Speech and Hearing Science Commons^™

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 …

Dynamic Assessment Of Aac Verb Symbols For Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Valerie Prieto, Cindy Gevarter, Cathy Binger, Mary Hartley

Speech and Hearing Sciences ETDs

This study used dynamic assessment (DA) with graduated prompting to evaluate whether preschool-aged children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) demonstrated learning potential with verb-based augmentative alternative communication (AAC) symbols. Four participants completed DA sessions across three instructional conditions: (a) requesting actions embedded in play, (b) labeling actions embedded in play, and (c) labeling actions presented via video. Performance across these conditions along with a control condition was compared using an adapted multielement single-case design. Three participants demonstrated learning in at least two instructional conditions, and only one showed progress in the control condition. Overall, participants initially required less cueing to …

Age-Related Decline In Neural Synchrony And The Ffr, Haley Szabo

Dissertations, 2020-current

It is a known phenomenon that speech understanding in background noise declines with advancing age. Although there is ample evidence of behavioral measures declining with age, there is less physiologic evidence. This study hypothesizes that the FFR will be degraded with advancing age, consistent with poorer phase locking. This is hypothesized to be present even in people with audiograms within normal limits. A second hypothesis is that middle-aged adults will have degraded neural representation as frequency increases, compared to a younger normal hearing group which will have better high frequency neural representation than the middle-aged group. Subjects were divided into …

Multilingualism And Augmentative Alternative Communication: A Review Of The Literature, Hannah N. Lamarca, Natalie R. Andzik

Honors Capstones

Purpose: Individuals from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds who use Alternative and Augmentative Communication (AAC) are often offered English-only AAC systems that do not meet their language needs. Devices that host multiple languages often only offer one at a time.

Method: The authors reviewed the literature by searching relevant databases using a variety of search strings. Following our inclusionary and exclusionary criteria, 15 articles were yielded for analysis.

Results: Authors found that more than half of the included articles were discussion-based papers on AAC delivery, barriers to AAC and multilingualism, and codeswitching using AAC. The included interview studies aimed to …

The Effects Of An Intervention Using Pokemon Trading Card Game On The Decoding Abilities Of Children, Derek Emmett

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The present study focuses on illustrating the relationship between word decoding instruction and word decoding abilities within the context of a trading card game. Additionally, an argument for reading motivation and improvement of literacy skills is made. Three participants between the ages of 9 and 13 were recruited for participation in this study. Several decoding strategies such as phonemic awareness and morphological awareness strategies were implemented and trained over the course of several trading card games. Performance in decoding of several lists of compiled nonwords following treatment phases were systematically measured by the researcher. Two of the three participants demonstrated …

The Effects Of Using Baby Sign Training On The Interactions Between Mothers And Infants, Ayzzar Gurrola

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Baby sign has been becoming more popular and known through the publication of parenting books and websites dedicated to its use. Research continues to blossom on the subject, demonstrating that it is indeed beneficial on many levels for both the infant and their caregiver. Several researchers have implicated the effects of baby sign on infantsâ?? cognitive and behavioral development. The purpose of this research is to analyze the effects of a baby sign training on the interactions of mothers and their babies. Five typically developing infants between the ages of eight and fourteen months and their parent participated in this …

Coaching Student Clinicians And Parents To Use Naturalistic Communication Techniques For Children With Signs Of Autism, Erin M. Gallegos

Speech and Hearing Sciences ETDs

In this study, researchers implemented a short-term cascading coaching program focusing on naturalistic developmental behavioral interventions (NDBIs) with three participant triads consisting of a graduate student clinician, a minimally verbal child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or signs of ASD, and the child’s parent. The efficacy of several short-term instruction sessions, in-session coaching, and student clinician parent coaching was evaluated using a multiple baseline across interventionists design. The primary dependent variables were clinician and parent use of elicitation techniques, including creating communication temptations and prompting, and response techniques, including reinforcing child communication and using vocal models. Following targeting coaching, all …

