Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

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 …

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 …

Feasibility And Preliminary Outcomes Of A 6-Week Mindful Walking Program To Maintain And Improve Cognition In Adults At Risk For Alzheimer’S Disease Or Other Related Dementias, Caroline Mannion Wood

Theses and Dissertations

The present study examined the impact of a 6-week Mindful Walking intervention. Participants completed 30 minute walking sessions twice a week for 6 weeks. Ten older adults attended 100% of the supervised walking sessions. Pre-post comparison of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment and examination of subtests of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment did not reveal a significant change in mean scores (p.05, one-tailed). The number of steps accumulated as a result of Mindful Walking and other activities measured with the ActivPAL and change in MoCA total scores did not reach significance. Generally, the Mindful Walking program was well-liked (4 on a scale …

Measuring Orthographic Influences On Phonological Processing In Beginning Readers: An Eyetracking Study, Emily Grace Fisher

Theses and Dissertations

Purpose – Both orthographic and phonemic awareness are essential to reading. However, the role of orthographic knowledge in phonemic awareness has not been thoroughly investigated in beginning readers until recently. The purpose of this study was to examine if orthographic knowledge influenced phonological processing in beginning readers and to establish a proof of concept for the use of eyetracking measures to examine these skills in young children.

Method – 22 participants, aged 6-7 years, completed norm-referenced assessments of language and reading ability as well as experimental measures of orthographic and phonological awareness while their eye movements were monitored.

Results – …

Investigating The Impact Of Nonlinguistic Cognitive Reserve On Naming Pre- And Post-Treatment, Lillian Jarold

Theses and Dissertations

Background: The relationship between linguistic and nonlinguistic cognition in persons with aphasia is complex and often debated in the literature. Furthermore, the impact of nonlinguistic cognition on aphasia treatment outcomes is unclear. The present study sought 1) to examine the relationship between WAIS scores and performance on a test of naming and 2) to examine the relationship between WAIS scores and change scores on a test of naming between baseline and post-treatment in persons with chronic aphasia.

Method: This retrospective study utilized data from participants (N=102) who were recruited for a multi-center cross-over trial (POLAR: Predicting Outcomes of Language Rehabilitation). …

An Analysis Of Mental State Verbs In Children With Hearing Loss, Morgan Vachio

Theses and Dissertations

Mental state verbs (MSV) require unique cognitive and linguistic knowledge compared to lower level function words (Shatz et al., 1983). These cognitive and linguistic demands are thought to be difficult for children with hearing loss (CHL) due to deficits in word learning (Werfel, 2017; Lund, 2016), limited depth of vocabulary knowledge (Walker et al., 2018) and deficits in complex syntax (Werfel et al., 2021). The present study recruited 73 preschool children (23 CHLCI, 22 CHL-HA and 28 CNH) to participate. Our analysis examined the frequency, lexical diversity and use of MSV within required complex syntax structures.

Verbal Fluency In Women With The Fmr1 Premutation And The Broad Autism Phenotype, Emily Szabo

Theses and Dissertations

Women who carry a premutation allele on the FMR1 gene can experience limitations due to their genetic status, including executive function deficits. These subtle deficits are often shared by women who possess the broad autism phenotype (BAP). Poor understanding and limited research on the extent of these executive functioning deficits has led to limited clinical management of these two groups. The current study aimed to clarity whether there is a difference in verbal fluency abilities in mothers that possess the FMR1 premutation, mothers of children with autism who are at risk for the BAP, and mothers of typically developing children, …

Lexical Properties Of Perceptual Errors Made By Younger And Older Adults Listening To Speech In Multitalker Babble, Hannah Blythe Vickery

Theses and Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this error analysis was to analyze the lexical properties of misperceptions made when listening to speech in multitalker babble.

Methods: Twenty young adults with normal hearing (YNH), 20 older adults with normal hearing (ONH), and 22 older adults with hearing impairment (OHI) completed a speech-in-babble task. Participants were asked to repeat the final word in 25 high and 25 low context sentences. On each trial, participants either responded with the correct target word, a misperception error, or skipped the trial response. Misperceptions were compiled and analyzed according to their lexical properties.

