Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Efficacy Of A Three-Week Intervention Program For A School-Aged Children In The Areas Of Language, Literacy, Phonological Awareness, And Auditory Processing, Nicole Weis

Honors Theses

Research demonstrates that competency in the areas of language, phonological awareness, and auditory processing is vital to academic success in children, as well as in navigating adult life. The study's purpose is to measure the efficacy of an intensive, three-week summer camp therapy program for school-aged children in addressing these areas, and to identify areas of strength and weakness in the program and interventions implemented. Programs utilized during the summer camp included Visualizing and Verbalizing(TM), Lindamood Phoneme Sequencing(R), On Cloud Nine(R), Color My Conversation, Differential Processing Training Program(TM), as well as science experiments, and snack and crafts time.

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

LSU Master's Theses

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

Comparison Between Mexican And American Parentese: A Qualitative Case Study, Elayna S. Dyke

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

This single case study examines possible cultural implications of the current definition of Parentese, also called caretaker speech, based on the personal accounts of a person who is bilingual in both English and Spanish. This case study was conducted in one interview in order to find possible differences in Parentese with the Spanish language in Mexican culture in contrast to Parentese in the English Language in American culture. The purpose of this study was to find if there were differences between parentese between these cultures, and in which ways they were different. According to the subject’s personal experiences within her …

Mother’S Perceptions Of Their Personal Impact On Infant Language Development, Miranda Steinbeck

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

During the early months of a child’s language development, their ability to perceive and process language is very fluid and the language input they receive can have a large impact on their language later in life. From the beginning, children need to be able to differentiate the sounds of speech from the rest of the sounds that occur in their environment (Golinkoff, Can, Soderstrom, Hirsh-Pasek, 2015). In other words, children are exposed to the different sounds in their environment and they begin to pick up on the speech sounds, such as conversation-like interactions, with their parents (Golinkoff et al., 2015). …

Right Hemisphere Capacities For Word-Finding: Bilateral Modulation Of Event-Related Potentials In Healthy Adults And Adults With Aphasia, Amanda C. Alton

Dissertations

Language tasks are typically lateralized to the language dominant left hemisphere in healthy right-handed adults. Additionally, lesions in left frontotemporal areas typically result in a variety of language impairments called aphasia. Interestingly, increased activation in right cerebral regions homologous to left side lesions has been observed in patients with aphasia during word-finding tasks. The neural mechanism and the impact on word-finding remain unclear. There are two competing theories concerning compensatory right hemisphere activation. One view is that the right hemisphere plays a supportive role, taking over functions of the damaged left hemisphere. The other perspective is that rightward laterality is …

They’Re Not Just Big Kids: A Service Delivery Model For Young Adults With Cleft Lip/Palate, Linda Vallino, Brenda Louw

ETSU Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Semantic Treatments For Word And Sentence Production Deficits In Aphasia., Mary Boyle

Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The cognitive domains of language and memory are intrinsically connected and work together during language processing. This relationship is especially apparent in the area of semantics. Several disciplines have contributed to a rich store of data about semantic organization and processing, and several semantic treatments for aphasic word and sentence production impairments have been based on these data. This article reviews the relationships between semantics and memory as they relate to word and sentence production, describes the aphasic language impairments that result from deficits in these areas, and summarizes treatment approaches that capitalize on what we have learned about these …

Inter-Rater Reliability Of Diagnostic Language Testing Administered Via Telepractice, Sarah E. Adams

Theses and Dissertations--Communication Sciences and Disorders

Federal law mandates children with language disorders receive free and appropriate intervention. Diagnosis is the first step in the intervention continuum; however, children in rural America are underserved due to personnel shortages. Limited studies have demonstrated the reliability of language testing conducted via telepractice. Further research examining the reliability of language tests administered via telepractice is necessary. The purpose of this study was to assess inter-rater reliability of three language tests administered via telepractice.

Predictors Of Language Outcome For Children In The Ontario Infant Hearing Program, Olivia M. Daub

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The Ontario Infant Hearing Program (OIHP) provides early interventions (i.e., hearing aids) to children who are hard of hearing (CHH) because research consistently demonstrates their benefit to language outcomes. The impact of pre-fitting language abilities on these outcomes are not well understood.

