ability to relate meaning to particular environmental sounds or spoken words. Thus, if an individual loses this ability, they will not be able to understand speech. In addition to this, the individual "will be unable to relate a combination of specific sounds to an appropriate referent." The end result of a disrupted form of auditory association is the "reduced ability to manipulate symbolic ideas." Thus, resulting in what is known as auditory agnosia (Mencher, Gerber, and McCombe, 1992).
             "These people hear normally sensory-wise, but they are not able to interpret what they hear, they do not understand environmental sounds or the spoken word, and/or they can not categorize their auditory world. These people therefore respond inconsistently and inappropriately to auditory stimuli" (Barr, 1972).
             Agnosia is defined as "the ability to recognize sound, or more specifically auditory verbal agnosia, which refers to the inability to recognize speech sounds" (Newby and Popelka, 1992). Kant, a German philosopher, first mentioned this disorder. In 1914,
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