Examining Perception And Understanding Of Stroke And Its Risk Factors In A Rural Population, Mackenzie King, Gabrielle Scarpa, Mary Gardiner

Theses & Honors Papers

Stroke, also sometimes referred to as a brain attack, occurs when there is a blockage in blood supply to the brain or when a blood vessel bursts within the brain (CDC, 2022). Rural populations have a higher incidence of stroke and higher stroke mortality in the United States (Howard et al., 2017). Although there is a higher incidence rate of stroke in rural populations, researchers have also found that these populations appear to have limited knowledge on stroke and its risk factors. The current study employed a non-experimental descriptive design that explored stroke knowledge in adults residing in rural populations …

Our Voices: Getting To Know Autism, Katherine Rasberry

Honors Theses

This study was done in effort to understand the thoughts and feelings of autistic adults relative to life transitions and resources available. We surveyed key stakeholders; specifically autistic students, but also family/caregivers of adults. Six surveys were created, each based upon different themes: camouflaging, life transitions, managing mental health, overstimulation, social communication, and family and caregiver perceptions. Our surveys were marketed on Western Michigan University’s campus and through social media and are still ongoing. Trends in the data, however, suggest that overall autistics have concerns about how their disabilities impact life in or shortly after college. Many respondents expressed they …

Late Talkers: Maternal Input And Attention Allocation In Mother–Child Dyad Play, Toby B. Mehl

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Late talkers (LT) are two-year-old children with expressive language delays, who do not yet have a lexicon of fifty words, and do not combine words. Maternal child-directed language to these children, termed ‘maternal input’ may influence their language learning. The first aim of this study was to examine the relationship between a child’s language, as measured by expressive vocabulary, and the child-directed speech by the mother of the child. Maternal input to late-talking children was compared to the maternal input presented to two typical language matched groups: an age-matched group of children (AM) and a vocabulary-matched group of children (VM) …

Analysis Of Electrophysiological Markers And Correlated Components Of Neural Responses To Discourse Coherence, Kurt M. Masiello

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Constructing meaning from spoken language is invaluable for learning, social interaction, and communication. In clinical populations with developmental disorders of speech comprehension, the severity of disruption can persist and vary from limiting occupational opportunities to lower performance outcomes. Previous research has reported an event-related potential (ERP) neural positivity over right hemisphere lateral anterior sites in response to semantic and discourse processing. Although useful as a marker for clinical populations of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and developmental language disorder (DLD), little is understood about the dynamics and neural sources of this biological marker. In addition to traditional methods of ERP analysis, …

Graduate-Level Leadership Training For Speech-Language Pathologists: Perceptions, Attitudes, And Potential Effect On Career, Sandra Kemper

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The aim of this study is to determine how a perceived lack of leadership training at the graduate level contributes to inadequate preparedness for the clinical, professional, and supervisory leadership roles professionals hold within the field of speech-language pathology (Kummer, 2017). More specifically, this study will seek to identify current leadership concerns of practicing SLPs, exploring whether and/or how lack of leadership training has affected their professional growth or career. The information can serve to guide the development of leadership training opportunities in speech-language pathology graduate programs. This descriptive, non-experimental study utilized purposive sampling of speech-language pathologists licensed in the …

The Effects Of Inspiratory Muscle Training On Exercise-Induced Laryngeal Obstruction In Young Adults, Allison Lyman

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

Exercise-induced laryngeal obstruction (EILO) is a condition that results from abnormal vocal fold adduction upon inspiration (Abdel-Hamid, 2018). Symptoms of this ailment include dyspnea, choking sensations, an audible stridor, and/or coughing during physical exertion (Marcinow et al., 2014). These symptoms affect an individual’s ability to breathe adequately during exercise. A review of current literature suggests that there are a variety of interventions that can be used to reduce perceived dyspnea in individuals who suffer from EILO. One such intervention is known as inspiratory muscle training (IMT), which works to reduce dyspnea by strengthening the primary muscle of inspiration: the posterior …