This retrospective cohort analysis examined the performance of OIHP children on the Preschool Language Scale-4 at the time of (n=47), and after (n=19), initial hearing aid intervention. Regression analyses revealed that, before amplification, hearing loss severity predicted language abilities. However, after amplification, severity of hearing loss did not uniquely predict language achievement, but rather …

Toddlers And Technology: An Examination Of How The Digital Surround May Be Related To Prototypic Vocabulary Development And Social Interactions During Play, Hannah Biarnesen Hutcheson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study sought to examine how the digital technology that surrounds young children may be related to prototypic vocabulary development and Social interactions during play. Twenty-six families in the Northwest Arkansas region with children between 15-36 months of age participated in the study. Thirteen children attended a campus preschool, six children attended a grant-funded local preschool, and seven children, all from the Northwest Arkansas area, were part of an earlier home-based study. The materials for the study included a developmental-technology use questionnaire and the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories. Archival videotaped play sessions with the seven home-based children utilized a “Little …

Monitoring Indicators Of Scholarly Language (Misl): A Progress-Monitoring Instrument For Measuring Narrative Discourse Skills, Sandra Laing Gillam, Ronald B. Gillam, Jamison D. Fargo, Abbie Olszewski, Hugo Segura

Communicative Disorders and Deaf Education Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to assess the basic psychometric properties of a progress-monitoring tool designed to measure narrative discourse skills in school-age children with language impairments (LI). A sample of 109 children with LI between the ages of 5 years 7 months and 9 years 9 months completed the Test of Narrative Language (TNL). The stories told in response to the alien picture prompt were transcribed and scored according to the TNL manual criteria and the criteria established for scoring the progress-monitoring tool, Monitoring Indicators of Scholarly Language (MISL). The MISL total score demonstrated acceptable levels of internal …

A Brief But Intensive Language-Literacy Intervention For An Adolescent, Minako I. May

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The current service delivery model most frequently used in a school setting involves short, infrequent sessions over a 180-day school year. To date, there is no research that supports the current service delivery model as being the most effective and efficient model of intervention. As students transition from elementary to middle school, this model is particularly problematic for the adolescent student because of a rotating school schedule, increasing language demands of the academic curriculum, and development of self-perception and academic self-concept. A brief but intensive language-literacy intervention that takes place outside of the school year may be an effective and …

Exploring Speech And Language Skills In Gifted Children: A Parent Perspective, Amanda Brewer

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of this research study was to examine the speech and language skills of gifted students, and to further look into gifted students who have previously had speech or language therapy. Information pertaining to gifted children, typical speech and language development, and gifted children who have a delay in speech was evaluated. The information was used to develop a survey instrument that asked parents about their gifted child’s speech and language. The overall results of this study confirmed many previously known characteristics of gifted students. It also showed that expressive language skills were less developed than receptive language skills. …

Training Hospital Readiness In Speech-Language Pathology Students Through Simulation, Anna Miles, Selena Donaldson, Philippa Friary

Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice

Simulated learning environments allow students to develop technical and clinical decision-making skills in a safe and realistic setting. The aim of this study was to evaluate speech-language pathology students’ perception of hospital readiness following a one-day simulation-based training day on swallowing management. Nineteen students attended the training day. Training included part-task skill learning and immersive simulated scenarios. Students were asked to complete course evaluation forms and participated in focus groups immediately after the day. Seven students participated in a further focus group after a five-week hospital placement within a month of the training day. Four students participated in a focus …

Central Auditory Processing And The Link To Reading Ability In Adults, Lisa M. Brody

Honors Scholar Theses

What makes someone a good reader? What makes someone a poor reader? The root biological marker of reading ability has yet to be determined. Many scientists agree that phonological awareness, the understanding of speech sounds, and phonological decoding are key components of reading ability (Melby-Lervag, Lyster, & Hulme, 2012). In addition to this, new research suggests that the auditory system, specifically the timing of auditory processing in the brain, provides a crucial platform that supports the development of reading ability (Banai et al., 2009). This thesis provides empirical data to support the link between reading skill …

Paraprofessionals' Experiences And Understandings Of The Maternal Infant Health Outreach Worker Program (Mihow) In West Virginia, Amy Knell Carlson

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

MIHOW, the Maternal Infant Health Outreach Worker Program, is a parent-to-parent home visitation program that aims to enhance early childhood development and parent education in economically disadvantaged and geographically isolated families with children birth to three. This qualitative case study conducted in two rural Appalachian counties examined the perceptions and experiences of paraprofessionals who are trained and work as home visitors in the MIHOW Program. Findings were interpreted in relation to extant literature on the use of paraprofessionals in home visitation. Three themes emerged from the data. The first theme related to the use of a strength-based approach and how …

An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis Of Caregivers' Support For Their Preschool Children's Language And Social Skills Development, Sheri Stein Blum

