Who teaCh

CLiniCaL audioLogY or

speeCh pathoLogY?

Thank you for this question. In medicalschool if you take a course on aparticular topic you can be quite surethat the person who teaches it does thatkind of work. They are masterpractitioners or master surgeons. Sowhen the student gets information,illustrative cases and what to do whenthere are complications are discussed;they benefit from the professor’sprofessional experience. At oneuniversity a hearing scientist who hada meagre background and noexperience as an audiologist wasteaching clinical audiology courses toAuD students. How could that bejustified? Would it be okay for a clinicalaudiologist with a meager backgroundin hearing science to teach hearingscience courses? My advice to newprofessors is to keep your hand inclinical services. It means so much tothe students when you say, “You know,last week I tested a child who …”.Students need role models, and notlectures from someone who is a fewpages ahead of them in the text.

What is the future of

eLeCtrophYsioLogY in

audioLogY?

There is no limit to the “potential” for theuse of electrophysiological procedures inaudiology. But not in the foreseeablefuture will they replace the behaviouralaudiology procedures. Audiologists canquickly and inexpensively measure real-life behaviours and measure real-liferesponses. However, the electro-physiological methods have a huge

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contribution to make about where andhow the system is working. It can tellus about pre-conscious functions. Inaddition, when individuals cannotreply then physiological measuresbecome so much more important. Ishould also mention that we have givenup some excellent behavioural testsbecause we assumed that physiologicalprocedures would make them obsolete.For example, tone decay and SISI testsof old were not fully replaced byimmittance. I hope that we will be morecareful before we delete any moreprocedures.

What does the ssW deteCt

that other tests do not?

Wow, first let me plead ignorance aboutthe other tests, but I will do my best. Inthe second question, I noted that all thelittle things we did to make the SSWlook well-thought-out, actuallyprovided valuable diagnostic insights.Who would have thought thatcounterbalancing the SSW items wouldgive us powerful indicators (e.g., Earand Order Effects)? Who could haveimagined that a significant differencefor errors on the first two words of theitem versus the second two could tellus, in a brain damaged population, wholikely has an anterior brain problemand who has a posterior temporalproblem with the opposite pattern? InAPD cases those signs help todifferentiate individuals who haveTolerance Fading Memory (TFM) andDecoding (DEC) APD problems. Whocould have imagined that staggering thespondees would give us insight intocorpus callosum lesions (or Integrationcases)? Most importantly, the SSWgives us 23 signs of APD and theircategories so we do not have to dependon any one score. Rather we see howthe significant signs reinforce oneanother. In such a complex problem asAPD some people can beat one or two

aspects of our tests but we are likely tohave a number of others thatdemonstrate the problem. The othertwo important tests of the battery andthe Buffalo Model Questionnaire –Revised help us to avoid making amistake in evaluation by providingadditional criteria and an independentassessment by parents and teachers.

is there anYthing that You

have done that has not

reCeived internationaL

aCCLaiM?

Yes. Many, many things. When I was inthe Boy Scouts I won a burping contest.It received almost no recognitionanywhere. Oh, you mean of aprofessional nature? One thing was theContinuous Tone Masking test, thatdivided cochlear and retrocochlearhearing performance, not that VIII Nresponses were more severe thancochlear, but rather that their responsesgo in opposite directions with thenormal range situated between them.Another thing is SSW Reports that doeshave Canadian subscribers, but is notwidely known. SSW Reports, deals withcentral functions and is in its 34th yearof publication.

is there another topiC You

WouLd LiKe to add to this

intervieW?

Thank you. When I was a child therewas no early intervention and inschools there were no speech languagepathologists (in fact there was noconsideration of language in “SpeechCorrection”; as it was known). Therewas no specialized reading help andthere was no such thing as a learningdisability or phonics. I have had APDall my life and had a great deal oftrouble with speech, language, reading,spelling etc. When I was 15 years old Itold my parents that I was going to quitschool when I was 16. They were

heartbroken. I told them that I hadenough and was not able to read orspell well etc. I naïvely said that I wouldbuy a store and have a secretary whocould read for me. One day Mr. Cohen,a house painter, with whom my fatherworked, came to see me. “ME! Mr.Cohen came here to see me?” I asked.Yes, as it turned out, he came to tell methat I couldn’t quit school! He said itwas so important that I had to continueand try again. Every time I repeated myreasons he came back with one moreanswer with the same theme, “You can’tquit school!” After an hour I realizedthat Mr. Cohen would never leave untilI told him that I would not quit school.And fortunately I didn’t quit. I can onlyimagine what my life would have beenlike if I had quit at 16 with all thoseproblems and such weak academic andcommunicative skills.

I am mentioning this now because thisis a different world, but the same thingis happening to some children and theydon’t have a Mr. Cohen (by the way afew months later he died of alymphoma). I have worked with twoteens that were so frustrated anddisheartened that they also were“finished,” but they were finished withlife itself! Both are still alive, one witha good outcome and one not so good.

Tragically, 40 years ago some peoplesaid that there was no such thing asAPD. I wonder, because of that, howmany people suffered so badly with thisproblem who could have improvedwith a little help? When it was clearthat auditory information could not justjump to the brain and be understoodthe story changed to, “Well if there issuch a thing, it’s not important.” Howmany more children and adults sufferedand did not reach their potentialbecause of such loose talk. And now wehear that there is no such thing again

and this time is because APD is really alanguage disorder. Well if it is alanguage disorder why do so manychildren we see come to us with yearsof language training and still struggle?And why when we do APD therapiesdo their problems improve so quickly?What reason will they come up withnext? After 40 wasted years we needprofessionals to say, “Enough, let’s starthelping these people.”

What is Your MiddLe naMe?

If you did not know the answer youwould not have asked this question. I

never had a middle name, but when welived in Turkey I came home one dayand announced that I used to be, “Jackcabuk cabuk Katz (cabuk – pronounced“chahbuk” which means “fast” inTurkish). But, now I have become Jackyavas yavas Katz (pronounced “yah-vash” that means “slow”). That is, I wasnow going to start doing things s-l-o-w-l-y. Those words are often said twice,at the appropriate speed, in Turkish toemphasize them. Sometimes when Isign my name I include my new middleinitials “YY” (to make up for not havingeven one of them all those years). It was

a lot of fun for those who knew thestory. Then one day I realized that myname is indeed YY. I was named after mygrandfather who was Yakov Yisroel. Sonow when I sign my name “Jack YYKatz” I am also honouring mygrandfather.Canadian Hearing Report 2012;7(4):12-15.

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This is the first publication of the Staggered Spondaic Word (SSW) test by Dr. Jack Katz as it appeared in the Journalof Auditor Research in 1962. In 50 years, this single central test has been reported on in numerous peer-reviewedarticles, manuals, hundreds of workshops, the SSW Reports quarterly publication (in its 34th year), and a text book(Arnst and Katz, 1982). It is one of the most widely used central tests in the United States and Canada, and hasbeen adapted in many other countries.


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| aLL things CentraL


The SSW test is one of the mostcommonly used dichotic central

auditory processing test according to arecent survey.1 The test was firstdeveloped to assist in locating the site-of-dysfunction2 and in the early 1990sit was adapted as a measure to evaluateauditory processing disorders (APD).

Some of us SSW groupies have used allthree interpretation methods that JackKatz thoroughly explains in the SSWTest Manual, 5th edition, (PrecisionAcoustics). There is the OriginalAnalysis used to assess the site-of-dysfunction, the Traditional Analysiswhich is a statistical approach for APDevaluations that later was developedinto the current method for APDevaluations, the Number of Errors(NOE) Analysis. Each method wasdeveloped to “correct” for possibleinfluences of test results, such as a mildhearing loss, poor word recognition /discrimination score, or normal hearing

with poor word recognition.

The NOE method uses raw scoresmaking it quite easy to score. There arenorm values for both the quantitativeand qualitative responses, for ages 5years to 60 years. The quantitativenorm values give a severity level andtype(s) of APD. The qualitative normvalues show the normal amount ofreversals allowed for one’s age, and ifthere are more errors from the first setof stimuli verses the final set of stimuli,known as the order effect. There areother qualifiers that are seen in specifictypes of APD: quick or slow responses,“smushes” (‘blue jay black bird’ isproduced as “blue jack bird”), anddelays, to name a few.

The SSW test usually takes 10 minutesto administer. Granted there are timesthat a client requires a break during anytype of evaluation, which may make thetest taking time a bit longer. The

brilliance of this test is that there are 40sets of spondaic words – equal stressedwords – delivered in an alternating(right ear first or left ear first) mannerto both ears at the same time. Only twoof the four words are presented to bothears at the same time, while the othertwo words are presented in isolation,revealing four scores.

These four SSW test scores (NOE),observed qualifiers, and the knowledgeof the parts of the brain associated withthese test scores and behaviours are thebasis of the Buffalo Model2,3 resulting infour types of APD: difficulty indecoding speech, exhibiting short-termmemory problems, weak sequencingorganization skills, and difficulty in theintegration of auditory and visualinformation. The more information weknow about the auditory problemassists in providing effective and propertreatment and management.

The Staggered Spondaic Word (SSW) Test –

50 Years YoungBy Kim L. Tillery, PhD, [email protected]

About the Author

Dr. Kim L. Tillery, professor and chairperson of the Department of Communication Disordersand Sciences at the State University of New York at Fredonia also has a private practice indiagnosing and treating adults and children with (C)APD. She has been honoured to presentover 120 workshops or presentations at national, international, and regional conferences,and authored and co-authored several chapters and journal articles on (C)APD and itsrelationship with attention and learning disorders.

This wealth of information comes from this one test that has beenmanufactured in several languages:Turkish, Spanish, French, Portuguese,Japanese, Cockney English, Australian,Maltese, and Danish, just to name a few.The test is brief and applicable to manypopulations including children, adults,bilingual, intellectually challenged,hard-of-hearing, and even those withattention disorders.

Oh, I forgot! There is that infamouscarrier phrase, “Are you ready?” that allof us SSW groupies have heard ourclients respond with, “Would it matter

if I am not ready?”, or the response of“Yes” to all 40 times Jack presents thecarrier phrase. What do we do inresponse to this? We give that “JackKatz” smile and continue administeringhis SSW test.

1. Emanuel DC, Ficca K, and KorczakP. Survey of the Diagnosis and Management of Auditory Processing Disorders. American Journal of Audiology 2011;20:48–60.

2. Katz J and Smith P. The SSW test: a ten-minute look at the CNS

through the ears. Ann NY Academyof Science 1991;620:233–252.