The Effect Of Different Warm-Up Durations On Subjective And Objective Measures Of Singing In Choral Singers Over The Age Of 55, Jeremy A. Chesman

MSU Graduate Theses

Choral singing is a popular activity in the United States. Choral singers are often encouraged to warm up vocally before they sing. Considering voice conditions, like presbyphonia, that can develop shortly after retirement, more research about vocal warm-ups is needed for those over the age of 55. This study assesses the effects of various durations of vocal warm-ups on subjective and objective measures of the singing voice using a within-groups design with randomized condition order. Nine participants performed vocal warm-ups for 0, 5, 10, and 15 minutes. A song sample was then recorded and sent to two expert raters who …

Indirectly And Directly Involved Students' Perspectives On Multi-Modal Communication Treatment In Persons With Aphasia, Emily Lewis

Honors Theses

Our study investigated the perspectives of students who were either directly or indirectly involved in the Multi-modal communication treatment (MCT) sessions for persons with aphasia. Two undergraduate and two graduate students were recruited from the University of Mississippi who participated in the MCT sessions. We collected their perspectives through semi-structured interviews and used thematic qualitative analysis to analyze our data. We reported themes from the indirectly involved students and the directly involved students and compared how the themes were similar and different between the indirectly and directly involved students. We discussed that both direct and indirect experience for clinical therapy …

Impact Of Language Sampling Context On Language Productivity And Complexity, Trina J. Tolentino

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Language sampling is a familiar tool in the speech-language pathologist’s (SLP’s) repertoire, used to assess a student’s language ability and inform treatment targets. The current literature has several studies comparing various dimensions of language sampling context, but with relatively small samples. The goal of this study was to identify what sampling contexts elicit the most productive and complex language, thereby contributing insight into what conditions may yield the most accurate representation of a child’s language skill, as well as the resulting intervention focus.

One-thousand thirty-seven kindergarten, first-, second-, and third-grade students (mean age [years; months] ≈ 7;5; range = 5;0-10;9), …

Development Of Psychoacoustic Screening Tests For Hearing Assessments, Minh Vu Duong

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The evaluation of suprathreshold listening abilities in audiological assessment is often minimized despite the valuable insight it produces about auditory discrimination skills. These capabilities can be assessed from psychoacoustic tests. However, measuring these abilities requires a significant amount of time. Therefore, screening tests were developed for frequency discrimination, gap detection, and amplitude modulation tests to identify individuals for whom these skills are most likely to be useful. The purpose of this project was to determine the ability of this screening tool to predict good performers and determine who is likely to have reduced skills and require full threshold assessment. Thirty …

Myeloarchitectonic Maps Of Cat Auditory Cortex, Austin Robertson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The cerebral cortex contains myriad cortical areas that differ in structure, function, and connectivity. Current methods of delineating cortical structures and their subregions are insufficient for in vivo applications, either being highly invasive or requiring a detailed knowledge of a region’s tuning properties. To address this, we seek to establish a structural biomarker capable of delineating the cortex that possesses a non-invasive correlate. We explore myelin as a potential candidate by evaluating its efficacy in parcellating the feline auditory cortex through the generation of depthwise myelin density profiles for each of the 13 auditory cortical subregions. Our analyses revealed significant …

The Intersectionality Of Stuttering And Aging, Mary Elizabeth Herring

University Honors Theses

The purpose of this study is to explore relationships between stuttering and aging so that speech-language pathologists can be informed about the intersectionality of these identities.

Three adult men who stutter, all over the age of 65, were interviewed in semi-structured interviews. Interview transcripts were analyzed with in-vivo coding to find codes and themes between participants. From the interviews, 20 categories were identified. These categories were then funneled into four overarching themes: 1) Personal factors impacted by stuttering, 2) Stuttering perspectives across the lifespan, 3) Stuttering therapy experiences, and 4) Covert stuttering.

