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 …

A Preliminary Study Of The Articulatory And Acoustic Features Of Forward And Backward Tone Placement In Singing, Krista Wyllys

Masters Theses

A variety of terms exist for describing tone quality in singing, and voice scientists, voice therapists, teachers of singing, and students of singing use different terms to describe the same sound. One aspect of tone quality is tone placement. Teachers of singing often rely on imagery and imitation to elicit correct tone placement from students of singing. More concrete data about what produces forward and backward tone placement could supplement singing teachers’ current practice of using imagery and imitation to elicit a desirable tone quality. This study examined forward and backward tone placement to determine the articulatory gestures and acoustic …

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.

A Comparison Between Signal-To-Noise Ratios Of Stutterers And Normal Speakers, Allen A. Montgomery

Masters Theses

Chapter I

The Problem and Its Background

The Problem

The problem with which this study deals, involves the question: do adult stutterers and non-stutterers differ in their ability to separate auditorily a designated sound from a background of noise?

Review of Research

Research in the field of stuttering has covered a wide area. Stutterers' metabolism has been measured, their handedness determined, and their personalities evaluated. Recently, however, the research has taken a new direction. Since the early 1950's with the development of the discipline of cybernetics, it has dealt increasingly with stuttering in terms of auditory and proprioceptive feedback, self …

An Investigation Of The Relationship Of Tongue Clicking To Mandibular Descent, Amy Louise Bricker

Masters Theses

Introduction

The movement of the tongue has been of concern for many years to the speech therapist. At one time tongue exercises were of prime importance in this field but due to the gross misuse of the exercises, they have now become of little importance. Only recently has the motor functioning of the tongue attracted renewed interest. Although the activity of the tongue has often been studied, none of the studies to our knowledge have included the control of jaw movement. Since the genio-glossus muscle serves as the bulk of the tongue and has its origin on the mandible, the …

The Effects Of Manifest Anxiety On Stuttering Adaptation, Joseph Agnello

Masters Theses

I. Introduction

When stuttering behavior is viewed as a problem in learning, the phenomenon of adaptation frequently receives attention. A standard adaptation experiment consists of having the person who stutters re-read the same passage, or a passage of equal difficulty, a specified number of times. Under these conditions a relative reduction¹ in stuttering frequency usually occurs. Experimentalists and clinicians alike have long been puzzled as to why this decrement takes place, since stuttering is generally considered by many writers^2,3 as a self-reinforcing disorder; that is, stuttering produces more stuttering.

The present experiment was designed to investigate the effects, …

The Effect Of Recorded Stuttering On Listener Compression, Harold Walter William Homann

Masters Theses

Chapter I.

The Problem

Justification of this research. This experiment was designed to test the prevalent opinion that poor speaking reduces comprehension. Typical of such opinions is the conclusion of Knower, Phillips, and Koeppel¹, who state:

"The comparative effectiveness of speaking and oral reading as methods of presenting material depends upon the quality of performance. Poor speaking seems to be the least effective method of presenting informative materials. There is a direct relationship between the quality of speaking performance and the amount of material recalled. Poor speakers produced least recall."

Of the many factors which contribute to effective …

The Relationship Of Missing Teeth To Lisps, Richard Swerzbin

Masters Theses

Introduction

The Problem and Its Background

The profession of speech therapy is little more than twenty-five years old. As in any new field many beliefs are currently held without experimental corroboration. One of these concerns dentition. The claim is made by some speech therapists that missing teeth cause lisps. Other therapists and writers have doubted this belief. It is therefore the purpose of this study to determine the relationship between missing and articulation of the sibilant sounds, [s], [z], [S], [3], [tS], [d3], among first grade school children.

An Exploratory Study Of Differential Diadochokinesis, Marie C. Crickmay

Masters Theses

Introduction

In speech man is forced to use organs, muscles and groups of muscles whose basic function is to serve other purposes, namely, to chew, to suck and swallow, movements which are relatively slow and primitive in execution. But in articulate speech it is necessary to manipulate these same organs and muscles at a faster speech, and with far greater precision than was required of them in the performance of their basic function.

An Analysis Of The Effect Of Reserpine On Adult Stutterers, Barbara Anne Mitchell

Masters Theses

Chapter I

Introduction

The Purpose of This Study

Sixteen adult subjects, four female and twelve male stutterers, participated in an eleven-weak experiment for the purpose of discovering the affects, if any, of one milligram per day of the drug reserpine on both a stutterer's speech and his attitudes toward stuttering.

A Developmental History of the Drug Reserpine (23:8-40)

Reserpine is a pure crystalline alkaloid of the rauwolfia root commonly found in India, Ceylon, Burma, the Andaman Islands, Java, and Malaya.

The plant is named for Dr. Leohnard Rauwolf of Augsburg, a German botanist, physician, and explorer, who, in a publication …