作为一门新兴的、发展的专业，听力学当前的目标和需要
摘要
It has been estimated that 12.7% of the population of the United States has a communication disorder of one type or another. With a population of 300 million, that represents over 38 million people with a communication disorder! The 12.7% as a whole, is further broken down as follows: voice disorders (1.6%), fluency or stuttering disorders (1.0%), articulation disorders (.94%), language disorders (.73%), aphasia or neurologically based speech disorders (.7%), clefts of the palate and lips (.13%)and finally, hearing disorders at 7.1% (ASHA,1995).Extrapolation of statistics is always a questionable thing to do, but if that were done, 12.7% of China′s population would yield 127 million people with a communication disorder and 71 million with a hearing impairment! Granted,these are estimates and based on national statistics from another country. But, the country of comparison has one of the finest health care systems in the world and keeps extremely accurate records. It is not unreasonable to project that the statistics for China may reveal an even greater problem.