Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Numerical Investigation Of Subglottal Stenosis Effects On Human Voice Production, Dariush Bodaghi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation aimed to advance knowledge of how subglottal stenosis impacts voice production physiology. An in-house fluid-structure-acoustic interaction approach based on the hydrodynamic/acoustic splitting technique was employed. This technique was rigorously verified for simulating phonation by matching the acoustic behavior to a compressible flow solver for phonation-relevant geometries. Simulations of an idealized 2D vocal tract model demonstrated the effects of supraglottal acoustic resonance on vocal fold kinematics and glottal flow waveform. Results showed that the acoustic coupling between higher harmonics and formats generated pressure oscillations, modifying vocal fold dynamics and glottal flow rate.

A major novelty was the incorporation and …

Word Reading, Reading Comprehension, And Eye Movements During Reading In Chinese Persons With Aphasia, Xiaobin Wang

<strong> Theses and Dissertations </strong>

Individuals with aphasia (IWA) often exhibit challenges in single word reading as well as in reading comprehension. Recently, eye-tracking technology has become instrumental in delving deeper into reading behaviors. Specifically, it has illuminated the differences in word reading and comprehension abilities among aphasic English speakers. However, there is a noticeable scarcity of research focusing on these aspects among Chinese IWA. The current study aimed to contrast the abilities of Chinese IWA and neurotypical controls in reading single words, with an emphasis on types like regular, irregular, and pseudowords, and reading comprehension abilities. Further, this study investigated the patterns of eye …

The Evolution Of The Role Of Speech-Language Pathologists In The Nicu: Are Educational Programs Supporting The Change?, Melanie Spinnie

Honors College Theses

The purpose of this thesis was to determine the progressive roles of speech-language pathologists (SLP) in performing feeding and swallowing interventions in preterm infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and evaluate the education SLPs receive regarding this topic, as well as how this can affect their work in the NICU and what changes in curriculum and experience should be made for SLPs to best serve this fragile population. SLPs have not always been the primary providers in this field, so it is crucial to understand these established roles and how they have changed and will continue to change. …

Enhancing The Hearing Conservation Audiological Test Battery In Noise-Exposed Dod Service Members, Taylor N. Paige

<strong> Theses and Dissertations </strong>

This research study compared how audiometric results differ in service members who are and those who are not exposed to occupational hazardous noise. To address this question, the performance of 21 service members with no occupational noise was compared to the performance of 23 service members with reported occupational noise exposure. Standard audiometric tests were employed, as well as expanded test measures including extended high frequency audiometry and speech in noise testing.

Results indicated the experimental group performed more poorly on some Modified Rhyme Test (speech in noise test) conditions, as well as were more likely to have absent audiometric …

Emergent Literacy And Early Reading Skills In Chinese-Mandarin: Evidence From Kindergarten And First-Grade Children, Yingshan Huang

<strong> Theses and Dissertations </strong>

The development of emergent literacy, a precursor to formal reading, has been linked to subsequent conventional literacy skills in Chinese children. The factors important for acquiring Chinese reading skills, such as phonological and morphological awareness, have primarily been studied in primary school children rather than preschoolers. The complete picture of factors contributing to early reading skills in Mandarin-speaking Chinese preschool children remains unclear. Objectives: The aim of this study was to explore emergent literacy and early reading skills in preschool and early school-aged children and investigate the connections between them to address gaps in existing literature. Methodology: A cross-sectional design …

Recursive Functional Learning In Nonfluent Aphasia, Gerald C. Imaezue

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

People with nonfluent aphasia (PWNA) require feedback from an external agent as well self-feedback to facilitate performance of language production tasks. The extent to which PWNA can use self-feedback alone to improve their task performance is unknown. In addition, it is argued that self-feedback may reinforce or minimize performance errors over time. To test whether either is the case, we introduce an original learning mechanism, recursive functional learning, which uses self-feedback loops to optimize recursively multiple subsystems (cognitive and linguistic subsystems) that PWNA engage during task performance. We used this mechanism to underpin a novel automated procedure we developed, recursive …