3. Katz J. Classification of auditory processing disorders. In: Katz, J. , Stecker N and Henderson D (Eds).Central Auditory Processing: A Transdisciplinary View. Boston: CVMosby; 1992.

For more information and where topurchase the SSW test:[email protected] or Precision Acousticswww.precisionacoustics.org/PA_Order_Form_4-2010.pdfCanadian Hearing Report 2012;7(4):28-29.

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Canadian Academy of AudiologyHeard. Understood.

Académie canadienne d’audiologieEntendus. Compris.

Come celebrate with us! Join the Canadian Academy of Audiology at its 15th Anniversary Gala, Friday, October 26, 2012 at the Westin Ottawa. This uniquely Canadian event will honour audiology and the history of the CAA in the beautiful setting of our nation’s capital at our 15th Annual CAA Conference. Join us for a not-to-be-missed evening of fi ne dining (Canadian cuisine from coast to coast), dancing, camaraderie and reminiscing as we celebrate the past fi fteen years and look forward to a bright future!

15th Anniversary Gala Dinner

www.canadianaudiology.ca



| feature

As I write this piece I am travelingback in time to my first live

encounters with Jack Katz in the early1990s. Prior to 1991 I knew Jack only asone of those audiology pantheon godswhose physical presence materializedwith regularity on the pages of textbooksand the podiums of large conferencerooms. Our first personal contact was inMarch 1991 when I attended aconference sponsored by the Universityof Buffalo’s Department ofCommunication Disorders and Scienceson Central Auditory Processing: ATransdisciplinary View. The Montréalcontingent was very impressed with Jackand invited him to give a workshop inMontréal. In May of 1992 I found myselfan eager attendee at his three-dayintensive SSW Workshop in Montréal,Québec. What was my primarymotivation for attending the workshop?As an educational audiologist I constantlyencountered children with academicdifficulty who presented with normalperipheral hearing status but had beenreferred by seasoned educationalprofessionals or speech-languagepathologists for “hearing” problems. From

long experience I knew that wheneverthere was a discrepancy between myaudiologic findings and those of teachingor support professionals, it was likely thatmy testing protocol was not capturing theessence of the deficit those children wereexhibiting. What an awkward stance foran educational audiologist. But it was alsoa not so subtle reminder to the audiologistthat it was not the two ears but rather thebrain between them that was at issue.

In 1992 the very existence of an auditoryprocessing disability as a clinical entitywas in dispute. Audiologists did not evenagree on what the central auditory systemwas. Audiology clinics ranged from usingno tests at all to comprehensive centraltesting batteries designed for a site-of-lesion neurological approach. A minutepercentage of pediatric clinics tested forauditory processing with no consensus onmethods of assessment, procedures,analysis or interpretation of results.Amongst audiologists who did diagnostictesting in this domain, virtually noneconsidered it to be within the scope ofaudiology practice to devise a therapeuticplan to guide subsequent intervention.

While audiologists continued to ruminateon all of the above, the children and theirreferral sources waited for a differentialdiagnosis and some direction towards aremedial effort.

But there was hope on the horizon. By the1990s our audiologic knowledge basewas expanding dynamically. In 1972 thefirst edition of Jack’s Handbook of ClinicalAudiology could be lifted with one handand there was no hernia risk involved inthat action. By the time the third editioncame out in 1985 the tome was becomingsignificantly heavier. Subsequent editionshave required a definite two-handedgrasp for transport and involve significantphysical effort to be expended in theprocess by the average-sized audiologist.

There was also movement at thegovernment level in the 1990s. TheNational Institutes of Health in the U.S.had designated the 1990s as the “Decadeof the Brain” to mark the advances intechnology and science resulting fromstudies of the brain. The time was ripe forinvoking auditory processing assessmentin routine clinical utility.

In Celebration of Jack Katz and the

50th Anniversary of the SSW TestBy Irene Hoshko, MSc.(A) Aud(C) OOAQ, Audiologist

About the Author

Irene Hoshko has been a clinical audiologist at the Montréal Oral School for the Deaf forover 30 years. She taught at McGill’s School of Communication Sciences and Disorders for16 years and has several publications in the research literature. Irene’s specialty areasinclude pediatric and educational audiology and cochlear implants. She has a career-longinterest in central auditory processing disorders and their remediation.

Back to the SSW workshop in 1992. Thematerial Jack presented was intriguing. Inthe 10 minutes required for testadministration, the SSW could accuratelypinpoint a neurologic site-of-lesion.Everything the patient said and did inresponse to the test stimuli wasinformation bearing, carefully noted andsubject to analysis. Jack was scientificallyprecise, succinct, systematic and patientin his delivery style to conferenceattendees. Jack was also entertaining,charming, modest, and engaging. Jackwas elegance in simplicity. Jack gave us apowerful tool to use in our practice andtaught us how to use it well. With theBuffalo Model we had a total approach toauditory processing disorders thatincluded an actual management tool.This was one-stop shopping for theindividual with central auditoryprocessing disorder with diagnosis and aremedial strategy in one completepackage. After the three days were up Ino longer felt that one foot was groundedin hard science and the other was miredin quicksand. My professional stance vis-à-vis central auditory processing wasmuch less awkward.

Then came those SSW Reports in themail. They were scientific clarity in atechnicolour package. Jack knew how toengage the sensory systems of his readersas well as to stimulate intellectualcuriosity. His SSW Reports came in aprofusion of colours and with a grainytexture of paper. We know that reading isalready a combination modality activity,engaging both auditory and visualsystems. But I think that the multimodalstimulation provided by the SSW Reports’format was a deliberate attempt by Jackto activate as many brain regions aspossible and to recruit the maximumnumber of neurons in his readership. AmI right Jack? And the provocative titles:“Lucky Thirteen”; “Alice in Wonderment;

Lonely?” “Whisper!”; “LD in DC”; “AllAckie: Dear Ackie on CAP”; “Attractiveand Available”. The SSW topics werevaried: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome;Bilinguals (English/Spanish); ChiariMalformation; Attention Deficit Disorder;Unilateral Conductive Loss; AIDs,Brainstem CVA; Hippocampus andMemory and the College-Age LearningDisabled to name but a few. The SSWReports continue today. My February2012 issue is lime green and informs meabout Assessing Auditory ProcessingDisorders in People with CognitiveDisorders. It also promises to tell meabout What SLPs Need from Our APDReports and What Are They (SLPs)Thinking? I read the SSW Reports asmuch for the content as in appreciationof Jack’s philosophical bent andtrademark, slightly obtuse, sense ofhumour.

Jack tells us that his idea for the SSWoccurred to him in the early 1960s onenight between midnight and 2:00 AM,when he was feeding his infant son. Bythe dawn 30 SSW items had beencompleted. We didn’t know it then, but adifferent day was also dawning forthousands of audiologists around theglobe and for the millions of patients theyserved. The first SSW recording was in1961 with publication in the professionalresearch literature in 1962. By 2004 therewere 16 different SSW tests around theworld, including in Argentina, Australia,and Iran. The SSW is much like Jack:deceptively simple on the surface, butwith multiple levels of complexity that weare still unravelling 50 years later. It isboth current and a classic.

Our elusive search for a comprehensivemanagement tool for central auditoryprocessing disorder continues to thepresent day. Jack’s Phonemic Training andPhonemic Synthesis therapy programs

have been in use for 50 years to remediatethe decoding disorder subtype in theBuffalo Model. They have withstood thetest of time and require relatively littletherapeutic time investment. Thesetherapy programs represent both thebeginning and the continuity of anearnest remedial effort to address centralauditory processing disorders. Jack feelsthat the future of audiology lies inredirecting ourselves back towards therehabilitative orientation we had at theinception of our field in the 1940s. Infact, in the past 15 years, we are seeingthat what was old is new again. Therapyprograms to help remediate centralauditory processing disorders are nowavailable online using mobile assistivetechnology. We are developing tools toevaluate performance outcomes with avariety of computerized auditory trainingprograms. There is a new Buffalo ModelQuestionnaire out.

Jack has given hundreds of demons-trations, talks, formal lectures andworkshops over the years. Since 1972,with his Handbook of Clinical Audiology,he has convened the leading experts inthe field of audiology to bring theircumulative expertise to bear on majorissues in the field. In stimulatingdialogue, informal exchange and formaldiscussion, he has always invitedeveryone to participate, from the noviceaudiology practitioner to the worldrenowned expert.

Happy 50th Golden Anniversary SSW.Fifty years later, the SSW remains a gold-based currency in no danger of devaluation. Jack, from clinicalaudiologists everywhere, congratulationson the SSW’s 50th and our heartfeltthanks “Ackie.”Canadian Hearing Report 2012;7(4):30-31.

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My future boss recognized me, notbecause I was the person with a

rose in my lapel, but by the copy of theKatz Handbook of Clinical Audiology thatI carried as I got off the plane. He (JohnSeamens, then director of the CentralFlorida Speech and Hearing Center)often commented that I was easy to spotas few non-audiologists carry that bookwith them on a plane. A definiteaudiology giveaway! What else wouldone take on an interview for their veryfirst audiology job? I was a newlyminted audiologist, graduating fromKent State University in Ohio, whereDr. Joe Millin had introduced me toaudiology and the first edition of theKatz Handbook. The plane trip toFlorida was a good chance to brush upon answers to some of the manydifficult questions that I imagined myinterviewers would ask. And whereelse would I find information about themany aspects of audiology in onetextbook?

That has been the philosophy behind

the Handbook of Clinical Audiology, aka“the Handbook”, aka “the Katz Book” –having one volume that collects so muchof the essential knowledge related toclinical audiology. In fact, in the prefaceto the first edition, Jack states, “Thepurpose of this book is to providebetween one set of covers a summary ofthe current state of the science-art ofclinical audiology.” Naturally, subsequenteditions have added new topics andinformation as the field of audiology hasevolved.

Can you imagine juggling multipleauthors, a wide range of topics, 40–50chapters, and as many as 1,124 pages?Not to mention associate editors. Thisis what Jack Katz has done, not once, ortwice, but SIX times! With thepublication of the sixth edition in 2009,this audiology textbook markedpublication dates spanning 37 years!

A few facts about the “Handbook.” Thesix editions of the Handbook containcontributions from 211 authors,

growing from 32 contributors in thefirst edition to 70 in the sixth. Twoindividuals, along with Editor JackKatz, are noteworthy in that they havecontributed chapters (sometimes twochapters) to every edition of theHandbook. They are Laura Wilber andFred Martin and their topics – primarilyrelated to calibration and nonorganichearing loss, respectively – have stoodthe test of time. Jack Katz has beeneditor of all volumes, moving fromeditor to editor-in-chief for the sixthedition. Wilma Gabbay was theassociate editor for the third Handbookand continued on for the fourth edition,joined by Saralyn Gold, LarryMedwetsky, and Roger Ruth. LarryMedwetsky and Bob Burkard wereassociate editors for the fifth and sixtheditions, and I joined them for the sixthedition.