Results: Results of this study …

Serving Culturally And Linguistic Students Identified With A Communication Disability In The K-12 Educational Environments, Lashell Dauterman

Theses and Dissertations

As more and more students enter public schools with culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds that require services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, facilitators must be more sensitive to the needs, especially in the area of communication. Augmentative and alternative communication devices and other assistive technology are required by law to be utilized with individuals identified as disabled. However, due to the challenges that exist in properly identifying and implementing intervention plans for children who require services as English language learners and special education, communication needs are often misidentified or not provided. Another issue that exists is the lack …

Antisaccade Performance As A Measure Of Executive Dysfunction In Women With The Fmr1 Premutation, Lyndsay Schmitt

Theses and Dissertations

Women with the FMR1 premutation appear to be at increased risk for executive dysfunction. Findings in this regard have been mixed, leading to controversy surrounding the executive phenotype. Inhibitory deficits have been a more consistently documented component of this cognitive profile (Klusek et al., 2020; Shelton et al., 2014). This study aimed to clarify the executive phenotype through use of the antisaccade task, a well referenced eye-tracking paradigm that targets oculomotor inhibition and motor control and imposes time constraints that may increase sensitivity to executive deficits in women with the FMR1 premutation. The effects of aging were examined in both …

Narrative Language Among Mothers With The Fmr1 Premutation And Mothers Of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Sara Mousavi

Theses and Dissertations

Difficulties with pragmatic language are known language traits among women with the FMR1 premutation and within the broad autism phenotype (BAP). Our study investigated the narrative cohesion and story grammar organization of spontaneously generated stories produced by mothers with the FMR1 premutation, mothers of children with ASD, and mothers of typically developing children. No group differences were observed in story grammar, overall quality, or frequency of use of temporal devices. But both the mothers of children with ASD and mothers with the FMR1 premutation committed reference errors at a significantly higher frequency than mothers in the control group. This study …

Complex Syntax Acquisition In Children With Hearing Loss, Marissa Castaldo

Theses and Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this language sample analysis was to describe complex syntax development in children with hearing loss over the preschool years. The current study addresses the following relevant research questions: Do children with hearing loss have increased performance over preschool years on broad measures of complex syntax? and What are the developmental trajectories on complex syntax in children with hearing loss?

Methods: 9 children with hearing loss participated in a 12-minute language sample following the Hadley Protocol (1998). Each child was tested at age 4 and then again in 6-month intervals until they turned 6. These children with …

Differential Identification Of Hyperacusis And Misophonia: Implications Of Discrete Decreased Sound Tolerance (Dst) Condition Subtypes, Rachel E. Wallace

Theses and Dissertations

Hyperacusis and misophonia are two conditions of decreased sound tolerance (DST) studied in the psychological literature due to their association with psychological symptoms and mechanisms. DSTs are differentiated from normal sound sensitivity due to the reported impairment and distress individuals experience. Researchers suggest that DSTs are differentiated by types of sounds and emotional reactions elicited, such that hyperacusis is a fear and pain response to ordinary environmental sounds perceived as uncomfortably loud, and misophonia is an anger and disgust response to human-made sounds, but these distinctions, and associated characteristics, have not been empirically demonstrated. Undergraduate students (N = 1572) …

Exploration Of Early Spelling In Children With Hearing Loss, Carson Aho

Theses and Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine differences in spelling errors between children with normal hearing and children with hearing loss in kindergarten.

Method: Participants included 21 children with normal hearing and 23 children with hearing loss. All children used spoken English as their primary language. The children with hearing loss all utilized a hearing amplification device. Participants completed three single-word spelling assessments, a language assessment, and an oral reading assessment. An independent samples t-test was used to determine if the groups had differences in the number of spelling errors and whether a difference was observed within the …

Developing A School-Age Language Screening For Sli, Logan Douglass

Theses and Dissertations

Purpose: This study explored past tense marking in oral reading as a clinical marker of specific language impairment (SLI). A School-Age Language Screening Assessment (SALSA) was evaluated to determine whether it can be used to improve the identification of school-age children with SLI. The first aim was to calculate overall accuracy with children with TL and SLI on reading regular and irregular past tense verbs in oral reading of connected text. The second aim was to determine the overall diagnostic accuracy of SALSA.