The Roles Of Vestibular And Proprioceptive Signals In Updating Spatial Selective Auditory Attention During Head Motion, Erisa Davoudi

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Spatial Selective Auditory Attention (SSAA) allows individuals to attend to a desired sound’s location in an acoustically rich environment. This research project explored the compensatory updating of SSAA focus during head movements and the roles of vestibular, proprioceptive, and visual self-motion signals in this process. A behavioural auditory selective attention task was conducted with and without visual cues and in three different motion conditions that manipulated the availability of vestibular and proprioceptive signals: Static (no updating required), Active head rotation (vestibular and proprioceptive signals available), and Passive whole-body rotation (only vestibular signals available). The findings suggest that listeners do appropriately …

Effects Of Language Status, Community Advice, And Parent Beliefs On Heritage Language Maintenance In The U.S.: A Scoping Review, Jasmine Loeung

University Honors Theses

This scoping review examines the effects of language status, community advice to parents, and parents' beliefs on heritage language maintenance within a U.S. context. A total of 34 articles met the inclusion criteria. Four key themes were identified as follows: (1) status of a language in society affects maintenance, (2) parents' beliefs about the impact of the heritage language affect family language practices, (3) community advice impacts parents' beliefs and practices, (4) other factors affecting maintenance of the heritage language across generations. Overall, HL maintenance was observed as a dynamic relationship between a variety of factors, with individuals as well …

Loudness Matching In Individuals With Parkinson’S Disease And Hypophonia, Catherine Johnson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The purpose of the present study was to investigate speech loudness perception in 15 individuals with Parkinson’s disease (IWPD) and hypophonia (reduced speech intensity) and 15 healthy control (HC) participants. A loudness matching procedure was used to examine conditions involving speech loudness targets presented at various levels (60 to 80dB SPL). The loudness response conditions included manually controlled audio playback of external speech, self-vocalized speech, amplified self-speech, and speech projected to a distance of 2 meters. For most of the loudness matching conditions, the PD group did not demonstrate the predicted deficit in loudness matching. In some loudness matching conditions, …

The Directional Effect Of Target Position On Spatial Selective Auditory Attention, Heesung Park

Dissertations, 2020-current

Spatial selective auditory attention plays a crucial role in listening in a mixture of competing speech sounds. Previous neuroimaging studies have reported alpha band neural activity modulated by auditory attention, along with the alpha lateralization corresponding to attentional focus. A greater cortical representation of the attended speech envelope compared to the ignored speech envelope was also found, a phenomenon known as 'neural speech tracking’. However, little is known about the neural activities when attentional focus is directed on speech sounds from behind the listener, even though understanding speech from behind is a common and essential aspect of daily life. The …

Factors Affecting The Healthcare Of Adults With Communication Difficulties Due To Autism Spectrum Disorder And/Or Intellectual And Developmental Disability, Kathryn L. Shady

MUSC Theses and Dissertations

Purpose: This dissertation explores the healthcare barriers and facilitators experienced by autistic adults and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) who have communication difficulties (CD).

Problem: Approximately 5-10% of Americans have CD, including difficulties such as stuttering, aphasia, apraxia, and other forms of language impairment(1,2). Communication difficulties are present in about 25-30% of autistic individuals and 57.9% of those with IDD, which accounts for a large and poorly studied portion of those with CD(3,4). Individuals with CD report negative healthcare experiences and decreased levels of satisfaction with healthcare providers secondary to practices such as communication solely with a …

Management Of Topic In The Spoken Discourse Of Persons Living With Mild Cognitive Impairment And Alzheimer’S Dementia, Sydney A. Difruscia