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Some children have difficulty communicating due to a lack of age-appropriate language and social skills. Researchers have explored how music and language share features that shape language processing. The purpose of this interpretive phenomenological analysis was to explore the experiences of caregivers of preschool children who participated in a music-based program and to understand their perspectives related to children's language and social skill development. Learning style and sensory integration processing theories were used as framework to provide foundations of skills in this study. Research questions addressed caregivers' choices related to this program for their children, their experiences of their children's …

Characterizing Spoken Discourse In Individuals With Parkinson Disease Without Dementia, Angela C. Roberts

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Background: The effects of disease (PD) on cognition, word retrieval, syntax, and speech/voice processes may interact to manifest uniquely in spoken language tasks. A handful of studies have explored spoken discourse production in PD and, while not ubiquitously, have reported a number of impairments including: reduced words per minute, reduced grammatical complexity, reduced informativeness, and increased verbal disruption. Methodological differences have impeded cross-study comparisons. As such, the profile of spoken language impairments in PD remains ambiguous.

Method: A cross-genre, multi-level discourse analysis, prospective, cross-sectional between groups study design was conducted with 19 PD participants (M_age = 70.74, M …

Nonword Repetition Performance Patterns In English - Spanish Bilingual Adults And English And Spanish Monolingual Adults, Nadia Arriazola Flores

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Nonword repetition (NWR) is known to be a less biased measure for assessing language abilities of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) children (Dollaghan & Campbell, 1998). NWR is used to examine phonological short-term memory mechanisms (also called working memory), because the tasks require the capability to discriminate, store, remember and reproduce phonological sequences (Baddeley, 1989; Braddeley 1974). The purpose of this study was to collect normative data on the NWR performance of bilingual and monolingual adults. This may contribute to the interpretation of performance in bilingual children by providing the standard of adult-like performance. This study examined the performance patterns …

Relationship Between A Measure Of Social And Emotional Development And Early Communication Development In Young Children With Cleft Palate, Jenna L. Pugh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study was an examination of responses to a standardized assessment of social-emotional behaviors and correlation with speech and language development in young children with cleft palate and/or lip. Twenty-eight participants aged 14-35 months with nonsyndromic cleft palate and or lip were included in this study. The Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment (ITSEA) was used to identify emerging social and emotional behaviors. Descriptive analysis of ITSEA results was completed. Pearson correlation coefficient and effect size estimates were calculated between ITSEA domain raw scores and measures of speech and language development. A small proportion of participants (14%) showed ITSEA scores beyond …

Language Contributions To Health Related Quality Of Life In Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Katie M. Findlater

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Concurrent with the well-documented motor speech production impairments in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), individuals with ALS exhibit language problems including confrontation and generative naming difficulties, single word auditory and reading comprehension problems, and decreased self-regulation based on fewer self-corrected utterances, among other language disruptions. Health related quality of life (HRQoL) measures specific to ALS often contain items related to its characteristic speech production problems that are thought to influence overall quality of life. However, the language problems in ALS are rarely if ever considered within the context of HRQoL. The current study aimed to identify the relationship between language problems …

Lessons Learned From Aac Camp, Janet L. Dodd

Communication Sciences and Disorders Faculty Articles and Research

Children who benefit from augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) need not only the support of individuals knowledgeable in the technologies themselves, but ones who understand the translation of language intervention principles to AAC.

Comparing Spoken Language Treatments For Minimally Verbal Preschoolers With Autism Spectrum Disorders, Rhea Paul, Daniel Campbell, Kimberly Gilbert, Ioanna Tsiouri

Communication Disorders Faculty Publications

Preschoolers with severe autism and minimal speech were assigned either a discrete trial or a naturalistic language treatment, and parents of all participants also received parent responsiveness training. After 12 weeks, both groups showed comparable improvement in number of spoken words produced, on average. Approximately half the children in each group achieved benchmarks for the first stage of functional spoken language development, as defined by Tager-Flusberg et al. (J Speech Lang Hear Res, 52: 643–652, 2009). Analyses of moderators of treatment suggest that joint attention moderates response to both treatments, and children with better receptive language pre-treatment do better with …

Preschool Language And Phonological Proficiencies In Predicting Stuttering Recovery Or Persistence, Caroline E. Spencer