Method: 96 children with TL and 3 children with SLI (N = 99) in grades 2-4 were …

Effects Of A Sensory Diet On Attention And Participation In Children With Autism, Leighanne Smith-Mrkaja

Theses and Dissertations

This applied dissertation was designed to provide initial knowledge regarding sensory diets and sensory-based interventions. The need for classroom-based sensory interventions are not always considered, especially with the high number of students diagnosed with ASD at the researcher’s school. Often sensory intervention may not be considered educationally relevant, especially in the prekindergarten level. With the proper training and materials, as well as the guidance of the school-based occupational therapist, teachers, other therapists, classroom assistants, parents, and school-based staff might be able to utilize sensory-based activities like sensory diets to increase participation, positive behaviors, and attention. The following applied research study …

Examining The Learning Of Students Participating In An Interactive Simulated Patient Experience, Mary Smyers

Theses and Dissertations

Simulated patients are becoming increasingly used in the educational program of future speech-language pathologists. The use of standardized patients provides the opportunity to teach students clinical skills in a controlled environment (Bradley, 2006; Zraick, 2012). Simucase, a speech-language pathology software program, allows clinicians to practice their assessment and treatment skills on virtual patients and is a valid method when teaching clinical skills. Thus, this project examined five undergraduate senior clinicians’ performance and reflection about the Simucase program and their own clinical knowledge. The undergraduate student clinicians engaged in controlled simulation experiences that shared similar characteristics to their current clients, and …

Improvement Of Speech Perception For Hearing-Impaired Listeners, Fang Du

Theses and Dissertations

Hearing impairment is becoming a prevalent health problem affecting 5% of world adult populations. Hearing aids and cochlear implant already play an essential role in helping patients over decades, but there are still several open problems that prevent them from providing the maximum benefits. Financial and discomfort reasons lead to only one of four patients choose to use hearing aids; Cochlear implant users always have trouble in understanding speech in a noisy environment.

In this dissertation, we addressed the hearing aids limitations by proposing a new hearing aid signal processing system named Open-source Self-fitting Hearing Aids System (OS SF hearing …

The Relationship Between Perceptions Of Vocal Quality And Function With Self-Esteem In Older Adults, Victoria Berto

Theses and Dissertations

Alterations to the voice that occur in older adulthood include changes in vocal fold mass, inadequate approximation of the vocal folds, tremor, and air loss (Lundy, Silva, Casiano, Lu, & Xue, 1998). Many of the vocal changes that occur in older adults, those aged 65 and older (Colby & Ortman, 2015), may affect their social and emotional well-being. While some persons are not affected by life span vocal changes, others suffer from co-occuring depression, anxiety, and social withdrawal (Epstein, Hirani, Stygall, & Newman, 2009; Mirza, Ruiz, Baum, & Staab, 2003; Monini, Filippi, Baldini, & Barbara, 2015). There have been numerous …

Minimal Hearing Loss In School-Age Children: Prevalence And Relationship To Reading Impairment, Laura Peek

Theses and Dissertations

Purpose: The two-fold purpose of this study was to determine if a) students with reading impairments fail hearing screenings at higher rates than students without reading impairments and b) if the pattern of simple view of reading classification differs across hearing screening results.

Method: This project included 19 students with reading impairments and 17 students with typically reading skills in grades 2 through 11. Each participant completed a hearing screening and a complete battery of language and literacy tests to determine their hearing screen status and simple view classification.

Results: Results of a chi square test comparing reading status and …

Neuroanatomical Correlates Of Speech And Melody Repetition In Chronic Stroke, Sarah Elizabeth Bradford

Theses and Dissertations

The ability to repeat speech is impaired in most individuals with aphasia. Recent evidence suggests damage to area Spt (boundary of the parietal and temporal lobes at the Sylvian fissure) may cause the repetition difficulties commonly seen in aphasia. This study examined if such repetition impairments are specific to speech or reflect a more general repetition deficit, and determined how regional and network brain damage predict repetition impairments. Participants in the chronic phase of stroke (N=47) listened to a series of ten five-second melodies that consisted of six tones and repeated the melody (by humming) following its presentation. The participants’ …

Progress Monitoring Timing Effects In Speech And Written Language Therapy, James P. Blaida