As authors and associate editors havechanged over the years, so have thetopics and content, as Jack’s goal was tokeep the text contemporary, changing

A Story of Sixth Editions: The Katz Handbook

of Clinical Audiology

By Linda J. Hood, PhD

About the Author

Linda J. Hood, is a professor in the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, VanderbiltBill Wilkerson Center, at Vanderbilt University and an honorary professor at the Universityof Queensland, Australia. Her research, publications, and clinical interests include auditoryphysiologic responses, efferent auditory function, hereditary hearing loss, auditoryneuropathy/dyssynchrony, auditory function across the lifespan, and comparative hearingstudies. In addition to research and teaching, Dr. Hood participates in NIH and other reviewpanels as well as activities of several professional organizations.

as audiology changed. Suchdevelopments are reflected, forexample, in chapters related tophysiology that have grown from 6chapters in the second edition to 15 inthe latest Handbook. Similarly, topicsrelated to special populations haveincreased over the years as the practiceof audiology expanded into servingnew groups of patients. Along withthese changes, the core conceptscontained in the Handbook havereceived regular updates and newperspectives.

And, the covers have changed with thetimes and even with urging from theassociate editors. The first two editionsreflected the prominence of Bekesyaudiometry in that era, followed by anaudiogram and auditory brainstemresponse on the third edition asphysiologic assessment gained inprominence. The next two editionsgave a nod to sound in general withsound waves. For the sixth edition, asLarry Medwetsky recounts in anotherarticle in this volume, Jack agreed, afterurging from the other editors, to placehis photo on the cover. As one mightexpect, Jack’s humble nature causedhim concern over this but he finallywent along with his co-editors.

My second Katz Handbook story comesalong years later as Dr. Chuck Berlinand I were evaluating a young man atthe Kresge Hearing ResearchLaboratory in New Orleans. He hadproblems listening in noise andunusual auditory brainstem responses.His hearing difficulty would later beclassified as auditory neuropathy (AN),but this was several years before ANwas described. As we sat trying to figureout what would cause such adisorganized ABR, Chuck said, “Let’s doan MLD (masking level difference)test!” Well, the VERY FIRST thing that

went through my mind was, “Where ismy Katz book?” With Handbook inhand, we did the test. Years later I hadthe opportunity to recount that story ina lecture I gave at a meeting where Jackwas sitting in the front row. I hesitatedto tell the story, but was happy I didwhen he smiled and nodded inagreement.

But enough about me. I’m fortunatethat Co-editor Bob Burkard has agreedto share some thoughts about theHandbook (note that Co-editor LarryMedwetsky also shares discussion of hisperspectives on the Handbook inanother article in this issue). Let’s hearfrom Bob:

“I grew up in Buffalo NY, a place whereJack Katz spent many of his academicyears. I went to Buffalo State College fortwo years, earning a degree incommunication disorders, as well as alife-long fascination with hearing,hearing loss and electrophysiology. Myvery first book, in my undergraduateaudiology education, was the thirdedition (published in 1970) of Hearingand Deafness edited by Hallowell Davisand S. Richard Silverman. I applied tograduate school in Madison,Wisconsin, and began my graduatestudies in the fall of 1976. It was inMadison where I first, by proxy, was“introduced” to Jack Katz, through thereading of the first edition of theHandbook of Clinical Audiology. Thisbook still sits on my shelf. It is torn (Iagain had to tape the covers back ontothe book). I am paging through thisbook as I sit at my computer writingabout these recollections. On the insidecover, I have various handwritten notes:“p. 666 psych of deafness…Mountcastle… p. 594… info aboutferreting out background noise.” I amnot sure if these notes were theprimordia of my interests in

neuroscience, and/or my long-termresearch interests of the effects ofmasking noise on auditory evokedpotentials. However, from the turnedover pages and the numerousunderlined sections, clearly Jack, fromvery early on in my audiologyeducation, had a profound and lastingimpact on my professional life. In 1995,I moved to the Department ofCommunication Disorders andSciences at the University at Buffalo,and met Jack Katz. While Jack loved tosee patients, he also loved to work withstudents who share his passion foraudiology. Jack approaches teachingand clinical work in the only way heknows how: he gets involvedpersonally. To Jack, each patient/ student is someone of unimaginablevalue. Jack defines his success by thesuccess of his academic and clinicalprogeny. It is no wonder that he is heldin such esteem by his patients and hisstudents. A few years after I arrived atthe University at Buffalo, Jack asked totalk to me in his office. I thought I hadprobably done something to offend him(a talent that appears to come rathernaturally to me). In this meeting, heasked me to serve as an associate editorof the fifth edition of his Handbook. Iwas (almost) speechless, and greatlyhonored to be asked to work with him.He involved both me and LarryMedwetsky (the other associate editor)in all stages of book planning and theeditorial process. This was Jack Katzserving the role of mentor to morejunior professionals. I should note thatIrma Katz (Jack’s wife) was the powerbehind the throne, keeping the authors,associate editors (and Jack) constantlymoving the project toward completion.

Jack retired from the University atBuffalo several years ago. I miss seeingJack’s smiling face, and I really miss thewarm and caring person behind that

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smile. I recently saw Jack (and Irma) atthe 2012 ASHA convention in SanDiego. His smile lit up the room, as hestood on stage and was given the ASHAHonors. Jack has made (and continuesto make) many contributions to ourprofession (scholarship, teaching,service, clinical practice). However, hissix editions of The Handbook have hada direct impact on the education,training and practice of thousands ofclinical audiologists.”

As Bob has just related, I also washonoured when Jack and Bob asked meto join them, along with Larry, as aneditor for the sixth edition. What couldbe nicer than, having grown up inaudiology and practiced audiology withthe Katz Handbook at my side, having

an opportunity to work directly withJack and contribute to a project that hashad such impact on the students ofaudiology and practicing audiologists.Working with Jack on this projectshowed me what a kind friend andnurturing mentor he is. His approachto this Handbook, and I think life ingeneral, underscores how dedicated heis to the profession of audiology and tothe continuing production of a high-quality resource for clinicians, students,scientists, and anyone who wants tofind “between one set of covers asummary of the current state of thescience-art of clinical audiology.”

By the way, that Katz Handbook, FirstEdition, served me well. I got that firstaudiology job! And “The Handbook”

sat proudly on the shelf in my newoffice as subsequent editions haveoccupied my offices, research labs, andclinics since that time. I know that Ispeak for many, many others when,along with co-contributor to this articleBob Burkard, I say, “Thank you, Jack”.

aCKnoWLedgMent

I wish to thank Bob Burkard for hiscontribution to this article and moreimportantly for years of conversationand collaboration.Canadian Hearing Report 2012;7(4):32-34.

Canadian Academy of AudiologyHeard. Understood.

Académie canadienne d’audiologieEntendus. Compris.

www.canadianaudiology.ca/benefi ts

FEATURE CAAMEMBER BENEFIT

Volunteer Opportunities

Join us if you are passionate about audiology in Canada and interested in networking and gaining new skills.

~ Board of Directors

~ Committee Members

~ Student Volunteers

~ Peer Review Panel


In crafting this invited article, I cannothelp but start by reminiscing of myfirst thoughts about Jack Katz. I was afirst year’s master’s degree student in theaudiology program at McGill Universityand the main audiology text at that timewas the first edition of the ClinicalHandbook of Audiology, which, of courseeveryone knows is edited by Jack. Bythe time I was an audiology student in1977, the text was already consideredthe “Audiology Bible.” And, as I oftentended to do, I developed an internalimage of what I thought Jack lookedlike and I pictured one of Moses. In mymind, Jack had this long white beardand flowing white hair. Of course, hehad to be a much older man because ofall of the great things he had alreadyaccomplished. He was one of theleaders in our field and the “Godfather”of central auditory processing. You canimagine my surprise when I first metJack and found him to be a muchyounger man than I had envisioned. Bythe way, when the associate editors for

the last Handbook first met to discussthe directions we wanted to move onthis text, we realized that manyaudiologists had probably never metJack and did not know what one of ourgreat leaders really looks like. None ofthe previous five editions had includeda photo of Jack, which subsequently ledto our request to the publisher to haveJack’s photo on the latest Handbook.

I first met Jack in 1980 when I attendeda two-day conference at ChedokeHospital in Hamilton, Onatrio whereJack was the sole presenter. It was anincredible two days and I learned somuch. The information I obtained thosetwo days greatly influenced mythoughts and ultimately shaped mycareer going forward and led to apassion in central auditory processingthat still drives me today. I subsequentlymet Jack in 1981 while serving as aneducational audiologist at MacKayCenter in Montreal. After havingworked two years there, I was still

struggling to conceptualize how aneducational audiologist could best meetthe needs of students with hearing lossor processing related difficulties. To geta better handle on this, I contactedsome of the greats in the field to gaintheir insights and went on a three-weekvoyage in my 1975 yellow LeMansSport Coupe all over the northeasternUSA and Ontario. Jack was one of theindividuals who generously gave of histime and he shared his thoughts withme over the course of an afternoon. Itwas then that I came to know of Jack’sgenerosity and how supportive he is ofothers.

A fortuitous moment and turning pointfor me occurred after my first year inthe PhD program (1985) at theGraduate Center of City of New York. Iwas seeking to expand my knowledgeof central auditory processing. I hadsome time off from school so Icontacted Jack to see if there was anypossibility that I could come and spend

feature |

Celebrating Jack Katz and the Handbook of

Clinical Audiology

By Larry Medwetsky, PhD


About the Author

Dr. Larry Medwetsky graduated with a MSc in audiology from McGill University and aPhD in speech and hearing sciences in 1994 from the Graduate Center, City University ofNew York. He is presently Associate Professor at the Department of Hearing, Speech, andLanguage Sciences at Gallaudet University, Washington, DC. Dr. Medwetsky has publishedand presented on many different topics with a special focus on the underlying speechprocesses and deficits in individuals with normal hearing or hearing loss.


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some time with him. Jack informed methat he was offering a three week SSWcourse at the University of Buffalo. Ijumped at the opportunity and Jackgraciously allowed me to audit his class.It was a wonderful experience and Ihave so many great memories of theclass. Jack was a great teacher and I wascompletely enamoured by theinformation I gained. The experienceultimately led me to focus mydissertation on auditory spoken-language processing.

