Digital Commons Network^™

Noun Clauses In Clinical Child Language Samples, Christine Beate Scoville

Theses and Dissertations

Noun clauses are grammatical constructions that are of relevance both to typical language development and impaired language development. These clauses have been part of published techniques for the clinical analysis of language samples, and computer software for the automated analysis of clinical language samples has attempted to identify noun clauses, with limited success. The present study examined the development and clinical use of noun clauses as well as the automated identification of these clauses. Two sets of language samples were examined. One set consisted of 10 children with specific language impairment (SLI) whose age ranged from 7;6 to 11;1 (years;months), …

Using Systematic And Engaging Early Literacy Instruction And Digital Books To Teach At-Risk Kindergarteners To Read Target Words, Audra Marie Hales

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of using Systematic and Engaging Early Literacy (SEEL) intervention activities that incorporate digital books to teach kindergarteners to read. The study used a single-subject-multiple-baseline-across-behaviors design to compare kindergarten students' reading of comparable CVC words before and after intervention. Four students at-risk for reading difficulties were chosen for the study based on their performance on assessments and their teachers' recommendations. Students were divided into two dyads and received intervention three times a week for 25 minutes for approximately six weeks, or 18 total sessions. Baseline assessment data was collected prior to …

Perceptual, Acoustic, And Kinematic Effects Of Sentence-Initial, Single-Phoneme Prolongation In People Who Do And Do Not Stutter, Darrell Sharp Matthews

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined a sentence-initial one-second sound prolongation as a possible fluency-inducing condition in people who stutter. The effects of this prolongation technique on the single sentence utterances of five people who stutter (PWS) and five age- and gender-matched controls were investigated. Variables tested included stuttering percentages, speaking rate, duration of phonated intervals, and correlation between upper lip and lower lip/jaw. Results showed a non-significant trend for less stuttering to occur when participants used the prolongation technique. Significant findings included longer durations of phonated intervals and more negatively correlated upper- and lower-lip movements during the prolongation condition. Rate of speech …

The Correlation Between Spectral Moment Measures And Electropalatometric Contact Patterns For /T/ And /K/, Janelle Barrett

Theses and Dissertations

Spectral moment analysis has helped further our understanding of the spectral properties of obstruent speech production; however, the physiologic correlates of these spectral measures are not well understood. The aim of the present study was to examine the possible correlations between the linguapalatal contact patterns used to produce the stops /t/ and /k/ and the resulting spectral characteristics. Using spectral moment analysis and electropalatography, the real-word productions of eight speakers of American English were investigated. The spectral measures for the stop consonant tokens in the present study were found to be similar to data reported in previous research with adult …

The Effect Of Intervention Using A Robot On The Social Engagement Behaviors Of Four Children With Autism In Interaction With An Unfamiliar Adult, Sarai Sophia Dodge

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the effect of low doses of interactive therapy with a robot on the basic social engagement skills of four children with autism in interaction with an unfamiliar adult. The current study was part of a larger work investigating the effects of treatment incorporating a robot on the social engagement behaviors of children with autism. A single-subject, multiple-baseline research design was implemented and included four types of sessions: baseline, traditional intervention, intervention including the robot, and follow-up. Each participant received a total of 20 intervention sessions in addition to baseline and follow-up sessions. Intervention with the robot was …

An Acoustic Analysis Of Elements Of Contrastive Stress Produced By 8 To 10-Year-Old Children, Nicole Michelle Clover

Theses and Dissertations

Contrastive stress is an aspect of communication that can be used to highlight information, de-accent redundant information, and create distinctions between new and previously-provided information. Previous research has documented that adult speakers use relative changes in their vocal intensity, fundamental frequency (F0), and duration to mark contrastive stress in a sentence. However, less is understood about how and when children mark contrastive stress in their communication, thus the current study aims to examine a number of acoustic elements of contrastive stress in 8 to 10-year-old children. Speech samples were elicited from 20 children and analyzed to determine if the acoustic …

The Effects Of Utilizing A Robot On The Social Engagement Behaviors Of Children With Autism In A Triadic Interaction, Kristi Anne Blanchard

Theses and Dissertations

The study presents the use of a humanoid robot to facilitate social engagement behaviors in four children with autism. These children were enrolled in a semester long treatment program based on components of the SCERTS model designed to facilitate social communication (Prizant, 2003). Following baseline, children received intervention sessions with and without the robot. During sessions involving the robot, each child would participate in a 10 minute interaction (as part of a 50 minute sessions) using a robot to facilitate interaction with a graduate clinician or parent. The interactions were recorded and analyzed for occurrences of social engagement behaviors. This …

The Effect Of Utilizing A Humanoid Robot On Social Engagement Behaviors In Children With Autism During Interaction With A Familiar Adult, Alyssa Stabenow

