Digital Commons Network^™

African American English-Speaking Children's Judgments Of Grammaticality: Effects Of Clinical Status And Grammatical Structures, Lori Elizabeth Vaughn

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

African American English (AAE)-speaking children’s ability to judge the grammaticality of sentences was evaluated by their clinical status and grammatical structure. The study originated from a need to understand more about the tense and agreement systems of AAE speakers with specific language impairment (SLI) relative to their typically developing (TD) AAE-speaking peers. Tense and agreement forms are typically excluded from the assessment and treatment of children who speak AAE in fear of misinterpreting a dialect difference as a language disorder. As a result, limited information exists about the tense and agreement systems of AAE-speaking children.

The data were archival and …

Verbal Response Inhibition And Stuttering In Adults, Shanley Belle Treleaven

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Many adults who stutter (AWS) attempt to modify or suppress their stuttered speech daily. The ability to effectively suppress motoric behavior after initiation relies on executive functions such as inhibition – specifically verbal inhibition – a challenging task regardless of clinical status. Minimal published data are available about verbal inhibition in non-stuttering adults, and no data are available for AWS. Researchers have reported slower inhibition for AWS during manual tasks, but inconsistent relationships have been found between manual and verbal inhibition. It is often presumed that inhibition differences in AWS, if detected, would be associated with greater difficulties suppressing 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 …

Effects Of Visit Frequency On Swallowing Function During Organ Preservation For Head And Neck Cancer, Mathew Blaine Vansant

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Chemoradiotherapy is not without risk of injury to the muscles and nerves associated with swallowing function. Current research supports the use of prophylactic behavioral swallowing exercise in the HNC population, however, wide variations in swallowing treatment methodologies exist and no optimal SLP-patient visit frequency has been established. In addition, poor patient adherence to swallowing exercise appears prevalent. The current study explored the impact of speech language pathologist (SLP)-patient contact time, adherence to prophylactic behavioral swallowing exercises, and explored effects of exercise intensity on immediate post-radiation swallowing outcomes. Groups included a high frequency group (5 weekly SLP-patient visits, n = 15), …

Evaluation Of Oral Function Before And After Frenectomy In Breastfed Infants Diagnosed With Tethered Oral Tissue, Cindy L. Parr

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Assessment and treatment of tethered oral tissue, or tongue tie, vary within and across providers, resulting in inconsistent surgical and therapeutic outcomes. Assessment and treatment have historically focused on the anatomical (structural) underpinnings of tongue tie, as opposed to the physiological (functional) aspects that can affect daily activities. This is particularly noteworthy in the infant population in regards to breastfeeding. Clinical findings, however, suggest that connections exist between tongue tie and a variety of other oral functions that go beyond breastfeeding. The goal of this research was to examine a relatively small group of breastfed infants with tethered oral …

The Contribution Of Self-Regulation To Reading Comprehension In Adolescent Learners, Rebecca Lynn Parker

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the dually implicated processes of language and self-regulation in reading comprehension and to determine if self-regulation contributes unique variance to reading comprehension beyond word recognition/decoding and oral language comprehension. The study also sought to determine if the unique contribution of self-regulation to reading comprehension differs for students with language/learning difficulties and students with typical language/learning histories. Thirty-two 6th, 7th, and 8th graders participated in this study. Of these participants, 17 students had language/learning difficulties and 15 students had typical language/learning histories. All participants attended a low performing public middle school located in …

Effects Of Encoding Practice On Alphabet, Phonemic Awareness, And Spelling Skills Of Students With Developmental Delays, Laura Nicole Delrose

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Reading instruction has historically been deemphasized for students in special education, and the limited research on this topic reveals that sight word vocabulary is most commonly taught in special education classrooms (Browder, Wakeman, Spooner, Ahlgrim-Delzell, Algozzine, 2006). However, successful reading instruction must target the five essential components: vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, phonics, and phonemic awareness (National Reading Panel, 2000). The extremely small body of research attempting to teach phonics and phonemic awareness to students with mild to severe disabilities approaches instruction from a decoding framework with mixed success (Browder et al., 2006). Alternatively, this study aims to teach from an encoding …