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Analyses of elicited spoken discourse can identify mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer’s dementia (AD). Topic management, one feature of discourse defined as acts that maintain or terminate an established topic, can be measured via global coherence measures. Little is known, however, about whether analyses of topic management can distinguish spoken discourse performances of persons living with MCI (PLwMCI) vs. persons living with AD (PLwAD). The current study investigated whether there are differences in topic management in the spoken discourse performances of PLwMCI vs. PLwAD. Analyses were conducted on 120 transcripts of spoken sequenced story picture descriptions of PLwMCI (n=83) …

Incorporating Poi As A Therapeutic Modality For Preschool Aged Children In The Care Clinic, Danielle Zirkle

Department of Occupational Therapy Entry-Level Capstone Projects

No abstract provided.

Academic Impacts Of Intergenerational Trauma: Assessing The Relationship Between Ace Scores Of Parents And The Language And Literacy Development Of Their Elementary-Aged Children, Paige Lee Banaszak

Theses and Dissertations

This paper contributes to the current literature by investigating factors that may contribute to language and literacy difficulty among children, to support the future development of effective intervention techniques. The data analyzed in this paper was collected from children and families participating in Reach Every Reader, a research study currently being conducted to improve literacy outcomes in the U.S. by developing a computer-adaptive screening assessment tool to identify children at risk for language and literacy difficulties early in their educational development. Children enrolled in kindergarten through third grade completed tasks that target language and literacy skills, and their parent(s) completed …

The Effect Of Visual Feedback On Vocal Compensation Abilities In Individuals With Post-Stroke Aphasia, Marissa Rylee Olson

Theses and Dissertations

Speech production is a complex and highly organized process comprised of various sensory and perceptual components. Post-stroke aphasia can impair speech production abilities by interrupting individuals’ ability to detect and correct speech errors and produce their targeted behavior. Contemporary models of speech production aim to understand the relationship between sensory systems and the human ability to produce perceptually accurate speech. This study seeks to understand the relationship between visual feedback and vocal compensation abilities in individuals with post-stroke aphasia to determine the effectiveness of incorporating visual feedback into therapeutic expressive language intervention. It was hypothesized that that the multi-sensory experimental …

The Correlation Between Bilingual Children’S Self-Reported Language Proficiency And Their Scores On Dual-Language Standardized Assessments, Andrea Elise Vargas

Theses and Dissertations

This study aimed to evaluate the relation between bilingual Spanish-English speaking children’s self-reported language proficiencies and bilingual experiences and their scores on norm-referenced standardized dual-language assessments. Additionally, the relation between bilingual children’s self-reported language proficiencies and bilingual experiences and parent reports of children’s Spanish and English input and output was examined. The Houston Questionnaire, a novel tool designed to provide insight into bilingual children’s self-perceptions of language proficiencies and experiences, was administered to gather such information for this study. A sample of bilingual children local to Columbia, South Carolina completed a battery of dual-language standardized assessments in kindergarten, and then …

On-Campus Mental Health Service Use Among College Students With Autism: A Case Study Applying The Andersen Behavioral Model Of Health Services Use, Estella C. Lilyquist

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The unique set of impairments and limitations presented by students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) make the accessing of campus-based nonacademic resources more difficult and complicated than their typically developed peers. Each year, the rate of students entering college with disabilities continues to grow, but their mental well-being is relatively poor. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to apply the conceptual framework of the Andersen behavioral model of health services use (ABMHSU) to the experiences of college students with ASD to understand and predict their utilization of campus-provided mental health resources. The participants were seven college students with …

Sound-Category Learning And Memory Skills In Neurotypical Adults And Adults With Language-Learning Disabilities, Allison Fulcher

University Honors Theses

This study evaluates the impact of memory skills (procedural, declarative, and working) and sound discrimination abilities, on the ability of adults with and without Language Learning Disability (LLD) to learn two sound-category structures, one designed to be learned implicitly and the other designed to be learned explicitly. This design tests a theorized etiology for LLD, the Procedural Deficit Hypothesis (PDH), which posits that LLD is caused by selective impairments to procedural memory and implicit learning. It also serves to evaluate factors and conditions that contribute to success in second-language learning for adults, who are less neurologically suited to the task …