It was also at this time that Jack sharedwith me his desire to create software toscore the SSW test. The idea soundedgreat since I often took as long as 20minutes to score the test. Jack wasseeking someone who could create thesoftware and I just happened to have acolleague with the necessary skills. Thiscollaboration ultimately led to the SSWC*I*R software program, which uponentering a few numbers resulted ininstantaneous results, interpretations,and recommendations. Not only was ita great time savings but it ensuredaccurate interpretations of the testfindings.

This project was the first of many

collaborative ventures that I have hadthe pleasure to engage with Jack overthe years. Probably the most importantof these has been our work together onthe Handbook of Clinical Audiology, ofwhich I have had the pleasure to serveas an associate editor for the last threeeditions. To have an opportunity towork with “Moses” has beentremendously gratifying. Jack neverceases to amaze me, with his incredibleabundance of energy, dedication,memory and organizational skills.However, the latter two attributes dorequire some elaboration. Jack owes hisamazing memory ability to the palm ofhis right hand. What do I mean, youask? All you have to do is just glance atJack's palm and you'll see whatimportant activity needs to beaccomplished that day. Regarding Jack'samazing organizational skills, one justhas to be reminded of the expression“Behind every great man is a greatwoman,” which truly applies in Jack'scase since the true organizing force inJack's life is his wife Irma. And, Jackwould be the first to admit that.

Before concluding, I’d like to saysomething about the SSW test. It is thecornerstone of my test battery, and in

my mind it truly is the most incredibleaudiology test that has ever beendeveloped. Its design is genius (excusethe grammar). To stagger compoundword items in the way that Jack did ismind-boggling to me. And, the abilityto capture so much information fromone test! For example, in every othertest that I am aware of, lexical-decodingspeed (requiring more time to processinformation) and fading–memory(difficulty retaining earlier presenteditems in short-term memory)difficulties would counteract each otherin some way or another, thus, makingit difficult to ascertain the presence ofeither one reliably. Yet, one can do thatusing the SSW test due to its amazingtest design.

As we recognize the 50th anniversaryof the SSW test I think about howmany lives Jack Katz has touched overhis life time as an audiologist – be itstudents, professionals, or clients. Hiscontributions to the field have beenextraordinary. And, on a personal note,I truly feel honoured to have had Jackas a friend these many years. Canadian Hearing Report 2012;7(4):35-36.

The SSW was launched in 1962. Itsbirth coincided well with what was

going on at that time. It was around thenthat the field of audiology was looking forways to identify sites of lesion in thecentral auditory system1–3 (and for arecent historical review see Gelfand2009, pages 302–329).4 Also, it was inthe early 1960s that speech-languagepathologists were identifying break-downs in the auditory system as a causefor speech, language and readingdisabilities.5–9 It will be argued here thatthe SSW meshed well with the needs andsensibilities of the 1960s and, further,that it changed over its 50 year life spanto meet new challenges and keep up withnew professional trends.

I will describe ways different trends in theprofession may have impacted on theSSW from my perspective as a languagespecialist. I will also reflect on what Ilearned from eavesdropping over theyears from my office down the hall fromJack Katz at the University at Buffalo. Iwill present this historical account by

decades, mentioning a few things thatwere going on in each of the five decadessince its birth in 1962.

the 1960s

The SSW was developed in the early1960s, not long after Helmer Myklebust(1954) published his earth-shatteringbook on auditory disorders in children.5

Myklebust argued that the primarycauses of children’s learning disabilitieswere located in the auditory system.Other publications of the 1960s alsotheorized that breakdowns in auditorysystem led to language disorders andlearning disabilities. Different authorsfocused on different kinds of audition.Areas of primary concern at the timewere auditory discrimination,10,11

auditory (temporal) integration12 andauditory sequencing of variousstimuli.6,13–16 These different types ofauditory skills were brought together inthe Illinois Test of PsycholinguisticAbilities that included subtests ofauditory reception, auditory association,

auditory sequential memory, auditoryclosure, and sound blending.17

While speech language pathologists ofthe 1960s were looking to find anauditory-based cause for languagedisorders, audiologists, too, weredesigning tests to understand and findbreakdowns in the higher order auditorysystem.18 Katz, in his 1962 articleannouncing the birth of the SSW test,outlined various ways his fellowaudiologists were going aboutchallenging the auditory system in searchof higher order cortical lesions.3 Amongthose methods being used was a dichoticlistening task. In 1961 Doreen Kimurafound that those with normal hearingshowed a right ear advantage withdichotically presented spoken numbers.19

She attributed this “to the localization ofspeech and language processing in theso-called dominant left hemisphere of thecerebral cortex.”

So the conditions in 1962 were ripe forthe SSW test. Jack Katz was a newly

feature |

Changes in the Staggered Spondaic Word

(SSW) Test over Its 50 Year History

By Judith Felson Duchan, PhD


About the Author

Judith Felson Duchan is emeritus professor from the State University of New York at Buffalo.She has published widely in language pathology with many of her writings emphasizingthe conceptual frameworks underlying clinical practice. Her particular emphases have beenin the areas of autism, pragmatics, childhood language, and aphasia. Her latest writingshave been on different aspects of the history of speech-language pathology from ancienttimes to the present.


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minted audiologist and was also stronglyidentified with the field of speechpathology.20 At that time the fields ofaudiology and speech pathology weremore integrated, as evidenced by the factthat many professionals, Katz amongthem, had dual certification. Katzresponded to the call in both fields for aninstrument that could provideinformation about the existence andlocation of lesions and breakdowns inthe central auditory system.

the 1970s

The 1970s brought with it a linguisticrevolution in the field of speech languagepathology that was to pose problems forthe SSW.21 The theoretical, research andclinical focus shifted from looking forperceptual causes of speech and languagedisorders in the1960s to identifyinginnate and acquired knowledge such asphonologically based speech soundcategories and linguistically basedmorphological and syntactic rules.Identification of speech sounds, words,and sentences were seen as deduced fromhigher order linguistic knowledge ratherthan as being induced from informationin the auditory signal.

Emblematic of this linguistic trend, and asignificant contributor to it, was aninfluential article written by NormaRees.21 Rees argued that speechperception and language understandingdid not come from first identifyingseparate sounds or phonemes and thenstringing them together to form wordsand sentences. Rather, sounds wereoverlapping (co-articulated) and requireda special kind of knowledge for theirprocessing – information not present inthe speech signal. The linguisticmovement was divisive, with its biggestrift between language pathologists andaudiologists. That division has changedshape over time, but has remained aproblem in the field since the 1970s.

Meanwhile, in the 1970s audiologistsbegan working to integrate their variousaudiometric measures by creating testbatteries.23–26 The batteries weredesigned, in part, to locate problem areasalong the auditory processing system.They were also used to diagnose CAPDand its subtypes.27 Following this trend,Jack Katz tucked the SSW into a largerbattery of tests all aimed at classifyingchildren into one of three differentauditory processing groups: auditorydecoding, tolerance fading memory, andauditory integration.28 His batterypositioned him for creating what he andhis colleagues in Buffalo later called TheBuffalo Model.29–32

the 1980s

The clash between those who regardedlearning problems as language based andthose who saw them as based in auditoryprocessing continued into the 1980s. Itbecame reified in the literature oninformation processing when describedusing computer metaphor: “top down”versus “bottom up” processing. Thismetaphor, originally used to describesoftware development, was adopted andused to render how the mind processesinformation. Coming from a languagebackground, I embraced the top-downprocessing perspective and focused myattention on higher order processes oflanguage and cognition. Jack Katz, as anaudiologist, saw language processing asbeginning peripherally, when auditorysignals meet the ear, and then proceedingin steps through the auditory pathwaysto the level of language interpretation.His was a model of signal detection,sound perception and meaningextraction. For me, the SSW test was alanguage task, for Jack it was an auditoryprocessing one.

Indeed, our debate resembled the oneraised by Norma Rees in the 1970s, onlynow we used a more detailed

information-processing model to depictthe issues. We wrote an article togetherin which we tried to resolve ourdifferences (and the differences betweenour two professions). We argued forcombining the two views and said thatthe direction of information processingdepended upon the processing task athand. Writing the article helped usunderstand one another’s viewpoint, butit did not convince us to assume theother person’s position. I went on feelingthat linguistic and conceptual knowledgewere the primary place to look whentrying to understand poor performanceon auditory processing tasks and Jackcontinued to see poor auditoryprocessing performance on tests as aprimary cause of language disorders.

the 1990s

Central auditory processing disorderstook off as a clinical category in the1990s as evidenced by the number ofbooks and articles devoted to it34–36 andto the attention paid it by the nationalorganizations serving speech-languagepathologists and audiologists.

Debates between speech-languagepathologists and audiologists continuedthrough the 1990s, but they shifted inemphasis from whether CAPD was alanguage or auditory processing problem to how one should go aboutdistinguishing between the two.35,37

Underpinning this concern aboutdifferential diagnosis was anotherconcern: Whose job was it to diagnoseand remediate in this burgeoning area of specialization, speech-languagepathologists or audiologists?

The national organizations representingaudiologists and speech-languagepathologists became the referees assignedto clarify and helped professionals decidehow to identify CAPD. In 1992 theAmerican Speech-Language and Hearing

Association (ASHA) created a task forceto address controversies surroundingCAPD38 and in 1996 they issued atechnical report that distinguishedlanguage from auditory processingdisorders.39 And, in 2000, a consensuspaper was published in the Journal of theAmerican Academy of Audiology thatincluded guidelines for defining,diagnosing, and assigning responsibilityfor clients with CAPD problems.37

The general conclusion of thesedeliberative bodies was that CAPD, whilesometimes confused with languageprocessing disorders, is separate from it,and that diagnosing CAPD requiresaudiometric testing, using batteries thatinclude electrophysiologic, as well asbehavioural measures. Performance ondichotic listening tasks, such as the SSW,was among the ways recommended fordiagnosing CAPD.29

the 21st CenturY

By the end of the 20th century,audiologists and their professionalorganization ASHA seemed to havearrived at a consensus: CAPD is an entity,separable from other diagnosticcategories, and it should be diagnosed byaudiologists using a group of testsincluding dichotic listening tests such asthe SSW. Once diagnosed by audiologists,speech pathologists or other professionalsshould become involved so they candesign appropriate individualized CAPDtherapy involving both top down andbottom up therapies.32,40–43

But, judging from the latest exchanges inthe speech and language literature, thebattles surrounding CAPD saga is not yetover. There are those who still feel thatthere is no evidence for the existence ofCAPD as a clinical entity,44–46 pointing toresearch that shows that auditoryprocessing training did not lead toimproved language processing.47,48

One particularly grim take on this long-lasting debate is that of Alan Kamhi, oneof the strongest voices against the separateexistence of CAPD.44,45 Recently Kamhiargued that that the disagreementsbetween speech-language pathologistsand audiologists about auditoryprocessing may have as much to do withissues of professional territory than withinterpretation of research evidence.44,45

This would explain why audiologists arepromoting the use of audiometric testssuch as the SSW for diagnosing CAPDand why speech-language pathologistssay that there is no such thing as CAPD.It would also explain Kamhi’s admissionthat he is willing to accept the latestdefinition of CAPD put forth by ASHAbecause it excludes cognitive andlanguage functions.41,45 This leaves the responsibility for higher order processing disorders to speech-languagepathologists.