Use Of Copula And Auxiliary Be By African American Children With Gullah/Geechee Heritage, Jessica Richardson Berry

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to document the auxiliary and copula BE system of African American (AA) children with Gullah/Geechee (GG) heritage and to compare the findings to those from African American English (AAE)-speaking children without this heritage and to what has been documented in previous studies of Gullah and AAE. The data came from 38 children, aged five to six years. Nineteen were from rural South Carolina and classified as GG, and 19 were from rural Louisiana and classified as AAE. All were developing language typically, and the groups were matched on a number of socio-demographic variables and …

Va-Et-Vient, The Goin' And Comin' Of Infinitival 'To': A Study Of Children With And Without Specific Language Impairment In Cajun English, Andrew Mandell Riviere

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine Cajun English (CE)-speaking children’s marking of infinitival TO. To do this, CE-speaking children’s marking of infinitival TO was compared to the marking of infinitival TO by Southern White English (SWE)- and African American English (AAE)-speaking children. Marking of infinitival TO also was examined as a function of the children’s clinical status (i.e., Specific Language Impairment, SLI, or typically developing, TD) and by the verb contexts that preceded the infinitival TO forms.

The data came from 180 kindergarteners who lived in four rural towns in Assumption Parish, Louisiana. The children’s dialect classifications were …

Evaluation Of Teacher Ratings To Improve Child Language Screenings In Speech-Language Pathology, Kyomi Dana Gregory

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the validity of teacher ratings for screening children’s language skills. Teacher ratings were measured through the use of two tools, the Children’s Communication Checklist-2 (CCC-2; Bishop, 2006) and the Teacher Rating of Oral Language and Literacy (TROLL; Dickinson, McCabe, & Sprague, 2001). The data for this study were from 77 kindergarteners who lived in rural Louisiana and spoke a non-mainstream dialect of English; 51 were classified as typically developing and 26 as presenting with Specific Language Impairment. Convergent validity was examined by comparing the two teacher rating tools to each other and …

Caregiver Perceptions Of Speech-Language Pathologist (Slp) Communication: Examining How Slps Talk With Caregivers About Child Language Disorders, Karmen L. Porter

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to identify how SLP communication regarding language disorders was perceived by caregivers. Employing a qualitative methodology, the caregivers of 10 children, identified with a language-based reading impairment, participated in semi-structured interviews concerning their experiences communicating with SLPs. As a whole, the findings showed the value caregivers place on receiving clear, concrete, and timely diagnostic information, the variability and complexity associated with caregivers’ understanding of language disorders, and the reciprocal relationship between key SLP communication practices, caregiver knowledge, and effective collaboration. Some of the key themes emphasized in regard to SLP communication practices included: recognition …

Treatment Efficacy Of Manual Therapy On Speech Outcomes In Children With Spastic Cerebral Palsy: A Single-Subject Experimental Design, Chantelle B. Varnado

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

ABSTRACT Objective – The present study aimed to determine if a treatment effect is present on speech outcomes in children with spastic cerebral palsy (CP) given 5 sessions of a manual therapy treatment protocol. Methods – A single-subject experimental design (ABAB) study was devised to establish the treatment efficacy of a manual therapy protocol on speech outcomes in children with spastic CP. The protocol was administered to 5 participants, 4-6 years old. It included five intercostal stretches administered in 15-minute sessions for five sessions. During the withdrawal phase, a sham treatment was administered that included an equal dosage of treatment. …

An Analysis Of Spelling Patterns Produced By Elementary School-Aged Speakers Of African American English, Lindsay Meyer Turner

