Digital Commons Network^™

Dynamic Assessment Of Aac Verb Symbols For Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Valerie Prieto, Cindy Gevarter, Cathy Binger, Mary Hartley

Speech and Hearing Sciences ETDs

This study used dynamic assessment (DA) with graduated prompting to evaluate whether preschool-aged children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) demonstrated learning potential with verb-based augmentative alternative communication (AAC) symbols. Four participants completed DA sessions across three instructional conditions: (a) requesting actions embedded in play, (b) labeling actions embedded in play, and (c) labeling actions presented via video. Performance across these conditions along with a control condition was compared using an adapted multielement single-case design. Three participants demonstrated learning in at least two instructional conditions, and only one showed progress in the control condition. Overall, participants initially required less cueing to …

Coaching Student Clinicians And Parents To Use Naturalistic Communication Techniques For Children With Signs Of Autism, Erin M. Gallegos

Speech and Hearing Sciences ETDs

In this study, researchers implemented a short-term cascading coaching program focusing on naturalistic developmental behavioral interventions (NDBIs) with three participant triads consisting of a graduate student clinician, a minimally verbal child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or signs of ASD, and the child’s parent. The efficacy of several short-term instruction sessions, in-session coaching, and student clinician parent coaching was evaluated using a multiple baseline across interventionists design. The primary dependent variables were clinician and parent use of elicitation techniques, including creating communication temptations and prompting, and response techniques, including reinforcing child communication and using vocal models. Following targeting coaching, all …

Measuring Language Development In Children With Down Syndrome Who Use Aac, Ji Sun Park

Speech and Hearing Sciences ETDs

Purpose: This study examined the inter-observer agreement (IOA) and within-observer agreement as well as the clinical potential of newly proposed measures that are designed to monitor language progress of children with Down syndrome who use AAC. Measures were explored based on the Graphic Symbol Utterance and Sentence Development Framework.

Method: Participants included 8 preschoolers with Down syndrome. Four graduate student observers coded 13 measures across 57 intervention sessions. Each session was coded by two observers for IOA, and all sessions were recoded for within-observer agreement. Statistical analyses were completed on utterance level and session level.

Results: Across all observers and …

Main Concept, Sequencing, And Story Grammar (Mssg) Analyses Of The Cinderella Story In Latent Aphasia, Janet B. Adams

Speech and Hearing Sciences ETDs

Commonly used standardized tests, like the Western Aphasia Battery-Revised (WAB-R), are not sensitive to higher level discourse deficits, leading to certain individuals not meeting diagnostic criteria for aphasia. Consequently, individuals with aphasia are excluded from receiving potentially beneficial services and/or from being included in research. In a large sample of persons with stroke-induced aphasia, this study analyzed discourse samples using Main Concept, Sequencing, and Story Grammar (MSSG) Analyses to examine macrostructural discourse characteristics of persons with latent aphasia (PWLAs) compared to persons with no underlying brain injury (PNBIs) and persons classified as having anomic aphasia (PWAAs) by the WAB-R. A …

New Mexican Parents’ Perspectives Regarding Public Schools’ Communication And Language Services For Their Elementary-Aged Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder During Covid-19, Susanna E. Cole

Speech and Hearing Sciences ETDs

This study explored five New Mexican parents’ perceptions of changes to the public school-based communication and language services for their children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) during the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent advantages and disadvantages of these changes. The parents participated in semi-structured interviews between October 2020 and February 2021. All of the parents reported their children’s services had eventually gone completely remote, but one had secured some in-person instruction time for her child by the time of her interview. Three parents reported reduction in school-based communication and language services for which they sought to compensate through other means. …

The Relationship Between Narrative Informativeness And Psychosocial Outcomes In Chronic Stroke-Induced Aphasia, Eileen Armes, Jessica Richardson, Rick Arenas, Lori Nelson

Speech and Hearing Sciences ETDs

Currently there is a gap in the literature in understanding the relationship between the newly categorized primary outcome measure of discourse and secondary outcomes related to psychosocial impact, such as participation, psychological impact, social well-being, or mood. In a large sample of persons with stroke-induced aphasia (N=115), this study analyzed discourse samples using main concept analysis to determine how discourse performance correlates with the secondary outcome measures ALA, CCRSA, GDS, and CIQ. As a secondary research question, the differences in these relationships dependent on severity was also explored. Results showed statistically significant positive correlations between main concepts (MCs) and ALA …

Speech Characteristics Of Professional Fighters, Sofiya Krasilshchikova, Amy Neel Ph.D., Jessica Dawn Richardson Ph.D., Rick Arenas Ph.D., Lauren Bennett Ph.D., Sarah Banks Ph.D., Charles Bernick Ph.D.