Whether this debate is due to differencesin frameworks used by the twoprofessional groups, as Jack Katz and Iargued in our 1983 article, or whether itis about professional territoriality, as issuggested by Alan Kamhi, the debate isfar from being resolved. And the use ofthe SSW is implicated in the outcome ofthis debate since one of its primary usesin these recent years has been to diagnoseclients with CAPD. The next chapters inthe history of the SSW have yet to beplayed out.

I am pleased to have been asked to joinin on this 50th anniversary celebration ofthe SSW. I encourage us all to use thismilestone as a time for historicalreflection and review. By learning aboutthe trends in the field over the last halfcentury we can better understand therole the SSW test has played in ourprofessional history. Kudos to Jack Katzfor the clever and intricate ways he hasadjusted the SSW test to meet the various

needs and challenges of the field overthese last 50 years.

referenCes

1. Carhart R. Clinical determination of abnormal auditory adaptation. Archives of Otolaryngology 1957;65:32–39.

2. Matzker J. Two new methods for assessment of central auditory function in cases of brain disease. Annals of Otology Rhinology and Laryngology 1959;68:1185–97.

3. Katz, J. The use of staggered spondaic words for assessing the integrity of the central auditory system. Journal of Auditory Research 1962;2:327–37.

4. Gelfand SA. Essentials of audiology.3rd Ed. NY: Thieme; 2009.

5. Myklebust H. Auditory disorders in children: A manual for differential diagnosis. New York: Grune & Stratton; 1954.

6. Monsees E. Aphasia in children. Journal of Speech & Hearing Disorders 1957;26:83–86.

7. McCarthy J, and Kirk S. Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press; 1961.

8. Eisenson J. Perceptual disturbancesin children with central nervous system disfunctions and implications for language developments. The British Journalof Disorders of Communication 1966;1:21–32.

9. Eisenson J. Developmental aphasia(dyslogia): A postulation of a unitary concept of the disorder. Cortex 1968;4:184–200.

10. Wepman J. Auditory discrimination test. Chicago, IL: Language Research Associates; 1958.

11. Wepman, J. Auditory discrimination, speech and reading. Elementary School

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Journal 1960;60:325–33. 12. Hardy WG. On language disorders

in young children: A reorganizationof thinking. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders 1965;8:3–16.

13. Lowe A and Campbell R. Temporaldiscrimination in aphasia and normal children. Journal of Speechand Hearing Research 1965;8:313–14.

14. Stark J. A comparison of the performance of aphasic children onthree sequencing tests. Journal of Communication Disorders 1967;1(1):31–34.

15. Stark J, Poppin R, and May M. Effects of alterations of prosodic features on the sequencing performance of aphasic children. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research 1967;10:849–55.

16. Aten J, and Davis J. Disturbances inthe perception of auditory sequencein children with minimal cerebral dysfunction. Journal of Speech & Hearing Research 1968;11(2):236–45.

17. Kirk S, McCarthy J, and Kirk W. TheIllinois test of psycholinguistic abilities. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press; 1967

18. Jerger J. Observations on auditory behavior in lesions of central auditory pathways. Archives of Otolaryngology 1960;71:797–806.

19. Kimura D. Some effects of temporallobe damage on auditory perception. Canadian Journal of Psychology 1961;15:157–65.

20. Katz J. Interview with Jack Katz, Ph.D. 2004. Retrieved from http://www.audiologyonline.com/interview/pf_interview_detail.asp?interview_id=303.

21. Duchan J. A history of speech-language pathology: 20th century, The Linguistic Era. 2011. Retrievedfrom http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~duchan/1965-1975.html.

22. Rees N. Auditory processing factorsin language disorders: A view from Procrustes’ bed. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders 1973;38:304–315.

23. Jerger J, Lovering L, Wertz M. Auditory disorder following bilateraltemporal lobe insult. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders 1972;37:523–35

24. Willeford JA. Assessing central auditory behavior in children: A testbattery approach. In: R. Keith (Ed.),Central auditory dysfunction. New York: Grune & Stratton; 1977.

25. White E. Children’s performance onthe SSW test and Willeford Battery:An interim report. R. Keith (Ed.). InCentral Auditory Dysfunction. NewYork: Grune & Stratton; 1977.

26. Katz J. The Staggered Spondaic Word test. In: R. Keith (Ed.), CentralAuditory Dysfunction. New York: Grune & Stratton; 1977.

27. Rosenberg PE. The test battery approach. In: J. Katz (Ed.), Handbook of clinical audiology. Baltimore, MD: Lippincott Williamsand Wilkins; 1972.

28. Katz J, and Smith P. The Staggered Spondaic Word test: A ten-minute look at the central nervous system through the ears. Annals of the NewYork Academy of Sciences 1991;620:233–51.

29. Katz J. Classification of auditory processing disorders. In: J. Katz, N.Stecker, and D. Henderson (Eds.), Central auditory processing: A transdisciplinary view. Chicago: Mosby Yearbook; 1992.

30. Stecker N. The Buffalo Model Updated. SSW Reports 2004;26:2.

31. Masters MG. Clinic for Central Auditory Processing Disorder. 2012.Retrieved from www.speechlanguagevoice.com/capd.

32. Gerard A. Identifying and remediating auditory processing

difficulties: An interview with Terri Cinotti. 2012. Retrieved from www.nldline.com/alice_&_capd.htm.

33. Duchan J. and Katz J. Language andauditory processing: Top down plusbottom up. In: E. Lasky and J. Katz(eds.), Central Auditory Processing Disorders. San Diego, CA: College Hill Press; 1983.

34. Bellis T. Central processing disorders. San Diego, CA: Singular Press; 1996.

35. Jerger J, Johnson K, Jerger S, et al. Central auditory processing disorder: A case study. Journal of American Academy of Audiology 1991;2:36–54.

36. Katz J, Stecker N, and Henderson D(Eds.). Central auditory processing:A transdisciplinary view. Chicago: Mosby Yearbook; 1992.

37. Jerger J, and Musiek F. Report of theconsensus conference on the diagnosis of auditory processing disorders in school-aged children. Journal of the American Academy ofAudiology 2000;11(9):467–74.

38. American Speech-Language-HearingAssociation. Issues in central auditory processing disorders: A report from the ASHA ad hoc committee on central auditory processing. Rockville, MD. Author;1992.

39. American Speech-Language-HearingAssociation. Central auditory processing: Current status of research and implications for clinicalpractice [Technical Report]. American Journal of Audiology 1996;5(2);41–54.

40. Merzenich MM, Jenkins WM, Johnston P, et al. Temporal processing deficits of language-learning impaired children ameliorated by training. Science 1996;271:77–80.

41. American Speech-Language-HearingAssociation. (Central) auditory

processing disorders - The role of theaudiologist [Position Statement]. 2005. Retrieved from http://www.asha.org/docs/html/PS2005-00114.html.

42. American Speech-Language-HearingAssociation. (Central) auditory processing disorders [Technical Report]. 2005. Retrieved from http://www.asha.org/docs/html/TR2005-00043.html.

44. Kamhi A. A meme’s eye view of speech-language pathology. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools 2004;35:105–111.

45. Kamhi A. What speech-language pathologists need to know about auditory processing disorder. Language Speech Hearing Servicesin Schools 2011;42(3):265–72.

46. Fey ME, Richard GJ, Geffner D, etal. Auditory processing disorder and auditory/language interventions: An evidence-based systematic review. Language, Speech and Hearing Services in Schools 2011;42:246–64. Retrieved from http://lshss.asha.org/cgi/ijlink?linkType=ABST&journalCode=lshss&resid=2/3/246

47. Gillam RB, Frome Loeb D, Hoffman LM, et al The efficacy of Fast ForWord language intervention in school-age childrenwith language impairment: a randomized controlled trial. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 2008;51:97–119.

48. Gillam RB, Loeb DF, and Friel-PattiS. Looking back: A summary of five exploratory studies on Fast ForWord. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology 2001;10(3):269–73.

Canadian Hearing Report 2012;7(4):37-41.

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SSW & Buffalo Model WorkshopNovember 2 & 3, 2012

Jack Katz, Kim Tillery and Nancy Stecker have combined their more that 100 years of experience with the SSW Test and The Buffalo Model to present a special two-day workshop. The program will cover these two topics in depth at an intermediate level to meet the needs of those just getting started with little experience and those with years of experience who want an update and learn of the newest proce-dures.

Where: Double Tree Inn, 10 Flint Road Amherst, NY 14226

Contact the hotel at 716-689-4414 for room reservations at a special cost: $100+tax/night Fees:

Conference fee includes registration, conti-nental breakfast, lunch, breaks, and mate-rials for both days.

Please contact Nancy Stecker at 716-829-5541 or [email protected]

for the conference brochure or for more information.

On or Before Oct. 15 After Oct. 15

Professional $250 $275Student $40 $45


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When the late Dr. Roger Ruthintroduced me to his colleague

on sabbatical from the State Universityof New York at Buffalo, I had never heardof Jack Katz or his contributions toaudiology. At the time I was one of thestar performers of the cochlear implant(CI) program at the University ofVirginia, receiving a CI shortly beforeJack arrived. So, Roger asked if I wouldmind meeting with Jack andparticipating in a small study with him.People who know me will tell you that Iam extremely inquisitive and have atendency to barrage people withquestions. My meeting with Jack was noexception as I practically profiled thepoor man while eating a sandwich at anearby restaurant. I learned that he wasan audiologist, living in Buffalo, NewYork, and that he was very interested instudying how the brain processesauditory information. He also sharedwith me that he had worked with a lotof individuals who had difficultyunderstanding speech despite havingnormal hearing – something he referred

to as auditory processing difficulties. Isoon learned that Jack was my ultimatematch – for every question I had for him,he had twice as many for me! Heinquired about my pre-lingual deafness,how I learned to talk, my initialexperience with the CI, as well as otheraspects of my development of hearing,speech and language. I don’t recall, buthe might have even asked about thephase of the moon when I was born.