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Over the years, less attention is given to students’ spelling skills compared to other areas of literacy achievement like word reading and passage comprehension in relationship to nonmainstream dialect usage. Considering that English spelling is based on the phonological and morphological structures of Mainstream American English (MAE), it is likely that children who speak a nonmainstream dialect such as African American English (AAE) will demonstrate differences in their spelling abilities. The purposes of this study were to explore the relationship between degree of AAE dialect use and spelling for a group of first to third grade children, and to describe …

Pragmatics, Prosody, And Social Skills Of School-Age Children With Language-Learning Differences, Janet Lynn Bradshaw

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Social skills are an important aspect of child development that continues to have influences in adolescence and adulthood (Hart, Olsen, Robinson, & Mandleco, 1997). Interacting in a social world requires an integration of many abilities that include social skills and emotional understanding of oneself and other persons. Children who have difficulties with interpreting social cues (e.g., identifying basic emotions and responding to cues in speech) have immediate and progressive consequences in both academics and social living. Children with typical language skills are successfully interacting with peers and acknowledging social rules for different environments (e.g., playing at school vs. playing at …

Addressing The Higher Level Language Skills For The Common Core State Standards In Kindergarten, Ashley Bourque Meaux

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Kindergarten is a critical year, providing a foundation for children’s success in school. With a common set of standards, the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), finalized and made available to states for adoption critical skills in numeracy and literacy will be uniformed from kindergarten through high school. Some children enter school with a sufficient foundation to support success in kindergarten and subsequent years. However, some children either because of lack of exposure during preschool years (e.g., Aikens & Barbarin, 2008; Hart & Risley, 1995; Schacter, 1979; Snow, Burns & Griffin, 1998) or because of language delays associated with developmental disabilities …

Effects Of Rhyming Instruction On Learning The Alphabetic Principle, Phonemic Awareness, And Rhyming Complexity Skills With At-Risk Prekindergarten Students, Crystal Randolph

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

At-risk prekindergarten students (i.e., low SES, speech-language impaired) typically lag behind their peers in phonological awareness and other emergent literacy skills such as letter knowledge and vocabulary (Duursma et al., 2008; Lundberg, 2009). However, there is a limited amount of research that has studied the efficacy of phonological interventions for at-risk children (Ziolkowski & Goldstein, 2008). Because of the long-lived debate concerning the role of rhyme versus the role of phoneme awareness, it is uncertain whether learning rhyming skills will provide the most facilitative context to learn other emergent literacy skills (e.g., letter knowledge, phonemic awareness). The current study investigated …

A Syntax-Based Reading Intervention For English As Second-Language Learners, Christina Tausch

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Students with English as second language (ESL) are typically behind monolingual peers in reading comprehension even when phonemic awareness skills, phonics and word recognition are at grade level. The lack of syntactic awareness is one of the reasons cited in multiple studies (August & Shanahan, 2010; Da Fountoura & Siegel, 1995; Lesaux & Siegel, 2003; Lesaux et al., 2006; Chong, 2009). This study investigated the effects of a six week intervention designed to increase syntactic awareness, including meta-awareness of key structures of English for young ESL students in the upper elementary grades. Twenty typically developing ESL students in the fourth …

A Single-Subject Study Examining The Effects Of A Behavioral Intervention For Verbal Recurrent Perserveration, Jenifer Juengling-Sudkamp

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

BACKGROUND: Approximately 1 million people in the United States suffer from aphasia and > 50% of those people may demonstrate recurrent perseverations. No consensus has been forthcoming on whether (1) a therapy that directly confronts clients with imminent pre-articulatory automatisms (the perseverations) or (2) a more typical neuropsychological therapy that eschews any direct confrontation with automatic behaviors works best. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine the treatment efficacy of a non-confrontational picture naming intervention on naming ability in individuals with aphasia and recurrent perseverations. METHODS: This is a prospective single-subject ABAB multiple baseline design replicated across 3 right-handed …

Comparing The Treatment Effect Of Conversational And Traditional Aphasia Treatments Based On Conversational Outcome Measures, Meghan Collins