Speech and Hearing Sciences ETDs

The aims of this project were to accurately measure and describe speech characteristics of professional fighters; and to analyze the future potential of using speech characteristics as biomarkers for acquired neurogenic decline or chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). The Professional Fighters Brain Health Study (PFBHS) is a longitudinal project investigating the effect of repeated head trauma in professional combatants. The PFBHS provided recorded speech samples for this project. This study measured accurate speech characteristics of 102 professional boxers and mixed martial artists and compared these results to a group of 27 age-matched healthy controls. Analysis revealed a significant difference in articulation …

The Impact Of Temporal Resolution On Clinical Decision-Making For Individuals With Dysphagia, Shauna Corinne Murray

Speech and Hearing Sciences ETDs

INTRODUCTION: Dysphagia, or a disordered swallow, affects up to 1 in 25 individuals in the United States. The gold standard for assessing dysphagia is the videofluoroscopic evaluation of swallowing (VFES). This allows the clinician to observe the swallow anatomy in motion via an X-ray movie, which historically was recorded at 30 frames per second. In recent years VFES have been performed at less frames per second due to radiation concern. This project investigates the effect of using lower temporal resolutions on assessment of video-fluoroscopic swallow studies.

METHODS: In this investigation, 30 swallow studies, all acquired at 30 frames per second, …

A Phenomenological Investigation Of The Contextual Variability And Anticipation Of Stuttering, Amanda D. Ortiz-Alvarez

Speech and Hearing Sciences ETDs

Stuttering is a neurologically based speech impairment often defined by listener-oriented parameters (i.e., its overt characteristics). These fail to encompass contextual variability and anticipation, two facets of the speaker’s experience which, though frequently encountered by people who stutter (PWS), remain poorly understood and largely under-researched. To better understand the subjective underpinnings of these phenomena, as well as how PWS conceptualize and relate to their stuttering, the present study sought to explore a) the experiences of PWS with the unpredictable and/or variable nature of their stuttering, as well as their beliefs surrounding potential contributors to its variability; b) the experiences of …

The Experience Of Being A Parent Of A Child Who Stutters And Subsequent Involvement In Support Groups: A Narrative Study, Katlyn A. Ferguson, Richard Arenas

Speech and Hearing Sciences ETDs

INTRODUCTION: Developmental stuttering generally begins after a period of typical fluency and is highly variable in its presentation and persistence. This variability along with the lack of a definitive cause and social stigma often negatively impact both children who stutter (CWS) and their caregivers. However, research on the specific effects of stuttering on the caregiver is quite sparse compared to research into the caregiver experience in other disorders. Additionally, although social support has been identified as a primary protective factor for other caregivers, little evidence exists to show how support groups benefit caregivers of CWS.

METHOD: Five parents participated in …

Advantages Of Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy Tube Placement In Patients With Head And Neck Cancer Who Receive Radiation As Part Of Their Treatment, Nevin Thul

Speech and Hearing Sciences ETDs

The use of percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy tubes as an intervention strategy in head and neck cancer was investigated in this retrospective chart review. Twenty-five veterans met the inclusion criteria and were categorized into two groups – use of prophylactic percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy and absence of percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy tube placement. Medical charts were reviewed and data extracted included weight, swallow function, swallow exercise compliance, and physical and social quality of life for 2 years post-treatment. Month-to-month data were compared across the two groups with respect to weight, swallow function, swallow exercise compliance, and physical and social quality of life scores. …

The Effect Of Breathy And Strained Vocal Quality On Vowel Perception, Sarah Nieman

Speech and Hearing Sciences ETDs

INTRODUCTION: Research into speech intelligibility in dysarthria historically focuses on articulation deficits. However, voice quality deficits associated with motor speech disorders may also impact speech perception. This study investigates how breathy and strained vocal quality affects vowel identification and ratings of vowel goodness.