Jack taught me that he observes CIpatients making errors similar to thoseoften made by patients with auditoryprocessing disorders. Many of theseauditory processing patients have goodresponses to therapy involving specificauditory training exercises, which thenled to his hypothesis that perhaps CIusers may benefit from similar therapyapproaches. Other than certainvegetables, there are very few things thatI won’t try – so, I became Jack’s first CIguinea pig. Little did I know that thiswould be the start of a wonderfuljourney!

We were given a small utility room in thehospital in which Jack and I sat at a smalltable for our sessions. I wasdumbfounded when Jack began askingme to do simple tasks such as listeningto sounds, pointing to cards with speechsounds written on them, andsynthesizing words from individuallypresented phonemes. Our initial sessionwasn’t much longer than an hour or sobecause he didn’t want to fatigue me.The funny thing was, prior to the sessionI had told him that if he needed me towork for longer than an hour, I could goas long as he could. I left the roomcompletely drenched in sweat andbeaten down as if I had just run amarathon. Score one for Jack Katz.

We met for several sessions before Jackhad to return to Buffalo. Jack increasedthe complexity and difficulty of theexercises by having me perform varioustasks including phonetic discrimination,acoustical highlighting, short-termmemory, interference memory, phonemicsynthesis, and phonemic analysis drills. I

A Personal Journey with Auditory Training

and Jack Katz

By Jack King, PhD

About the Author

Jack King, is currently on the teaching faculty in the Department of Audiology and SpeechPathology at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania. His experience as a cochlear implantrecipient drives his academic and research efforts.

will never forget the extreme difficultythat I had with the phonemic synthesistask – it was so difficult that initially, Icould not even perform it for one-syllable words. I was mystified – howcould such a “childish” task be sodifficult for the star of the Virginia CIprogram? Boy, did I feel the effects ofbeing brought down a peg or two!Thankfully, after several sessions my poorbrain finally began to figure things outand I started to do what was previouslyimpossible. Amazing – listening tospeech sounds and pointing at the littlesilly cards was actually starting to takeeffect!

I was disappointed that Jack had to leavebecause I didn’t want to discontinue theprogress I was making. Thankfully, oneof the audiology graduate students,Katie, was interested in the study so Jacktrained her to do the therapy sessionsand he directed our sessions from afar. Icontinued to improve to the extent thatwe increased the training speed andreceived more difficult tasks. Sadly, Katiegraduated but the baton was passed toanother student, Lori. In retrospect, I amin debt to these two ladies because theirefforts and putting up with my sillinessreally did help me reach a whole newlevel of performance with my implant.To put things in perspective … my wordrecognition skills improved from 10% togreater than 70% as a result ofparticipating in Jack’s innovative therapyprogram. For me, this made a world ofdifference as I was now able tocommunicate with strangers on thetelephone when previously I was limitedto familiar voices.

When people ask me about Jack Katz, Itell them about his desire to share andhelp others. After our initial encounter,

Jack invited me to visit him in Buffaloseveral times during which I shared myexperiences with his students. I wasnervous about visiting him in Buffalo,because when the audiology students atVirginia learned that I was working withhim, they reacted as if I had beenhanging out with a rock star. I didn’tunderstand why until I saw his name onthe spine of the gargantuan book, TheHandbook of Clinical Audiology, that theylugged around to their classes. So, hewas the man responsible for their backpains!

The first time I stayed with him, westarted talking one night about his workwith the SSW test and the next thing Iknow, we’re viewing slides in his livingroom of brain scans, reports detailingsites of lesions, and SSW test findingsthat were just remarkable at identifyingthese sites of lesions. The idea seemedimpossibly simple, yet complicated – wemust have spent hours talking about hiswork and I never once lost interest. Howwas it possible for Jack to do what he didwithout modern technology? How in theworld did this man remember all thedetails of cases that he saw 20 odd yearsago that he discussed as if he had seenthe patients only days before? The nextday, we went to a local fixture known asDuff’s for wings and beer – which wouldbecome our tradition until he movedfrom Buffalo to Kansas. I miss ourconversations about politics, religion,and all sorts of other topics whiledevouring a bucket of those famouswings. How could this unassuming manbe one of audiology’s rock stars? What afantastic role model!

If I wasn’t already in awe of the man, Ihad no choice but to be when I taggedalong with him to observe therapy with

a mentally challenged young man.Interestingly, Jack was applying some ofthe same therapy approaches that he hadused with me to this client. We told theyoung man to call me “Junior” so that hewould not be confused with interactingwith two Jacks. I was tickled because atone point during the session he lookedat me, addressed me as Junior and thenproceeded to explain how to completethe task that we were addressing. Herewe are, working with an individual whois severely mentally challenged and he isnow teaching me to do the task that Jackhas been using in their therapy sessions.When Jack told me his story and thesignificant progress made, I thought tomyself that this is absolutely incrediblebecause Jack is succeeding with a personthat many people would not have givena second thought. Yet again, Jack hasreached outside of the box andaccomplished something novel.

There is no doubt in my mind that JackKatz is the most genuine, humble,selfless human being that I have had thehonour of knowing. He is a brilliantclinician that has consistently andtirelessly given of himself for thebetterment of audiology and countlessindividuals throughout his career anddeserves every accolade. I am proud tohave had him as a mentor, friend, andfather-figure for the past 17 years. Ishudder to think where I and manyothers would be if it were not for hiswork and efforts. Jack, on behalf ofmyself and everyone that has beentouched by your efforts, T-H-A-N-K-Y-O-U!Canadian Hearing Report 2012;7(4):42-43.

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When I was invited to write anarticle for the Canadian Hearing

Report in tribute to Jack Katz, I wasdelighted to be able to highlight hisillustrious career. Jack was awarded theHonors of ASHA last year due to theenormity of his contributions to the fieldof audiology, auditory processing, testinstruments and therapy. In my ownwork as an academic and clinicalaudiologist over many years, I have hadthe benefit of Jack Katz’s contributionsthrough his textbooks, chapters, researcharticles in professional journals, tests,manuals, lectures, SSW study groups atnational meetings, online programs,workshops, and personal mentoring. Ican’t imagine what audiology would belike without this remarkable man’sguidance and knowledge. His Handbookof Clinical Audiology, a textbook thatemerged in the early 1970s, was theteething bones for every audiologist toread, learn, and prepare for the Praxisexam. I remember reading it cover tocover prior to taking the test because itwas so comprehensive. He is a leader andinnovator in providing students,instructors and clinicians with such acompendium of information. The

Handbook is now in its 6th edition, andstill being used extensively throughoutthe country. Jack has not stoppedproducing even though he provided uswith so many contributions over the 50+years of his career.

Throughout his career, he has written 12textbooks, 37 chapters, 20 manuals andguides, as well as 19 copyrighted testsand therapy materials. His first publishedarticle appeared in the Journal of Nervousand Mental Disease with Louis DiCarloand Stanley Batkin, in 1959. His articlesand research span a myriad of topicsincluding: middle ear pathology,stuttering behaviour (he is duallycertified), temporary threshold shift,classical conditioning in GSR speechaudiometry, continuous tone audiometry,use of phonemic synthesis, auditorysensory deprivation, identification of siteof lesion, auditory perception forchildren with learning disabilities, theeffects of Ritalin on auditory processing,and auditory assessment and treatment.The extraordinary breadth of hispublished works addressing these timelytopics is simply astounding, and is stillrelevant and of the highest quality today.

In my professional work with auditoryprocessing disorders, I marvel at howJack Katz has provided clinicians with aroad map to help diagnose and treatindividuals with a central auditoryprocessing disorder. His StaggeredSpondaic Word (SSW) Test, a test thatwas first developed in the 1960s toidentify people with temporal lobelesions, was reconfigured to serve as adiagnostic tool in the identification andclassification of individuals with CAPD.Its error calculation and patterns –known as the Buffalo Model – has beenused by audiologists throughout thecountry. In fact, in a recent studyconcerning the most commonly usedtests in central auditory processingdisorders, his SSW was ranked second inits usefulness and frequency of use. Ipersonally find the SSW Test to beconsistent, accurate, and reliable. Thus,for me and other clinicians, the SSW hasbeen enormously helpful in clinicalpractice. The test and its findings arecontent material covered in graduatecourses where the study of the centralauditory system is paramount. In fact ithas been translated into Portuguese,Hebrew, and Spanish. Jack has given us

My Tribute to Dr. Jack KatzBy Donna Geffner, PhD, CCC-SP/A

About the Author

Dr. Donna Geffner is the director of the Graduate Program in Speech-Language Pathologyand Audiology at St. John's University, where she founded the undergraduate and graduateprograms, and the SJU program director of the Long Island AuD, a consortium which sheco-founded with Adelphi and Hofstra Universities. She is also the director of the Speech andHearing Center, which she developed in 1976.

all a model, a rubric, a guideline in thispursuit of knowledge about the centralauditory system. He cares deeply aboutunderstanding the role of the centralsystem in the perception of auditoryinformation.

Although a superb professor andinvestigator, Dr. Katz has always been adedicated clinician because he recognizesit is within the clinical milieu that newtheories and practices arise to benefitchildren and adults with communicationdisorders.

As the consummate clinician for nearly50 years (SLP/A), his administration oftests and treatment protocols has notonly improved the lives of manythousands of children and adults, butalso laid the groundwork for newdiagnostic procedures and interventionstrategies. His devotion to the area ofresearch and clinical practice, along withproviding education for other clinicianscan be substantiated by the hundreds ofworkshops he has been invited to give tofellow audiologists and speech-languagepathologists. His short courses at ASHAconventions, his SSW workshops atnational and local conferences, his postersessions, discussion groups, and onlinecourses demonstrate his commitment toclinical excellence. His knowledge hasbeen disseminated throughout the USand in other countries such as Poland,Israel and Brazil, where his SSW hasbeen translated. Jack Katz isinternationally known, respected andsought after as an invited speaker. He isconsidered a “father” of auditoryprocessing, working tirelessly to refine itsdefinition, its assessment and its validity.

Upon his retirement from SUNY Buffaloin 2004 he opened a private practice inKansas City to provide diagnostic andrehabilitative services to individuals with

central auditory processing disorders. Irecall sending one of our clients to see Dr.Katz in Kansas. He returned after severalweeks of working with Dr. Katz reportingthat he felt “so much better.”