Theses and Dissertations

This study focused on intervention using a humanoid robot to facilitate social engagement and joint attention in four children with autism. Intervention was conducted over a three month period, with each child receiving pre-testing, intervention, and post-testing. Intervention was based on the SCERTS model (Prizant, Wetherby, Rubin, & Laurent, 2003). Pre- and post-testing involved interactions with a parent, a familiar adult interaction, a less-familiar adult interaction, and a triadic interaction. This study focuses on the baseline and follow-up testing from the interaction with the familiar adult. Following a period of traditional intervention, sessions involving a humanoid robot (named Troy) were …

Development Of Psychometrically Equivalent Speech Audiometry Materials For Measuring Speech Recognition Thresholds In Native Tagalog Speakers, Brandon Brian Taylor

Theses and Dissertations

In addition to the use of pure-tones for testing hearing, speech signals are highly valuable diagnostic tools for identifying and evaluating hearing impairment. Speech audiometry involves the implementation of such signals in the measurement of hearing acuity. One aspect of speech audiometry involves assessment of the speech recognition threshold (SRT) which evaluates an individual's ability to hear and understand speech. While live speech has been used in the past to assess SRT, recorded materials are preferred and have been shown to be advantageous over live speech. High-quality digitally recorded speech audiometry materials have been available in English for some time, …

Outcomes Of A Social Communication Intervention On The Use Of Emotion Words, Amy Tucker Cornett

Theses and Dissertations

Children with language impairment (LI) have often been identified as having social communication breakdowns. A number of these problems are likely the result of deficits in emotional competence. This thesis examines a social communication intervention designed to target the emotional competence of children with LI. Three elementary school-aged children with LI were recruited to receive twenty, 20-minute intervention sessions over the course of four months. Each intervention session involved a combination of activities targeting emotion recognition and emotion inferencing using story retell, story exploration, story enactment, perspectives charts, journal entries, emotion labeling, and personalization. These activities revolved around Mercer Mayer's …

Effect Of A Humanoid Robot During Therapy On Responding To Joint Attention With Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Katherine Lowe

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the use of a humanoid robot to engage two children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) on responding language behaviors including language, affect, imitation, and eye contact. The robot was integrated into each child's regular intervention in low-doses (10 min of a 50 min session). The goal was to increase responding language behaviors in the children with their conversational partners. The two children participated in pre and post assessment sessions as well as 16 intervention sessions. The data from these sessions were coded into two main categories including how the children interacted (Initiating Engagement, Responding to …

Relationship Of Demographic Characteristics And Bmi With Health Literacy In Pacific Islander Care-Giving Adults, Sharla E. Morgan

Theses and Dissertations

Purpose: Health literacy and obesity are major global issues. Vulnerable populations, such as those with low health literacy, have the highest rates of obesity. Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander (NHOPI) nations have the highest prevalence of obesity in the world. This study describes the relationship between health literacy and demographic variables in a sample of NHOPI caregiving adults. Methods: We conducted a correlational study of 364 NHOPI adults. Each was a caregiver of at least one NHOPI child. Data were collected at grocery stores and a preschool in two Hawaiian Islands (n=209) and at NHOPI events in Utah (n=155). …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of A Workshop/Support Group For Parents Raising Children With Type 1 Diabetes, Christina Marie Yazzie

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a workshop/support group for parents raising children with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). Diagnosis of a chronic disease in a child generally arouses acute anxiety and stress in parents. Parental stress when raising a child with type 1 diabetes is often centered on worry about their child's health and parents' ability to maintain the care activities needed by these children. Parents are the primary caregivers of children with Type 1 diabetes, and the effect of stress on parents can impact the health of both children and parents. The present …

The Relationship Between Select Demographic Characteristics And Body Mass Index Among Native Hawaiian And Other Pacific Islander Caregiving Adults, Katrina Duncan

Theses and Dissertations

Purpose: Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islanders (NHOPIs) have the highest prevalence of overweight and obesity in the world. This study identified the proportion of our NHOPI sample in each body mass index (BMI) category and explored relationships between demographic characteristics and BMI. Design: This descriptive correlational study included 364 NHOPI caregiver adults in Utah (n=155) and Hawaii (n=209). We gathered demographic information with a questionnaire. Height and weight were measured for BMI calculations. Results: According to the CDC's BMI categories, 84.3% of our sample was overweight (BMI=25.0-29.9) or obese (BMI ≥30). Participants in Utah had significantly higher BMIs than …

Reliability Of The Mean Length Of Utterance Measure In Samples Of Children's Language, Katherine Marie Bigelow

Theses and Dissertations

Mean length of utterance (MLU) is widely used in child language sample analysis as a way to quantify language development. The current study examines the split-half reliability of MLU and two alternative measures: MLU2 and median length of utterance (MdLU). The effects of utterance segmentation into phonological units (P-units) or communication units (C-units) on reliability were also studied. Sixty conversational child language samples were used which included ten children with language impairment. All measures were found to have high levels of split-half reliability, with MLU and MLU2 having higher levels of reliability than MdLU. There was no significant difference between …

Emergency Department Nurses' Suggestions For Improving End-Of-Life Care, Robert D. Wood

Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: Death is not an uncommon outcome for patients who seek immediate care in an emergency department. Although death is common in the emergency department there is little literature regarding end-of-life care in the emergency department. The purpose of this research study is to determine what changes emergency nurses would suggest to improve end-of-life care for dying patients and their families in emergency departments.