METHODS: A healthy speaker recorded vowels with normal, simulated breathy and simulated strained voice quality. Acoustic, physiologic, and perceptual measures confirmed the presence of the desired voice deficits. 16 volunteer listeners participated in three perceptual tasks: vowel identification, vowel goodness ratings, and voice quality ratings.

RESULTS: In the voice quality rating task, listeners detected voice quality deficits …

Discourse Changes Following Severe Traumatic Brain Injury: A Longitudinal Study, Elizabeth Young

Speech and Hearing Sciences ETDs

Purpose: There are few longitudinal data charting recovery of discourse skills following severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). Limited knowledge about the trajectory of discourse recovery and the best tools for assessing communication abilities in persons with TBI (PWTBIs) restricts detection of communication impairment and the ability to make informed prognostic judgments following TBI. This study sought to contribute longitudinal data to the research base, using clinically efficient measures that are sensitive to communication deficits associated with TBI and that use nuanced scoring systems to provide detailed characterization of discourse.

Methods: Twenty-three PWTBIs completed picture description tasks at 3 (or 6) …

Estimating The Impact Of Assessment And Treatment Fidelity On Aphasia Treatment Outcomes, Trisha L. Tanaka

Speech and Hearing Sciences ETDs

Purpose: Calls for treatment and assessment fidelity strongly suggest the need to reduce treatment provider and assessor variance surrounding intervention research. The extent to which these sources of variance influence treatment outcomes in aphasia treatment research has yet to be examined. This simulation study sought to explore the relationships between quality of fidelity methods, sample size, power to detect treatment effects, and aphasia treatment effect sizes.

Methods: Individual participant outcomes collected from previous aphasia treatment research studies were used to simulate 200,000 participant outcomes, from which 8,000 sample treatment trials were simulated. Effect sizes were calculated for treatment outcomes related …

The Impact Of Dysphagia On Quality Of Life And Stigma In Hispanic New Mexicans, Aaron Padilla

Speech and Hearing Sciences ETDs

INTRODUCTION: Eating is a function of daily life and is the centerpiece of family gatherings, business meetings, and holiday/religious traditions. Dysphagia (difficulty swallowing), can abolish the pleasure of mealtimes, which can negatively impact quality of life (QOL) and result in stigma. These variables may be influenced by cultural perceptions and/or acculturation, which is a measure of the impact that one cultural group has on another. The purpose of this investigation was to: a) identify the relationship between level of acculturation and QOL and stigma for Hispanics, b) measure the relationship between dysphagia severity and QOL and stigma, and c) explore …

A New Articulation Test Applied To A Selected Group Of Children Living In The State Of New Mexico, Robert Edwin Burkhalter

Speech and Hearing Sciences ETDs

Bilingualism is much more prevalent in the United States than is commonly believed. Goodykoontz points out that "one child in every five, aged fourteen years or under, is of foreign born or mixed parentage." Since our country is still a melting pot of the world where large numbers of citizens converse in other tongues and where many children still enter our schools without speaking a word of English, the problem of bilingualism and foreign dialect will frequently be encountered by the school teacher.

Changes In Disfluent Behavior During Adaptation In Stuttering, Chloe Mizusawa

Speech and Hearing Sciences ETDs

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore changes in disfluent speech during adaptation to better understand the mechanism for improving fluency in People Who Stutter (PWS). It was hypothesized that disfluencies would become less complex and shorter in duration with successive oral readings similar to changes noted in fluent speech. Method: This study included seven participants who stuttered. Digital sound and video recordings were used to acoustically analyze disfluent speech at both the reading and word level. Group analysis was conducted to find patterns of change for both adapting and nonadapting subjects. The following measures were analyzed: frequency …

Using Dynamic Assessment To Assess Syntax With Five-Year-Olds Using Augmentative And Alternative Communication, Marika King