Dr. Katz’s work crosses disciplinesbeyond audiology such as speech-language pathology, and reading andlearning disabilities. His recentpublication is a training manual “Wordsin Noise,” an outgrowth of hisexperiences and treatment withindividuals with CAPD.

He has had a profound impact upon theprofessionals of audiology and speech-language pathology, as well as studentsand clients and so generously shares hisknowledge. I can recall, for example,when he was asked to be a speaker at afundraiser for the Long Island PreschoolHearing Council. Since the council waslow on funds it planned to host a full-dayworkshop in the hopes of raising somemoney to continue its free pre-schoolhearing screening program for the LongIsland Community. Jack graciouslyaccepted no honorarium to help thecouncil financially. Because of hisrecognized expertise, the event had avery large turnout of professionals. Thefunds raised kept the council solvent andin existence for years thereafter.

Dr. Katz’s incredible record ofpublications spans his entire career ofover 50 years – 25 peer reviewed journalarticles, 37 book chapters, 6 books inaddition to his 6 editions of the Handbookof Clinical Audiology, plus many manuals,tests and therapy materials. These superbaccomplishments blend with his notableachievements in academia to form apicture of utmost career excellence. Hiscontributions as an academic leader andprofessor include department chair atSUNY Buffalo for five years and associate

chair for seven years. He was a universityprofessor at SUNY Buffalo from 1976–2002 and went on to serve on the facultyat the University of Kansas MedicalCenter from 2003–2010. Currently, he isa clinical professor in the GraduateSchool of Psychology at Touro College inNew York. His role as professor since1961 from Tulane University toUniversity of Northern Illinois,University of Missouri at Kansas City, toSUNY Buffalo for over 26 years speaks tohis commitment to students andteaching. He continues to teach, practice,lecture, and write.

Dr. Katz has had a most laudable andfruitful career, and is, to this day, aproductive scholar. He continues todevelop new approaches and trainingtechniques. He continues to work withindividuals with CAPD, as well as thosewith cochlear implants, hearingimpairment and developmental dis-abilities. He continues to mentorstudents and fellow colleagues. I, for one,am eternally grateful to him for agreeingto review a proposed Listening InventoryI developed called the Auditory SkillsAssessment. Typical of Jack, he agreedenthusiastically to read it and offervaluable suggestions. He is always willingto help fellow colleagues, providesuggestions and give encouragement. Heis one of the most approachable humanbeings who truly gives of himself in agenuine, caring way to help others,although most modest about himself.Jack is a “sweetheart” with the emphasison the last syllable to truly reflect thenature of his character.

By his work, he has improved the qualityof lives of others and has left an indeliblemark on the profession. Thank you Jack!Canadian Hearing Report 2012;7(4):44-45.

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It was the fall of 1982 that I first methim face-to-face. The DelawareCounty Memorial Hospital Hearing andSpeech Department was hosting Dr. JackKatz’s several-day SSW Workshop. Iremember the excitement I had since Iwas the one chosen to pick Jack up at theairport. Having heard of him for years,and knowing how brilliant and wellknown he was, he was, after all, a giantin our field. In my mind’s eye, I began towonder, “How would I fit this giant in mycar?” Perhaps I could have him stick hisfeet out the window, or I could push thefront seat way, way back to accommodatehis size. Well I soon learned that thisgiant was a humble, gracious, soft-spoken, left-handed man from whomcharisma oozed. And so it was that I firstmet Jack, whose teaching andcontributions to the profession changedmy life as an audiologist. It was Jack whointroduced the brain, in total, and theneuroscience behind central auditoryprocessing. To me, he was a giant in ourfield, and still is.

Up until that time, the meetings andconferences on central auditoryprocessing disorder (CAPD) mainlyfocused on test administration,

outcomes and interpretation sinceaudiologists were primarily CAPDdiagnosticians. Not so for Jack’sworkshops, for he not only brought ahuman brain for purposes of teachinganatomy, at least for the first few Iattended, but he also clearly expoundedon how each part of the brain wasconnected to every other part in thewhole brain processing of humanspeech. What a delightful treat to see, upclose and personally, the gyri and sulcithat we were testing after our patientsheard, “Are you ready?” Even the mostsqueamish of participants found itfascinating to see how the human brainwas intricately formed and moreimportantly, how it functioned normallyand the consequences that contributedto abnormality. Jack spent as much timeelucidating on the intricate areas of thecentral nervous system as he spent onhow to score and interpret the SSW.There were left temporal deficits, somemotor strip involvement, fronto-temporal connection issues, andcross-callosal transmission break downs.It was Jack who was able to see wholebrain involvement using a 10-minutetest using stimuli compromised of twostaggered and overlapping spondees.

Much as his test at that time was highlysuccessful in determining site of lesion inneurologically involved adults, it was justas easily applicable in assessing childrenwith delays in the development of CAPDand learning disorders. There he wouldbe, chalk in his left hand, drawingdiagrams to depict the spondees going inand the responses coming out and all thatwas involved. His illustrations wereexquisite and his verbal descriptions ofneurophysiological function were literallyword art. One could just close his or hereyes and follow his word art through thebrain like taking in a movie.

Different from other behavioural CAPDtests, scoring the SSW was highlycomplex and incredibly revealing as towhat was really happening in the brainof each individual being assessed. Scoringwas not just correct versus incorrect, butdone beyond noting the correctness ofresponse, but also the quality of responseacross many differentiating paradigms.Jack’s scoring procedure made particularnote of individuals who reversed thewords but recalled them correctly, afactor not at that time differentiated inother CAPD behavioural tests. Therewere Ear Order Effects and High-Low

The Gentle Giant: A Tribute to JackBy Maxine Young, AuD

About the Author

Maxine Young, is a dually licensed audiologist and speech-language pathologist in privatepractice in Broomall, PA, near Philadelphia. Dr. Young is an adjunct instructor at SalusUniversity, formerly Pennsylvania College of Optometry. She was a member of the AmericanAcademy of Audiology (AAA) Coding and Practice Management Committee and the AAAtask force that developed the recently published CAPD Practice Guidelines. Because of herclose relationship with internationals on a personal level, she has developed a professionalinterest and expertise in working with international adoptees and post-institutionalizedchildren who have CAPD and dyslexia. Her work with twice exceptional children whoexhibit CAPD is also a well-recognized specialty in her practice.

and Low-High responses, and the classictype-A error pattern, the latter seen inmany individuals who have dyslexia(Young, Out-Law-In-Side: Dyslexia in theBooth, SSW Reports Vol. 27 No.2, May2005). This one pattern of errors is still,in my humble opinion, most unique andone that I have used in forensic cases toprove that a patient’s responses provedvalid CAPD, for after all, who couldmalinger by memorizing the test andthen try to remember to miss only thewords in the left competing column onthe Left-Ear-First presentation ofstaggered spondees?

Not only was there a test of staggeredspondees, but in 1976 and edited forclinical use in 1985, there was a test ofCompeting Environment Sounds (CES).It was first published as an experimentaltool for the study of central auditoryfunction using 14 sounds found in theenvironment such as a door slamming,someone coughing, wood being sawed,or dialling a telephone. The results of theCES test were compared with the resultsof the SSW to provide accurateinformation regarding the site of thelesion, or whether the corpus callosumwas involved in neurological cases. Jackhad previously developed three differenttests to obtain information about musicand environmental sound processingwhich presumably were processed in theright hemisphere and with tweaking, hedeveloped another unique CAPD test.This now gave us tests of processing inboth hemispheres, complementing thebehavioural CAPD test armamentarium.

Jack was among the first to develop aclinical test that related directly tolearning to read. Even before I startedusing the SSW, I had been trained in myundergraduate speech-language path-ology program to use the KindergartenAuditory Screening Test, a wonderful testof phonological processing. This was oneof my most favourite ones to use with

very young children at the time I used it.I’d started using this test when I did myundergraduate work in at CarlowCollege, right up the street from theUniversity of Pittsburgh, where Jackdeveloped the SSW. It was Sr. Rita AliceFitzgerald, department chair, who said,“This test will identify those childrenwho are going to have trouble learningto read.” And so it did. Later, afterearning my degree in audiology, I startedusing the Phonemic Synthesis (PS) Testwhich also had normative data for veryyoung children. This test is easy toadminister and results are highlycorrelated with children who havedifficulty learning to read. Granted, thereare many phonological awareness teststhat are more time consuming and areadministered to obtain detailedinformation about phonologicalprocesses, but the PS test cut to the quickand clearly identified children who couldnot blend sounds. It is fascinating to seechildren fail this test, who are in factgood “word readers,” but who haveabsolutely no ability to decode the wordsthey visually read.

Audiologists did CAPD testing, but Jackwas not satisfied with the notion thataudiologists were primarily, if notexclusively, diagnosticians, so he wasamong the first to develop an auditoryprocessing intervention, PhonemicSynthesis Training Program. It came as athick 3-ring binder, filled with detailedexercises, and as a child progressedthrough the program, their literacy skillssignificantly increased. Of all theauditory training programs, this stillremains one of the most highlysuccessful. It is a timeless and highlyefficacious tool. (Currently available inCDs through Precision Acoustics.)

As for Jack the professional, there wasnever a time that I called Jack that I didnot have him on the phone for nearly ahalf hour, or more, while he explained

nuances of scoring details when I calledabout very intriguing cases. He is alwaysgenerous with his time, his expertise, andhis dedication to helping colleagues.Over the years, I have met many parentswhose children were privileged to havebeen evaluated by Jack and who havereceived therapy regime from him. Allpraise him for his competence, hiscompassion, and his big heart. Parentsand kids alike, love him.

So from Jack the Giant, I started to reallylearn about the brain in a way whichgreatly impacted my professional life.Having a dual master’s degree in bothaudiology and speech-languagepathology, with an emphasis on childlanguage development and aphasiology,I had a background in neurolinguisticsand the neurosciences, but when I metJack and began to learn from him, myappreciation of the central auditorynervous system took an incremental,rather, a giant leap forward.

It is beyond my imagination thatsomeone could develop a 10-minutebehavioural auditory test as highlydetailed and profoundly diagnostic as theSSW, in this day and age. Quite frankly,it was beyond anyone’s imagination,except for Jack! Imaging studies nowreplace behavioural audiology tests thatwere once successfully used as site oflesion tests. While those images are quiterevealing and diagnostic, function anddevelopment within the CANS is stillwell identified with behavioural tests ofCAPD, including the SSW. And werethe SSW to be updated, would thespondees be words such as “up load,”“flash drive,” and ”hard drive”? So whenJack eloquently asks, “Are You Ready?Up -Load -Down -Stairs”, the reverserwould respond, “Up -Stairs - Down -Load”. By the way, Jack, just let meknow if you ever think of revising theSSW.Canadian Hearing Report 2012;7(4):46-47.