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This prospective Phase I single-subject (ABABA) study repeated across 4 participants with quasi-randomized treatment order investigated the treatment effects of conversation and traditional stimulation treatments on conversational outcomes. Treatment was administered for 10 sessions (2 one-hour weekly sessions) per treatment type. Primary conversational outcomes included 6-minute conversations coded for pragmatic behaviors and percent Correct Information Units (CIUs). Traditional stimulation probes included auditory comprehension, lexical retrieval, and syntax probe performance. Secondary outcome measures represented the domains of the ICF (WHO, 2001) model with the addition of quality of life. These included the Western Aphasia Battery (Kertesz, 2007), the American Speech Language …

Effects Of Two Different Behavioral Swallowing Exercise Protocols Performed During Radiation Therapy On Swallowing Physiology, Function, Quality-Of-Life And Weight Outcomes Following Organ-Preservation Treatments For Head And Neck Cancers, Aneesha Virani

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of two different prophylactic behavioral swallowing exercise regimens performed by head and neck cancer/s (HNC) patients during radiation therapy with/without chemotherapy (RT/C) on swallowing physiology, function, quality-of-life (QOL) and weight outcomes at the completion of RT/C. Feeding tube (PEG) status at 3 months post-treatment was also compared. Methods: This study was conducted via a prospective design. 50 patients diagnosed with HNC who were to undergo RT/C were recruited at pre-treatment based on the inclusion criteria: functional swallowing abilities; without prophylactic PEG tubes; ability to comprehend and perform therapy tasks …

Comparison Of The Diagnostic Evaluation Of Language Variation-Screening Test (Delv-St) To Two Other Screeners For Low-Income, African American Children, Christy Wynn Moland

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the validity of the DELV-ST by comparing it to two other screeners, the Fluharty-2 and the Washington-Craig Language Screener (WCLS). The participants were 73 African American Pre-K and Head Start children, aged four- to five-years-old. Fail rates were higher than what has been reported in the literature. They were highest for the Fluharty-2 (57%), lower for the DELV-ST (52%), and lowest for the WCLS (46%); however, there were no statistical differences in the fail rates by screener. Approximately 54% of the children passed or failed all screeners. Unfortunately, the remaining 46% failed …

An Examination Of Errors Of Coherence In Adolescent Sentence Combining, Ginger Gunter Collins

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Young adolescents should be able to write organized multi-paragraph compositions that develop a central idea and unfold in logical and sequential order, unified through the use of transitional words and phrases. In other words, the compositions should not just consist of a string of related sentences, but represent a dynamic text that has coherence. It is important that speech-language pathologists develop quick and reliable methods for assessing coherence to aid in making data driven decisions and progress monitoring consistent with principles of Responsiveness to Intervention. Yet, the holistic quality of coherence makes it difficult to assess, both within a composition …

Time Of Day Effects On Language Discourse In Healthy Aging And Dementia, Amanda L. Stead

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study’s purpose was to investigate whether language discourse follows a diurnal pattern across one 10-hour day in normal healthy aging individuals (NHA) and individuals with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease. Ten healthy older adults; and ten older adults clinically labeled with probable Alzheimer’s disease were recruited for this study. Measurements of procedural language, narrative language, and cognition, the Benton Judgment of Line Orientation (BJLO), were collected across one day at 9:00am, 12:00pm, 3:00 pm, and 6:00pm. Language samples were evaluated for linguistic variables to evaluate the quantity and quality of the discourse samples. Results indicated that the two groups …

The Auxiliary System Of Typically Developing Children Acquiring African American English, Brandi Lynette Newkirk

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study’s purpose was to examine the acquisition and use of BE, DO, and modal auxiliaries by African American English (AAE)-speaking children. The impetus for this work was the lack of information regarding the developmental trajectory of these auxiliary types and their use, in AAE relative to what is known about auxiliary acquisition and use in Mainstream American English (MAE). The study used two datasets of language samples: one that contained 48 language samples from 3 ½-year-old children and one that contained 36 longitudinal language samples of five children who were between 18 and 51 months of age. Results from …

