Characteristics And Causal Factors For The Receptive-Expressive Gap In Typically Developed Spanish-English Adult Bilinguals, Rachael Janelle Javaherian

LSU Master's Theses

A receptive-expressive language gap occurs when a standardized receptive score is statistically greater than an expressive score in either a primary or a second language. In bilingual children, gap studies already exist for determining language impairment. In adults, there are few studies; nevertheless, one needs to distinguish between typical language patterns of bilingualism due to non-pathological loss of L1 skills versus problems resulting from accidents, disease, or age. To this end, the present study attempted to expand findings of studies by Gibson et al. (2012 and 2014) that focused on analysis of the gap and possible factors influencing its existence …

Brown's Stages Of Morphosyntactic Development Applied To The Typical Development Of Italian, Marie Laiche

LSU Master's Theses

Background: In A First Language (1973), Roger Brown called for an increase in crosslinguistic data and analysis of morphosyntax across languages as more research in this field is crucial for working out the overarching determinants of language acquisition order and for the ability to accurately compare child language acquisition across different languages. An increase in this research would benefit linguistic researchers and speech-language-pathologists offering services to or evaluating children speaking a different language or more than one language. The current study seeks to add to the field of crosslinguistic research by adapting Brown’s guidelines of English language acquisition to the …

Comparison Of High-Tech Augmentative And Alternative Communication Interfaces: Do Age And Technology Experience Matter?, Surani Gopika Nakkawita

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Previous research has demonstrated that individuals with stroke-induced aphasia can use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) when they cannot meet their communication needs using spoken language (Dietz, Weissling, Griffith, McKelvey, & Macke, 2014; Purdy & Van Dyke, 2011). Of the various interfaces found in the different AAC systems, the grid display and the visual scene display (VSD) have been used by individuals with aphasia (Hough & Johnson, 2009; Dietz et al., 2018). However, there is a scarcity of research examining the comparative usefulness of these interfaces.

This prospective study attempted to understand how neurologically healthy individuals of different ages and …

Acoustic Changes During Passage Reading In Speakers With Parkinson's Disease, Kimberly C. Grubbs

LSU Master's Theses

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate speech changes in Parkinson’s disease (PD) while reading a passage, using both local (i.e., segment level) and global (i.e., utterance level) acoustic measures.

Methods: 20 speakers participated in the study (10 PD, 10 neurologically healthy controls). The speakers were asked to read The Caterpillar passage in a conversational mode. A total of five acoustic measures were included (local: vowel duration, Euclidean distance between corner vowels and schwa; global: articulation rate, F0/intensity range). These acoustic measures were compared between two sentences located in the two positions within the paragraph, initial and final. …

The Relationship Between Working Memory, Procedural Learning, And Declarative Memory In Children With Specific Language Impairment, Allison Grace Herring

LSU Master's Theses

Background: Children with specific language impairment (SLI) have recently been suggested to have subclinical deficits in executive function skills. The current study seeks to better understand these deficits by exploring the role of nonverbal working memory in word learning and statistical learning in this population. Method: Participants included typically developing children along with children with SLI ranging from ages 8-12 years old. Word learning was assessed using a fast-mapping task, statistical learning was measured using a word-segmentation task, and nonverbal working memory was measured using an N-back task. Results: A significant difference was found between children’s segmentation accuracy scores. …

Research To Practice- Implementing Sign-Infused Intervention As A Novice Clinician, Loren Stoller

LSU Master's Theses

Speech-Language Pathologists often infuse manual signs into oral language interventions for children with various communication disorders. The current study was designed to learn more about sign-infused language intervention by examining one novice clinician’s use of signs during oral language intervention with a child diagnosed as a late talker. The researcher was the clinician, and while a novice interventionist, she was proficient in American Sign Language (ASL) and had five years of experience using ASL with others. The child was 26 months of age at the start of the study, and data collection included three pre-intervention sessions, 12 intervention sessions, and …

Acoustic Characteristics Of Vowels Produced By Young Children From The New Orleans Area, Rebecca E. Dorsa

LSU Master's Theses

Understanding dialects and their effects on speech and language is integral to the field of speech-language pathology, as dialectal differences could potentially be misdiagnosed as speech or language disorders if these factors are not well-considered. The number and organization of the vowel system of one regional dialect of American English differs from those of another regional dialects. Therefore, understanding the effect of dialect on vowel productions in children can aid in the accurate evaluation of children from various dialectal backgrounds. The aims of the proposed study were to 1) determine the age at which young children develop acoustic markers of …

Use Of Video-Models To Teach Language Stimulation Techniques, Jason Killian

LSU Master's Theses

The current study was designed to assess the feasibility of creating videos depicting Enhanced Milieu Teaching (EMT) support strategies and presenting them to graduate students in a communication sciences and disorders program, and whether differences in accuracy existed between first- and second-year graduate students. EMT support strategies were chosen due to the previous successes found within the literature. Twelve videos were presented to ten graduate students. Each participant response was analyzed for accuracy and overall responses were compiled to create overall video clarity.

Results showed that the Communication Temptation EMT support strategy videos achieved the highest levels of clarity, while …

Early Speech Deterioration In Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: A Case Study Of Newscaster Donna Britt, Emily Watkins

LSU Master's Theses

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this study is to detect and track speech changes using acoustic and perceptual measures in an individual (a local newscaster) with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) using data from before her diagnosis, around the time of her diagnosis, and after her diagnosis.

Methods: Six time points, ranging from 37 months around her diagnosis, were analyzed from one speaker with ALS. Three acoustic parameters were measured: articulation rate, acoustic vowel space, and the slope of the second formant. Additionally, two experts with more than 10 years of experience perceptually analyzed the speech samples on 17 characteristics using …

The Impact Of Task-Specific Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (Tdcs) On Sustained Attention In A Healthy Population, Kasi Dawn Steele

LSU Master's Theses

ABSTRACT

Objective: To examine the impact of task-specific anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) administered over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (L-DLPFC) on sustained attention in healthy participants.

Methods: This study examined the effects of task-training and tDCS over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex on sustained attention. Participants (n=13) completed four sessions consisting of either true-stimulation (2 mA for 10 minutes) or sham-stimulation (2 mA for 30 sec) in counterbalanced order. Participants completed one session every 7 to 10 days and were randomly assigned to one of two task-specific conditions in counterbalanced order. All sessions consisted of a 10-minute Go/No-Go …

A Comparison Of Pass Rates Across Three Language Screeners For Spanish-English Bilingual Children, Mariajose Bosanko

LSU Master's Theses

There is limited research regarding the efficacy of the language screening process, especially for bilingual populations. The purpose of this study was to examine the pass rates of three language screeners when administered to Spanish-English bilingual and ELL children. A total of ten Spanish-English bilingual children enrolled in either Pre-K, kindergarten, or first grade completed each screener. The screeners were: the Preschool Language Scales Spanish Screening Test-Fifth Edition (PLSSST-5; Zimmerman et al., 2012a), the Bilingual English Spanish Oral Screener (BESOS; currently in development; Lugo-Neris et al., n.d.), and the Diagnostic Evaluation of Language Variation-Screening Test (DELV-S; Seymour et al., 2003). …