Engaging Clinicians To Develop A Meaningful Digital Outcome Measurement Tool To Improve Implementation Of The Focus On The Outcomes Of Communication Under Six (Focus), Boshra Bahrami

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study engaged speech-language pathologists who were familiar with an existing participation-focused paper-based outcome measure called the Focus on the Outcomes of Communication Under Six (FOCUS-34) to understand their current experiences using the tool and identify their recommendations for how a digital solution could improve their ability to use its data clinically. SLPs were actively involved in the early stages of the digital FOCUS-34 development to ensure its clinical utility and support its future implementation in clinical practice. Twenty-three speech-language pathologists participated in virtual focus groups that were run in groups of four or five. Focus groups lasted 60 minutes, …

Reviews Of Applications For Smartphone-Connected Hearing Aids And Implications On Counseling, Rebecca Strong

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

With the recent rise of smartphone ownership, more applications have been created that connect user’s hearing aids to their smartphone. One type of application that has become popular is one that allows the user to control hearing aids using a smartphone. While these applications have many benefits for the user, there has been very little research on the experiences of individuals using these applications. In order for audiologists to best help their patients troubleshoot and prepare reasonable expectations for using smartphone-connected hearing aids, they need to understand the patient experience to create effective solutions. One technique that can be used …

Exploring The Potential Of Hearing Screening Smartphone Applications To Enhance Access To Hearing Healthcare: A Literature Review, Adam Sulaiman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In 2016, the National Academies of Sciences (NAS) published a landmark consensus report with several recommendations to enhance the availability and affordability of hearing healthcare in the United States. Among the most notable of the recommendations was the creation of a new category of FDA-approved Over-the-Counter (OTC) hearing aids. Unlike the traditional hearing aid model, which requires a comprehensive hearing test by a hearing health professional prior to purchase, OTC hearing aids would be directly available for sale to any American adult with a self-perceived mild-to-moderate degree of hearing loss. This proposal has now become reality with the passage of …

Examining The Effect Of Training Using Natural And Noise-Vocoded Sentences On Noise-Vocoded Speech Perception In Normal-Hearing Listeners, Alexis Leiderman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Auditory training has been shown to be an intervention strategy that may improve speech perception abilities in individuals with and without hearing loss. Within the cohort of individuals with hearing loss, auditory training has also been shown to have an improvement on speech perception in cochlear implant users. In several training studies, normal-hearing listeners have been exposed to noise-vocoded speech using auditory training paradigms to mimic how cochlear implant users may in turn be affected by these paradigms. These studies have highlighted certain areas for improvement in speech perception abilities based off of the training paradigms put in place. Several …

Audiological Management Of Children With Down Syndrome: A Toolkit For Caregivers, Natalie Lisiewicz

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Children with Down syndrome may have multiple medical co-morbidities. This can result in an overwhelming number of medical appointments and information for caregivers to keep track of. Middle ear dysfunction, among other otologic abnormalities, is common in the Down syndrome population, and the presence of these conditions will result in referrals to an audiologist to monitor hearing sensitivity. While hearing may not be the most pressing concern as compared to a possible life-threatening condition such as a heart defect, it is still a crucial factor in a child’s overall development.

This toolkit is designed with the intention of educating caregivers …

Evidence-Based Practice In The Management Of Tinnitus In Children And Adolescents: A Systematic Review Of The Literature, Rivka Deutsch

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Objective: The purpose of this investigation is to conduct a systematic review of the literature to compile and evaluate the known research on the management of tinnitus in children/ The specific aims of this paper are to determine what approaches can be considered best practice for the management of tinnitus in this population, what aspects of adult management (if any) can be adapted for children, and whether the literature supports one management approach over another.