Child Acquisition Of Referring Expressions, Carlton M. Downey

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Children, like adults, use referring expressions to refer to specific objects, events, or people. Research has provided insights into how children use referring expressions and the appearance of forms developmentally (Radford, 1990; Abu-Akel, et al., 2004; Pine & Lieven, 1997). This study examined how three, four, and five year-old children use referring expressions across increasingly more decontextualized tasks as defined by the Situational-Discourse-Semantic (SDS) Model (Norris & Hoffman, 1993, 2002) . The participants included 4 three-year-old, 12 four-year-old, and 20 five-year-old children. Language samples were elicited using seven tasks of increasing difficulty. The referring expressions produced for each task were …

Investigation Of A Classroom-Based Reading Intervention Strategy For Older Elementary Students With Poor Decoding Skills, Shara Brinkley

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Using a response to intervention framework, this study investigates the efficacy of a classroom-based intervention for struggling readers with decoding deficits in the upper elementary grades. Twenty two students in the fourth and sixth grades from four classrooms in low-performing schools received either a short 20-minute intervention delivered by their teacher or access to the lessons for an equivalent amount of time but no teacher instruction. Using three orthographic patterns, the 24 lessons consisted of a series of ten minimally contrasted words differing by one letter. The students in the experimental group decoded the words using a visual alphabet (Phonic …

Behaviors And Beliefs Of African American Caregivers As Related To Their Children's Language-Literacy Development, Lekeitha Renee' Morris

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study examined African American (AA) caregivers’ beliefs about their children’s language-literacy development and their book reading behaviors with their children as a function of socioeconomic status (SES). Caregivers’ behaviors were examined before, during, and after a three-day caregiver training program that targeted four behaviors (i.e., tracking print, reference to print, text to life, and interpretations). Participants were 20 caregiver-child dyads classified as Low-SES (LSES) or Middle-SES (MSES) based on the caregivers’ level of education. Children were typically developing girls between the ages of four and five years. At pre-test, the two groups of caregivers differed in some of their …

The Effects Of Aging And Unilateral Vestibular Disorders On The Kinematic Performance Of Vestibular Rehabilitation Exercises And Physical Function, Micah Leslie Bradshaw Klumpp

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The overall purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of unilateral vestibular disorders and aging on functional performances of activities of daily living and vestibular rehabilitation exercises by examining the correlations among actual and perceived functional measures, the kinematic measurement differences among young healthy adults, older healthy adults, and older adults with unilateral vestibular deficits, and the correlations between kinematic and functional measures. Perceived and actual functional abilities and kinematic variables were compared for young controls, older healthy controls, and patients with unilateral vestibular hypofunction with no previous vestibular rehabilitation. In older adults, better strength, balance, coordination, and …

Children's Production Of Verbal -S By Dialect Type And Clinical Status, Lesli H. Cleveland

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The study examined children’s use of verbal –s marking (e.g., he walks) in two nonmainstream dialects of English, African American English (AAE), and Southern White English (SWE). Verbal –s marking was of interest because there are gaps in the literature about the nature of this structure within and across typically developing children who speak AAE and SWE and about the nature of this structure in AAE- and SWE-speaking children with specific language impairment (SLI). To address these gaps, children’s verbal –s marking was examined as a function of their dialect and clinical status and as a function of a number …

The Effects Of Visual Representations On Teacher Training Of Phonological Awareness Principles, Rachel Kennedy Powell

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Teachers are now being held to high accountability standards in reading instruction, yet studies show that teachers lack adequate knowledge in reading and phonological awareness principles (Moats, 1994, 2009; Spencer, Schuele, Guillot, & Lee, 2008). The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of visual representations of letter/sound production (i.e., Phonic Faces, Norris, 2001) on improving teacher knowledge of phonological awareness principles, and to determine if there is a concomitant improvement in phonological awareness and reading acquisition for children in those classrooms. Seventeen kindergarten teachers from a Mississippi school were pretested on phonological awareness principles, then divided into …