Theses and Dissertations

Progress monitoring is a crucial aspect of speech-language pathology. Without it, speech-language pathologists (SLPs) have little way of determining if patients are making progress with the implemented therapy. Currently, most SLPs perform progress monitoring during therapy. This study compared the traditional, status-quo, method of progress monitoring to that of progress monitoring performed before therapy begins in an effort to determine if a timing change would affect therapy outcomes. 2 boys, receiving articulation therapy, and 1 girl, receiving spelling therapy, each had 1 treatment goal for the during condition and 1 treatment goal for the before condition. The children all received …

Individual Differences In Music Discrimination And Their Relation To Reading And Reading-Related Skills In Children, Elaina C. Hill

Theses and Dissertations

Research suggests that there may be a relationship between music and reading. Some researchers have found that musical rhythm is related to reading in children, while others have found that it is musical pitch and not rhythm that correlates with reading. Prosody is the melodic element of language that encompasses both pitch and rhythm. In the past, these have been studied separately. In the present study, we analyzed pitch and rhythm discrimination skills, phonological awareness, prosody and reading in thirty-nine seven and eight year old children. We predicted that music and reading skills would be related, and that prosody would …

Perceived Stress, Self-Compassion, And Emotional Variance In Parents Of Children With Communication Disorders: A Family Approach To Service Delivery In Speech-Language Pathology, Olivia Marie Arnos

Theses and Dissertations

The amount of children born with developmental disorders in the United States is on the rise, increasing from 12.8% in 1998 to 15.04% in 2008 (Huang, Chang, Chi & Lai, 2013). Children with developmental disabilities often have chronic conditions that require additional support across their lifetime, ranging in deficits of attention, physical abilities, visual impairments, hearing impairments, learning disabilities, and communication disorders. Research has shown as dependency of a child on caretakers increases, there is an increase in parental stress and a decrease in perceived well-being. Hall and Graff (2011) found parents of children with developmental disorders are less likely …

The Effectiveness Of Self-Regulated Strategy Development For School-Age Children With Hearing Loss, Jessica Rice

Theses and Dissertations

Purpose: The two-fold purpose of this feasibility study was to determine if (a) self-regulated strategy development intervention would improve the writing skills of children with hearing loss and (b) if self-regulated strategy development intervention would improve the reading comprehension skills of children with hearing loss.

Method: One eleven year-old child with bilateral sensorineural hearing loss participated in this single-subject, multiple probe across behaviors design treatment study which examined the effectiveness of using writing intervention to improve reading comprehension in children with hearing loss. The participant completed three seven-week writing interventions focused on narratives, opinion essays, and persuasive essays. Intervention was …

Print Referencing Intervention During Shared Storybook Reading For Preschool Children With Hearing Loss, Sara Lawrence

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a print referencing book-reading intervention among children with hearing loss. Two preschool children with hearing loss who are developing listening and spoken language participated in this single subject study. The children participated individually in print referencing book-reading intervention (10 minute session once a week for 7 weeks). Assessment of children’s print knowledge skills occurred at the beginning of each session. Print referencing book-reading intervention was associated with gains in conceptual print knowledge. Further study is needed in this area.

Interprofessional Collaboration: Aac, Michelle Bird, Anna Kusior

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Coding Strategies For Cochlear Implants Under Adverse Environments, Qudsia Tahmina

Theses and Dissertations

Cochlear implants are electronic prosthetic devices that restores partial hearing in patients with severe to profound hearing loss. Although most coding strategies have significantly improved the perception of speech in quite listening conditions, there remains limitations on speech perception under adverse environments such as in background noise, reverberation and band-limited channels, and we propose strategies that improve the intelligibility of speech transmitted over the telephone networks, reverberated speech and speech in the presence of background noise. For telephone processed speech, we propose to examine the effects of adding low-frequency and high- frequency information to the band-limited telephone speech. Four listening …

Collaboration Occurring Between Professionals In Today's Schools, Kara Lynn Doglio

Theses and Dissertations

The collaborative service delivery model is beneficial in its approach as it allows educators and SLPs to work together to address communication impairments in naturalistic settings in order to maximize the functional potential of all students. The current utilization of collaboration as a viable service delivery option is unknown. The purpose of this study was to identify whether collaboration was occurring and with whom it was occurring. This study also sought to identify similarities and differences across four participant groups regarding perceived beliefs and reported practices in professional collaboration. While administrators took a separate survey than educators (general and special …