Speech and Hearing Science Commons^™

Language Profiles Of Children Who Have Experienced Complex Trauma And Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders, Christel G. Ciolino

Masters Theses

Children who experience maltreatment and children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) have similar neurological differences and are at risk for language impairments. However, limited research has been conducted to analyze their specific skill sets. To address this limitation, retrospective data from the Children’s Trauma Assessment Center of Southwest Michigan were analyzed. The linguistic profiles of 79 children with histories of varying numbers of traumatic experiences and comorbid FASD statues are compared in the areas of semantics, syntax, pragmatics, and social communication. Individuals had high pass rates on the CELF-5 Screening Test and high overall scores on the Pragmatic Protocol-Revised …

The Quality Of Life Among Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Katharine F. Moroney

Masters Theses

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that may affect several aspects of communication, including social and pragmatic functioning. There is a paucity of research in general involving adults with ASD, especially in the United States. Moreover, the strand of research that is significantly lacking involves the quality of life among adults with ASD. While considering the increase in the prevalence of ASD, it is important to empirically investigate the Quality of Life (QoL) of adults with ASD. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines QoL as, “the individual’s perception of their position in life… ranging from the person’s physical …

The Relationship Between Speaking Rate And Nasalance In Typical Adult Speakers, Rachel Whitney

Masters Theses

Nasometry is a non-invasive tool frequently used to measure speech resonance in clinical populations. The instrument uses an acoustic recording system to derive a measure termed nasalance, which is an estimate of the relative amount of acoustic energy emitted from the nasal cavity. Nasometry protocols do not provide detailed instructions for speaking rate control during data collection. Studies attempting to establish a relationship between speaking rate and nasalance have yielded mixed results; therefore, it is important to identify the influence of speaking rate on nasalance in a variety of speaking tasks. If rate is found to influence nasalance values, protocols …

Language Abilities Of Male Adolescents In A Juvenile Detention Center, Krista J. Klein

Masters Theses

This study was designed to analyze the language abilities of male adolescents with delinquent behavior. It was based on the hypothesis that male adolescents with delinquent behavior would have lower language skills during expressive language tasks. Language skills of male adolescents in a juvenile detention center were examined by comparing 12 grammatical variables, four subtest scores, and one total score from the Screening Test for Adolescent Language (STAL; Prather, Ausdal-Breecher, Stafford & Wallace, 1980). Results indicated that the adolescents with delinquent behavior omitted significantly more words, but also produced significantly more secondary verbs in a narration task. Significantly lower results …

Story Writing By Students With Hearing Impairments, Lois A. Ketchum

Masters Theses

Students with hearing impairments (N = 21) wrote a personal narrative each academic year from 1990 to 1992. These narratives were rated on maturity of the story as a whole and maturity of the language used in the story by senior undergraduate students in the education department at Western Michigan University. The method used for rating was a holistic magnitude estimation technique.

Significant change over time was found for story scores, but not language scores. Grade level was found to have no significant effect on change from first to last ratings for either story scores or language scores. Degree of …

Analogical Reasoning Of Elderly Adults Using Three Modalities: Words, Pictures, And Figures, Judy L. Rau

Masters Theses

This study examined the analogical processing skills of elderly adults. Forty-seven subjects (ages 65-90) completed analogy tasks presented in three modalities: words, pictures, and geometric figures (90 total). The subjects for this study were elderly adults living independently in a federally subsidized apartment building. The subjects used in this study possessed characteristics similar to the "typical" American adult. Results indicated that performance does not vary significantly with age in the word and picture modalities. Significant (p < .05) negative relationships were found between performance on the geometric figure analogies and increased age and between overall performance and increased age. Significant (p < .05) positive relationships were found between education and performance on each of the three modalities as well as between education and overall performance.

Rhythmicity, Rate, And Perceived Effort Level Of Fluent And Disfluent Children And Their Parents, Lorraine Destefano Proctor

Masters Theses

Finger tapping and CVC syllable repetition measures of 7 four to eight year old fluent and disfluent children and their mothers were evaluated. Perceptual ratings of speech rate and effort level were also completed by the children, their mothers, and nine graduate students. These procedures were used to test hypotheses that mean interval durations for tapping and for speech, and perceptual ratings of speech rate and effort level are individual in nature.

Results indicated that the subjects1 measures of mean interval durations for tapping and for speech as estimates of rhythmicity, and perceptual ratings of speech rate and effort level …

A Hearing Assessment Using Operant Audiological Testing With A Severely Retarded Deaf-Blind Child, Patricia Timpson

Masters Theses

This study assessed the feasibility of teaching a 7-year-old severely retarded, hearing and vision impaired girl to respond consistently to a pure tone stimulus using operant audiometric techniques. The experimenter first shaped a head turn response using the opportunity to rock on a rocking horse as reinforcement. Following response shaping, the experimenter used a bone conduction transducer (BCT) as a tactile stimulus in training the subject to turn her head to the left in a similar fashion to a 500 Hz, 65 dB tone/vibration. After 15 days of transfer training, designed to bring the left head turn response under control …

Magnitude Estimation Of The Quality And Intelligibility Of Degraded Speech, Theresa Smith

Masters Theses

The purpose of the study was to identify within-group and between-group differences in perceived quality and perceived intelligibility of degraded speech for listeners with normal and impaired hearing. Following a visual magnitude estimation task, 10 subjects with normal hearing and 10 subjects with sensory-neural hearing impairment listened to connected speech samples degraded by seven levels of harmonic distortion and estimated the magnitude of their quality and intelligibility. Log average quality estimates and log average intelligibility estimates varied linearly with log degradation values for each group. The slopes of the log-log functions were interpreted as measures of perceptual sensitivity. Slopes for …

The Prelinguistic Communication Of Down's Syndrome Infants As Compared To Their Normal Peers, Carol Ann Resch

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Vowel Context On Consonantal Intraoral Air Pressure, Michael Karnell

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

A Descriptive Analysis Of Individuals With Congenital Palatal Insufficiency, Judith Dabkowski

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

An Investigation Of The Relationship Between Oral Panendoscopic Evaluations Of Velopharyngeal Physiology And Perceived Listener Judgments Of Hypernasality, Earl J. Seaver

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Differentiating Phonemic And Spectrografhic Speech Characteristics Of Daf Susceptibility, Peter J. Alfonso

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.