Open Access Theses

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between expressive and receptive language, phonological, and verbal working memory proficiencies in the preschool years and eventual recovery from or persistence in stuttering. Participants included 40 children who stutter (CWS). At ages 3-5 years, participants were administered the Test of Auditory Comprehension of Language, 3rd edition (TACL-3), the Structured Photographic Expressive Language Test, 3rd edition (SPELT-3), Bankson-Bernthal Test of Phonology--Consonant Inventory subtest (BBTOP--CI), Test of Auditory Perceptual Skills--Revised (TAPS--R) auditory number memory and auditory word memory subtests, and the Dollaghan & Campbell Nonword Repetition Test (NRT). Stuttering behaviors were tracked …

The Relation Of Socioeconomic Status, Parental Education, Vocabulary And Language Skills Of Children Who Stutter, Corrin G. Richels, Kia N. Johnson, Tedra A. Walden, Edward G. Conture

Communication Disorders & Special Education Faculty Publications

Purpose: The purpose of this project was to investigate the possible relation between standardized measures of vocabulary/language, mother and father education, and a composite measure of socioeconomic status (SES) for children who do not stutter (CWNS) and children who stutter (CWS).

Methods: Participants were 138 CWNS and 159 CWS between the ages of 2;6 and 6;3 and their families. The Hollingshead Four Factor Index of Social Position (i.e., Family SES) was used to calculate SES based on a composite score consisting of weighted values for paternal and maternal education and occupation. Statistical regression analyses were conducted to investigate the relation …

Assessment Of Single-Word Production For Children Under Three Years Of Age: Comparison Of Children With And Without Cleft Palate, Nancy J. Scherer, A. Lynn Williams, Carol Stoel-Gammon, Ann Kaiser

ETSU Faculty Works

Background. This study reports comparative phonological assessment results for children with cleft lip and/or palate (CLP) to typically developing peers using an evaluation tool for early phonological skills. Methods. Children without clefts (NC = noncleft) and 24 children with CLP, ages of 18–36 months, were evaluated using the Profile of Early Expressive Phonological Skills (PEEPSs) [1]. Children interacted with toy manipulatives to elicit a representative sample of target English consonants and syllable structures that are typically acquired by children between 18 and 27 months of age. Results. Results revealed significant differences between the two groups with regard to measures of …

Characterizing And Predicting Outcomes Of Communication Delays In Infants And Toddlers: Implications For Clinical Practice, Rhea Paul, Forma P. Roth

Communication Disorders Faculty Publications

Purpose: This article focuses on using currently available data to assist speech-language pathologists (SLPs) in making decisions regarding a child's eligibility and considerations for recommended "dosage" of early intervention (El) services. Method: Literature describing the characteristics of infants and toddlers who are likely recipients of El services was reviewed. Results: Current literature provides information that can be used to inform clinical decisions for infants and toddlers with established medical conditions, as well as those with risk factors, for oral language, communication, and subsequent literacy disabilities. This information is summarized. Conclusion: Extant literature suggests that El makes a critical difference in …

The Neural Underpinnings Of Prosody In Autism, Inge-Marie Eigsti, Jillian Schuh, Einar Mencl, Robert T. Schultz, Rhea Paul

Communication Disorders Faculty Publications

This study examines the processing of prosodic cues to linguistic structure and to affect, drawing on fMRI and behavioral data from 16 high-functioning adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and 11 typically developing controls. Stimuli were carefully matched on pitch, intensity, and duration, while varying systematically in conditions of affective prosody (angry versus neutral speech) and grammatical prosody (questions versus statement). To avoid conscious attention to prosody, which normalizes responses in young people with ASD, the implicit comprehension task directed attention to semantic aspects of the stimuli. Results showed that when perceiving prosodic cues, both affective and grammatical, activation of …

Novel Word Learning Of Children With Hearing Impairment And Children With Typical Hearing, Matthew R. Clark

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Children with hearing impairment may be at risk for reading difficulty due, in part, to delayed vocabulary development. However, advances in amplification technology, most notably cochlear implant technology, make it possible for children with profound hearing loss to acquire oral language. This study asked if novel word learning differed between children with typical hearing and those with severe to profound hearing loss who either wore hearing aids or had cochlear implants. Children learned nonsense words as names for Beanie Babies during a play scenario and were later asked to identify and name each Beanie Baby using its correct nonsense word …

The Intelligibility Of Japanese Speakers Of English To Native Speakers Of English, Manabu Aoki

All Master's Theses

This research was conducted to identify the most important English speech sounds which determine non-native English speakers' intelligibility to native speakers of English. The researcher focused on variation of pronunciation by Japanese English speakers of differing levels of proficiency and examined the correlation between their pronunciation and intelligibility to native speakers. The results provided some keys to intelligible English speech and some implications for developing comprehensible speech in teaching English as a second language or English as a foreign language.