Speech and Hearing Sciences ETDs

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the readiness of 5-year-old children to produce semantic-syntactic structures via a graphic symbol-based augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) device during a dynamic assessment (DA) task and whether performance during DA was predictive of performance on a subsequent experimental task. Method: This study included four 5-year old children who demonstrated normal receptive language and limited speech intelligibility. The participants received DA, using a graduated prompting framework, for 6 semantic-syntactic targets followed by a static experimental task. Measures included amount of support required to produce the targets, modifiability within a DA session, and …

Comparison Of Performance On Static And Dynamic Language Tasks Among Typically Developing Preschoolers With Bilingual Experience, Mireya Hernandez

Speech and Hearing Sciences ETDs

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the potential of a graduated prompting format for measuring modifiability in a screening context among preschool children with bilingual experience. The dynamic assessment framework, including graduated prompting, is an alternative to traditional, static assessment of language impairment. Performance on four dynamic language tasks by 16 typically developing 4-year-olds with more English than Spanish experience was compared to performance of 16 matched children on static versions of the same tasks. These included novel adjective learning, semantic comparison, phonological awareness, and false-belief theory of mind tasks. When prompted responses were credited, the dynamic group …

Teaching Semantic-Syntactic Categories To A Child Who Uses Aac, Kelly Rowe

Speech and Hearing Sciences ETDs

Purpose: The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the effects of an intervention program designed to elicit productions of two-term semantic-syntactic relations using correct word order from a preschooler who used augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). Method: This study employed a single case, multiple probe across targets design with one preschooler (5;1) who used AAC. Initially, the participant was provided instruction sequentially in the use of two, two-term semantic-syntactic relations (possessor-entity and action-object); however, as the study progressed it was necessary to add a third, two-term semantic-syntactic relation (attribute-entity). The intervention employed two key components: aided AAC modeling and …

Listener Reliability And Agreement Of A Brief Intelligibility Rating Task, Cai Ewing-Buck

Speech and Hearing Sciences ETDs

PURPOSE: This study addresses the development of the I-RAVN Test of Speech Intelligibility, an assessment instrument designed to identify which speech components most affect speech intelligibility. The I-RAVN consists of ratings of overall intelligibility, and ratings of four speech components: rate/rhythm/prosody, articulation, voice quality/breath support, and nasality using a rating scale technique adapted from the CAPE-V instrument for voice. This study seeks to establish that listeners can reliably rate overall intelligibility and the four speech components in speakers with dysarthria. METHODS: Twenty-two graduate students listened to recordings from 24 talkers (7 normal, 6 with Parkinson Disease, 11 with oculopharyngeal muscular …

Teaching A School-Based Aac Team To Support The Communication Skills Of A Student Who Requires Aac, Amy Thatcher

Speech and Hearing Sciences ETDs

Many children of all ages are in need of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). Adult communication partners in the school setting typically interact differently with children who use AAC than they do with others. In prior studies, an eight-step instructional program designed to teach adult communication partners to facilitate the communication skills of students who use AAC has been used within an individual instructional format. The eight-step instructional model used to teach these adults has been shown to be effective; however, research is required to establish the efficacy of this program when providing instruction to adult communication partners within group …

The Application Of Automated Programmed Instruction To The Modification Of Auditory Processing In The Aphasic Patient, Cara Anderson

Speech and Hearing Sciences ETDs

A review of the literature suggests that treatment of the aphasic patient, particularly in the area of auditory input has been and is inadequate at this time. Improved methods of diagnosing and evaluating the levels of communicative ability of aphasic patients, indicate that newly developed techniques would seem to be appropriate for the treatment of auditory input deficits.

The present study, therefore, was designed to investigate two questions: (1) is operant conditioned, programmed instruction as designed and instrumented in this study, a useful and mechanically feasible approach to the treatment of aphasia and (2) are operant conditioned programmed instruction methods …

Ear Lateralization For Time Compressed Rhymed Word Sequences: Primacy And Recency Effects, Janet Lee Patterson

Speech and Hearing Sciences ETDs

Primacy and recency effects for lateralized time compressed rhyme sequences were investigated. Subjects were forty normal hearing, right handed, young adult listeners. Stimuli were 0% and 60% time compressed five word rhyme sequences presented with no masking and contralateral multitalker masking. Item errors and order errors were counted for each position in the rhyme word sequences. A series of analyses of variance were computed for paired differences of positions in the sequences for each ear and error type to assess differential primacy and recency effects.

