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Speech, Language and Hearing Disorders in an Adult Penal Institution

Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia

Abstract

It has been speculated that the prevalence of communicative disorders among prison inmates is considerably higher than that found in the general population, but research regarding inmate speech and hearing disorders is limited. This study investigated the nature and extent of communicative disorders in an inmate population of a medium-security penal institution in southeastern Virginia. The results of the screening indicated a slightly lower prevalence of stuttering, higher prevalences of articulation, voice, and hearing disorders, and more deficient receptive vocabulary skills than found in the general population. Some dialectal variations among black inmates are noted and the possible influence of linguistic-cultural interference on the results is discussed.