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Iwas in graduate school workingtowards my master’s degree inaudiology. My interests lay in answeringthe following question, “Why do somepeople understand what they hearbetter than other people?” I decided togo to the New York State Speech andHearing Association convention thatyear and attend as many presentationson how we understand what we hear.

At the conference was a presenter fromthe State University of New York atBuffalo presenting on a new test he hadcreated to help us understand whypeople process verbal informationdifferently. He described an unusualmethod of testing people usingsomething I had never heard of before,“dichotic listening.”

My graduate advisor who was helpingme with my master’s thesis told meabout dichotic listening and the use ofnonsense syllables like “pa,” “ta,” and“ka,” but this presenter was talkingabout using real words. The words were

presented so that people could geteasily confused whether they heard“upstairs – downtown” or “uptown –downstairs.” WOW! What a concept!But, were we ready to look into whatthis really meant? My colleagues whoattended the meeting with me saidsomething like, “What does this do forus [as future audiologists]?” And weasked ourselves, “How do you presentthese words live voice with only oneaudiologist testing?”

Little did we know that this test, theStaggered Spondaic Word (SSW) Test,would change our lives. I wonder if Dr.Jack Katz, creator of this test, reallyforesaw what his SSW test would meanfor thousands of children, adolescentsand adults. Somehow, I was able to geta copy of the SSW Test on reel-to-reeltape (remember those machines – Ithink they are in the back of the closetnext to the eight-track tape players). Iactually still have my original copy!

Time went on and Jack’s SSW test

became for me and so manyaudiologists a major part of ourauditory processing disorder (APD) testbattery. But, creating the test was onlyone part of Jack’s contributions inhelping students obtain bettereducational services because theirauditory processing abilities could beevaluated, diagnosed, and specified.Jack continued on working withcolleagues and developed the BuffaloModel approach in analyzing APD testfindings. The SSW test stands as acornerstone of that APD model, but inthe battery is another test developed byJack: Phonemic Synthesis (PS) test.

At one of the many SSW Study Groupmeetings before the ASHA convention(at that time, the study group met theday before ASHA), Jack shared how heused to play a game of phonemicsynthesis with his growing children atthe dinner table. He often told of hissurprise when his children could notfigure out the words by blending thephonemes and when they were able to

“Were We Ready?” A Tribute to My Mentor:

Dr. Jack KatzBy Jay Lucker, Ed.D., CCC-A/SLP, FAAA

About the Author

Dr. Jay R. Lucker is an associate professor in the Department of Communication Sciences& Disorders at Howard University in Washington, DC. He also has a private practicespecializing in assessment of children with APD in the greater metro DC area. His researchand clinical focus is on understanding APD and processing problems affect children andadolescents educationally, socially, and in life, in general. He has been strongly influencedby Dr. Jack Katz and his pioneering work on APD.

blend difficult combinations andcorrectly guess the words. Eventually,he developed the PS for children,adolescents, and adults and, then,expanded the test using a pictureidentification task for use with youngpreschoolers and kindergarteners.

These tests have stood as importantcontributors in the works of so manyaudiologists who use them to helpidentify auditory processing difficultiesand the results of these tests havehelped so many students obtainsupport services and accommodationsin schools. I don’t know if Jack realizeshow many thousands of children,adolescents and adults have beenhelped because he played his“phonemic synthesis” game with hischildren and developed it intoevaluation tools, and because he cameup with this unique concept ofoverlapping spondaic words leadingright ear or left ear looking at numerousresponse biases involved in theprocessing of these equal stressedwords.

For me, personally, learning about theSSW test was one of the greatest thrillsI had as a master’s level student. Idecided that I wanted to do more andlearn more about how children andadolescents understand what they hearusing these measures (SSW, PS, and

speech-in-noise) along with other APDmeasures. I remember using the SSWtest with children in the school districtin which I worked in WestchesterCounty, NY, who had reading andspelling problems who, today, wewould identify as having dyslexia. Thatunusual pattern with which they allpresented was surprising, and the “TypeA” pattern (severe left competingerrors) on the SSW test was the keyidentifier. Without that unexpectedfinding, perhaps many of these childrenwould not have obtained theappropriate and necessary services theyneeded.

Jack also provided many events forprofessionals. Annually, the SSW StudyGroup met bringing professionalsinterested in APD together into a forumfor sharing and building friendshipsand collegiality. It was Jack whorealized the need to share informationabout APD by creating the SSWNewsletter which grew into the presentday SSW Reports. Many of thegroundbreaking work in APD wasoriginally published in one of thesejournals, and professionals still havethis forum for sharing through SSWReports which is still published today.

But, shall we only remember Dr. JackKatz as the creator of the SSW, the PS,the SSW Newsletter and SSW Reports,

and all of his other professional work?Or shall we also remember him as amentor, a leader, and an inspiration toso many of us. I was not a student atSUNY Buffalo, yet, I still consider JackKatz my mentor. I read everything Icould that he and his colleagues wrote,and I attended many seminars,workshops, and presentations he hasgiven. His ideas, his thinking, and hisunderstanding of auditory processinghas been the inspiration that started myjourney into this field and began as thetinder that helped spark my fire andpassion for helping children with APD.

Someone once said to me, “How willyou measure your accomplishmentswhen you retire and look back on yourcareer?” I responded, “I will look at allof the people who I have helped andsee how I have led them to positivechanges in their lives.” Well, Jack Katzhas met my expectations of what I toldmy friend was “a successful professionallife.” Many of us are among thethousands of people who have beenpositively touched by this wonderfulman. So, were we ready to take up hisbaton and continue the race? I think wewere! And Dr. Jack Katz and hisaccomplishments will live foreverbecause of how he has touched ourlives. So, Jack, “Are you ready … Up –stairs/down – town.”Canadian Hearing Report 2012;7(4):48-49.

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Internet Marketing andYour Online Reputation

CAA Welcomes Dr. Paul Dybala as the Keynote Speaker at the 15th Annual Conference and Exhibition

To stay ahead of the curve it is imperative to understand new marketing trends and refocus your efforts to include the right mix of online media.

Dr. Dybala will present simple solutions that you can immediately implement in your practice. You will learn how to understand the online demographic, trends in search engine optimization

and take home website best practices.

Dr. Dybala is an audiologist with a PhD from the University of Texas-Dallas/Callier Center.


15th Anniversary of CAAMusings of a Past President


15years – wow! I don’t feel any older,or wiser, but I think collectivelyCAA has become wiser. Here’s a little ofwhat it was like in 1999-2000 when Iserved as the third president of CAA.

CAA began as a group of dedicatedaudiologists with the common goal to givea clear voice to the profession of audiologyin Canada. The first meetings in 1997were held on shoestring budgets, withdonations from board members, privatepractice clinics, and industry to covertravel costs. The first board was trulyCanadian with representation from coast-to coast to coast (I was in the Yukon).

One of the first goals of CAA was to hostan audiology-only conference to providequality continuing education and anopportunity for audiologists to networkand develop relationships across thecountry. This was made possible in 1998by the efforts of Jean and Odilia, withsupport from board members andvolunteers. The running of theconferences was then passed to amanagement conference, with anorganizing committee to oversee the slateof speakers. In 2000 our very own Joe–Canada to organize “Canada-eh?” with allCanadian speakers. The conference hascontinued to be a cornerstone of CAA. Ihaven’t missed one yet!

In the early years CAA business wasmanaged by volunteers like LisaRichardson as secretary, and BrianAlexander managing our accounts. In2000 we had grown enough to hire anassociation management company tomanage the day-to-day, create a memberdatabase and expand our website. CAAnow has its own office with executivedirector and staff.

We had a great team on the board in1999-2000 – Greg Noel, Chuck Fuller,Dennis Herx, André Marcoux, RichardSeewald, Janice Cockburn, MarciaSuderman, Sylvie Auger. We were wayahead of the Olympic trend – our teambuilding activity in February 2000 wasbeach volleyball! (indoors in Torontoduring a snowstorm). Our boardrepresented many aspects of audiology –research and education, private practice,manufacturers, public health. The CAAboard continues to have broadrepresentation.

The importance of students as the futureof audiology was already recognized withstudent representatives Jean Chan andSteve Coukell. A special category ofstudent membership was created, andattendance at CAA conferences wasencouraged. CAA now has many studentsat conferences working as volunteers toearn attendance. There are student paperawards and a new student bursary.

From the beginning, CAA recognized thatour profession is here to serve the needsof the consumers of hearing health care.At our conferences we invite attendance ofrepresentatives from various consumerand support organizations in the exhibithall, delivering workshops, and havingrepresentatives attend board meetings.During the 2000 conference president’sreception I was delighted to have CHHAmember Gael Hannan perform hermoving piece “Unheard Voices”. In 2000I joined the CHHA board, and continuedon for several years after leaving the CAAboard. CAA has continued to developstrong connections with associationsrepresenting our consumer base,including regular columns in each others’publications, and working jointly on

projects such as Noisy Toys or DisabilityTax Credit issues.

Newborn hearing screening was a currentissue in 2000, with no programs yetimplemented in Canada. CAA developeda joint position statement, andparticipated in the multi-disciplinaryCanadian Working Group that created theresource document on Early Hearing andCommunication Development. CAA ledthe way with educational sessions ontopics related to newborn hearing atconferences, and a full conferencededicated to the topic in 2003. Thisbecame the launch point for a cross-disciplinary group in BC which led to theestablishment of the BC Early HearingProgram, which I have the privilege ofbeing involved in. Other CAA membershave been instrumental in the programsdeveloped in Ontario and other provinces.Most areas in Canada now have programs,but there are still gaps where advocacy isneeded to make this truly universal inCanada.

In 2000 issues around reimbursement andinconsistency of fees across the countrywere hot topics. CAA was instrumental intaking these issues forward andnegotiating with third party funders tomake improvements. CAA continues to bea strong voice in advocating for changes,as seen this year with audiologists nowrecognized as prescribers for Non-InsuredHealth Benefits.

26 years after I graduated, and 15 yearsafter CAA formed, the audiology stillexcites me. CAA is you – if you see anissue that needs attention, speak up andget involved.

Audiology Rocks! See you in Ottawa.

By Ann Follows

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Documents

Volume 7, Issue 4 (pdf)