Methods and Results: A comprehensive search utilizing the Medline and Cumulated Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), and Google Scholar databases, accessible via …

Examining The Effect Of Talker Familiarity Using Familiar And Unfamiliar Talkers On Noise-Vocoded Speech Perception In Normal-Hearing Listeners: A Training Study, Daria N. Collins

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Auditory training studies utilizing stimuli that are applicable to real-world processing of speech have been shown to improve speech perception abilities in normal hearing populations, those with hearing loss, and cochlear implant wearers. In particular, exposing normal hearing adults to noise-vocoded speech via auditory training studies has been shown to not only simulate the perceptual experience of a cochlear implant wearer, but have demonstrated promising improvements on speech perceptual abilities via the training paradigm. Additionally, studies have highlighted various variables that impact speech perception, including, talker familiarity. Talker familiarity has been shown to enhance speech perception both in listeners with …

Practices And Attitudes Towards Infant Hearing Protection At Orthodox Jewish Weddings, Rebecca Weiss

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Previous research has shown that prolonged exposure to noise can cause permanent hearing loss no matter what age, including infants. The impact of noise at orthodox Jewish weddings, where infants are frequently in attendance, can reach extremely high and damaging levels of sound intensity. Because the hearing conservation behaviors and attitudes towards child hearing protection in this population are unknown, the objective of this study is to identify the attitudes and behaviors of orthodox Jewish wedding attendees toward child hearing conservation. A survey was developed and administered electronically to congregants of orthodox Jewish synagogues in the New York City area. …

Barriers To Optimal Audiological Care For Members Of The Deaf Community, Joyce Orenshein

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Background:

The purpose of this study was to identify the barriers to optimal audiological care for members of the Deaf community from the perspectives of Deaf individuals compared to audiologists. The goal is to help bridge the clinical communication barriers that lie between audiologists and the Deaf community by identifying the perceived gaps in care specifically and by gathering suggestions for improvement. A survey was administered to both audiologists and members of the Deaf community, making the present study unique and essential in that responses from both communities are compared and suggestions for bridging the gap are made.

Methods …

Caring For Individuals Who Are Experiencing Homelessness: An Audiologist’S Toolkit, Jenna Marie Sparacio

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

National-level counts for individuals experiencing homelessness have been steadily on the rise. People experiencing homelessness face extraordinary barriers and challenges in accessing health care services, including hearing healthcare. Additionally, there is a high prevalence of self- reported hearing difficulties and hearing handicap among people experiencing homelessness. Hearing loss status and management is often not prioritized in healthcare settings, and treatment plans are not typically modified to best address the hearing needs of individuals who are homeless. This evidence-based toolbox for audiologists was developed to help understand and mediate healthcare barriers that people experiencing homelessness face, as well as to help …

Special Education: Inclusion And Exclusion In The K-12 U.S. Educational System, Erik Brault

Dissertations

The U.S. Department of Education defines students with disabilities as those having a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more life activities. Previous research has found that students with disabilities placed in inclusive environments perform better academically and socially compared to students with disabilities who are placed in segregated environments. Yet, we know that inclusion in K-12 general education classrooms across the country is not consistently implemented.

The purpose of this study was to better understand the effects, if any, of general education high school teachers’ personal and professional experiences and knowledge on their attitudes toward educating …

Botulinum Toxin For Abductor Type Spasmodic Dysphonia: A Systematic Review, Keyona Sutton

Honors Theses

A systematic review was conducted to show that BTX (Botulinum Toxin) is the most effective treatment for Abductor Spasmodic Dysphonia (ABSD). There were a total of 117 records screened for inclusion in this review. After the initial screening, there were seven successive rounds of screening for eligibility. This process produced a total of three eligible records that met the following conditions: patients presented with spastic abduction, electromyography BTX type A injection into the posterior cricoarytenoid muscle, and measurement of results with acoustic dimensions. After surveying all eligible studies, it was concluded that BTX is an effective treatment for ABSD. Every …