Mercury Strain Gauge Assessment Of Lung Volume Partitions During Speech, Michael Susca

Speech and Hearing Sciences ETDs

The primary purpose of this study was to see if the mercury strain gauge could be used to assess lung volume partitions from chest wall motions. The air supply within any given lung volume provides the basic foundation upon which speech respiratory events rest. By assessing lung volumes in speech, the speech clinician is aided in the diagnosis and treatment of inappropriate uses of speech respiration. Although lung volumes have been assessed by a variety of instrumentation, only the respirometer has been widely used in speech physiology research. The major disadvantages of the respirometer over the mercury strain gauge are: …

An Examination Of The Clinical Efficiency Of Three Indexes Of Functional Hearing Loss, Debra Jane Giomi

Speech and Hearing Sciences ETDs

In an investigation of the efficiency of typical Type V criteria (Rintelmann and Harford, 1967), atypical Type V criteria (Rotondi, 1976), and LOT-Bekesy audiometry (Rattler, 1970), Rotondi (1976) found atypical Type V Bekesy criteria to be the most efficient in the detection of functionality. Increasing the attenuation rate and sweep speed, and reducing the sweep frequency range em­ployed by Rotondi (1976) reduces total bilateral Bekesy testing time from 24 to eight minutes, still allowing for application of atypical and typical Type V criteria. It was one objective of this study to determine if a clinical­ly significant change was effected on …

A Comparison Between Modality Acquisition In Children And Modality Reacquisition In Adult Aphasic Patients, Marina Kartas

Speech and Hearing Sciences ETDs

A review of the literature reveals speculation as to whether the communicative behaviors of adult aphasic patients bear some relationship to the communicative performances displayed by children. It has been purported that adult aphasic patients may regress to earlier levels of language behavior. These earlier levels have been likened to the communicative abilities of children. Although a variety of methods of assessing language abilities exist, this information is confined either to the description of adult language ability or to children's language ability but not to both. The present study, therefore, was designed:

1. to investigate the relationships between overall ability …

Processing Demands During Auditory Learning Under Degraded Listening Conditions, David Wayne Downs

Speech and Hearing Sciences ETDs

Recent research has demonstrated that auditory learning can be adversely affected when performed under degraded listening conditions. Perhaps the most common of these degraded listening conditions are environments of moderate intensity noise, such as found in the class­room or in the home. A second degraded listening condition occurs when the speech signal is heard at a reduced intensity. This situation is experienced by the hearing impaired individual. That reduced speech intensity and/or noise can have detrimental effects upon learning has been almost exclusively attributed, by audiologists, to impaired signal intelligibility. The present study (which controlled for high speech intelligibility) investigated …

Inter- And Intra-Judge Reliability Of Four Articulation Tests, Lydia Pearl Evans

Speech and Hearing Sciences ETDs

Assessment of articulatory productions is usually accomplished with picture stimuli to elicit responses from young subjects. The levels of scoring phonemes on articulation tests are two-way (correct/incorrect), four-way (correct, distortion, substitution and omission) or by narrow phonetic transcription. The stimuli presented range from scoring one phoneme in a one word response (Templin Darley Test of Articulation, 1960) to scoring one phoneme in different contexts across word boundaries (McDonald Deep Test of Articulation, 1964) to scoring several phonemes in a one word response (Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation, 1969) to scoring several phonemes as the subject repeats a story to the examiner …

Bekesy Audiometry In The Detection Of Nonorganic Hearing Loss, Paula Elizabeth Rotondi

Speech and Hearing Sciences ETDs

Numerous investigators have utilized Bekesy audiometry in the detection of nonorganic hearing loss. The efficiency with which Bekesy audiometry detects nonorganicity has varied according to the method of Bekesy test administration and the definition of the Type V nonorganic pattern. Rintelmann and Harford’s Type V definition and the LOT- (Lengthened Off-Time) Bekesy test have emerged as valuable nonorganicity detectors. However, more recent research (Citron & Reddell, 1976; Sedge, 1974) has found these methods to be considerably less worthwhile than originally reported, The first purpose of this study was to devise an efficient means for utilizing Bekesy audiometry in the detection …