Background: A national, geographically dispersed, random sample of 1000 emergency nurses were sent a questionnaire entitled, "Emergency Nurses' Perceptions of End-of-Life Care." Inclusion criteria included nurses who were members of the Emergency Nurses Association, could read …

Postpartum Depression In Immigrant Hispanic Women: A Comparative Community Sample, Laura Mae Shellman

Theses and Dissertations

Purpose: This study was initiated to verify whether a remarkably high rate of postpartum depression (PPD), previously found in immigrant Hispanic women receiving health care at a community clinic, would also be found in a community sample with a similar demographic.

Data Sources: Sixty immigrant Hispanic women who had recently given birth were recruited from local community settings. The Beck Postpartum Depression Screening Scale-Spanish version (PPDS-S) and the General Acculturation Index (GAI) were used to screen for PPD symptoms and to collect demographic data. These data were then compared with previously published data from the community clinic sample.

Conclusions: Sixty …

Social Circles Of Children With Language Impairment, Erin Whitworth

Theses and Dissertations

Children with language impairment (LI) often demonstrate difficulties in social communication. The purpose of this pilot study was to examine the quantity and quality of the social interactions of children with LI and their typical peers through an analysis of the social networks or circles of each child. Eight children with LI as well as eight children with typically developing language and their parents were interviewed. Children's social networks were organized by social circles to effectively paint a picture of each child's social communication (Blackstone & Hunt Berg, 2003). Children with LI were found to have overall fewer contacts in …

The Correlation Between Spectral Moment Measures And Electropalatographic Contact Patterns For /S/ And /Ʃ/, Benjamin James Marshall

Theses and Dissertations

Spectral Moment Analysis has helped further our understanding of the spectral properties of obstruent speech production; however, the physiologic correlates of these spectral measures are not well understood. The aim of the present study was to examine the possible correlations between the linguapalatal contact patterns used to produce the fricatives /s/ and /ʃ/ and the resulting spectral characteristics. Using spectral moment analysis and electropalatography (EPG), the real-word productions of eight speakers of American English were investigated. The spectral measures for the fricative tokens in the present study were found to be similar to data reported in previous research with adult …

The Effect Of An Artificially Flattened Fundamental Frequency Contour On Intelligibility In Speakers With Dysarthria, Emily E. Redd

Theses and Dissertations

Prosody plays an important role in speech communication. Many individuals with motor speech disorders have decreased prosodic control and thus lower overall intelligibility. Few studies have examined the effect of a flattened prosodic contour on the intelligibility of dysarthric speech, and little is known about the role that listener gender plays in understanding disordered speech. The purpose of this study was to quantify the impact of artificial prosodic manipulation on the intelligibility of dysarthric speech as a function of the extent of fundamental frequency (F0) contour flattening. A further goal was to examine the influence of listener gender on intelligibility. …

Brain Mapping Of The Mismatch Negativity Response In Vowel Formant Processing, Elizabeth Anne Perry

Theses and Dissertations

The mismatch negativity (MMN) response, a passively-elicited component of the auditory event-related potential (ERP), reflects preattentive identification of infrequent changes in acoustic stimuli. In the current study, the MMN response was examined closely to determine what extent natural speech sounds evoke the MMN. It was hypothesized that a significant MMN response results during the presentation of deviant stimuli from which spectral energy within formant bands critical to vowel identification has been removed. Localizations of dipoles within the cortex were hypothesized to yield information pertaining to the processing of formant-specific linguistic information. A same/different discrimination task was administered to 20 adult …

Test-Retest Reliability In The Determination Of The Speech Recognition Threshold, Alyssa Montierth Jacobs

Theses and Dissertations

For many years, speech recognition threshold (SRT) testing has been used as an indicator of audiologic health. However, with changing methods and technology, test-retest reliability has not been reviewed extensively with newer digitally recorded spondaic words which meet a published criterion of listener familiarity. This study examined the test-retest reliability of 33 high frequency usage and psychometrically equated spondaic words. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association recommended method (2-dB decrements) was used to measure the left and right SRT of 40 participants using both male and female talker recordings. For each participant, four SRTs were found during the test condition and four …

Accuracy Of Automated Grammatical Tagging Of Narrative Language Samples From Spanish-Speaking Children, Tyson Gordon Harmon

Theses and Dissertations

The present study measured the accuracy of automated grammatical tagging software as compared to manual tagging in Spanish-speaking children's personal and fictional event narrative language samples. Studies have identified articles, clitic (contracted with a verb) pronouns, and verbs as clinical markers for language impairment in Spanish-speaking children. Automated grammatical tagging software may aid in the rapid identification of these grammatical markers. Grammatical morphemes of 30 first and fourth grade children's personal and fictional event narrative samples were tagged and compared with their respective manually tagged samples. The accuracy of word-level coding averaged 91%, and similar accuracy was found for clinically …