This study shows that attitudes, perspectives, and experiences …

A Delphi Study Of The Skills Necessary For A Speech-Language Pathologist Or Occupational Therapist To Be Successful In A Leadership Position, Jessica Miller

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this Delphi study was to identify the skills necessary for a speech-language pathologist or occupational therapist to be successful in a leadership position using an expert panel. In addition, the purpose was to rate the identified skills based on importance and lastly to determine the activities experts recommend to acquire the top-rated skills. Methodology: This study used a three-round Delphi method to collect data from expert leaders in speech-language pathology and occupational therapy. In Round 1, the expert panel was asked to identify the skills necessary to transition from a speech-language pathologist or occupational therapist to …

User Preferences For Hearing Aid Features: Outcomes, Concepts, And Test Construction, Hasan Saleh

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Modern hearing aids can vary in both digital signal processing (DSP) and non-signal processing (non-DSP) features. The complexity and availability of these features can differ at opposite ends of the technology spectrum, potentially influencing aided benefit and preference. Furthermore, the amount of feature choices in modern hearing aids has led to increasing complexity in the selection process.

The first aim of this dissertation was to investigate the aided benefit and preference differences between premium and entry-level hearing aids, and to investigate the drivers of any preference differences. No significant differences were found between the entry-level and premium hearing aids in …

Implicit Learning In Preschool Children With And Without Developmental Language Disorder, Abigail E. Tolomei

University Honors Theses

The study below was designed to compare implicit learning in fifty-two preschool-aged children with and without developmental language disorder (DLD) to test the Procedural Deficit Hypothesis (PDH). The PDH claims that procedural memory, the basis of implicit learning, is the main impairment in DLD. Using a computer-based program to conduct sound-meaning-mapping tasks, we asked children to select one of two images according to the corresponding sound they heard. After all the participants were tested, an additional cue was found in the experiment that impacted the data. Instead of the children attuning to the sounds to depict the correct answer, the …

Transitioning From Face-To-Face To Telehealth Speech And Language Services Due To The Covid-19 Pandemic: Perceptions Of Persons With Aphasia And Their Ehelpers, Emma Logan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research study was to investigate the perceptions of the aphasia community, as well as their caregivers, that are provided speech and language services and how their services were affected due to transitions because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The recency and novelty of the pandemic warrants research of many areas related to health care, including that of speech language pathology.

An online survey was completed by nine persons with aphasia and three eHelpers. Participants were recruited through a university clinic and by informational fliers through social media. Participants with aphasia qualified by having experiences with speech and …

The Effects Of Language Proficiency On Narrative Macrostructure In Spanish-English Bilinguals, Jenny Magallon

Dissertations and Theses

Bilingual children of the same age may have different narrative skills depending on the quantity and quality of their experiences in the two languages. Thus, children's storytelling skills can vary depending on children's oral proficiency in each language. The present study examined the effects of oral proficiency on story structure in forty 5- to 7-year-old Spanish-English speaking children using Spanish and English samples from story retelling tasks. Language proficiency was measured as continuum of performance using the Spanish-English Language Proficiency Scale (SELPS; Smyk et al., 2013). To estimate the effects of Spanish and English proficiency on story structure, linear regressions …

The Effect Of Aac-Modeling Intervention (Aac-Mod) Within Dialogic Reading On Vocabulary Learning In Children With Down Syndrome, Emily A. Mchugh

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the effect of aided Alternative and Augmentative Communication-Modeling (AAC-MOD) intervention on the communication skills of preschool-age children with Down syndrome (DS) during dialogic book reading. The study investigated to what extent AAC-MOD is effective in increasing the acquisition of target vocabulary and expressive communication acts by children with DS who use few words functionally. Two children aged 3;10 and 5;4, with repertoires of less than 75 intelligible words were selected. A repeated acquisition experimental design was used to examine the effects of instruction on target vocabulary word learning and symbolic communication. …

Audiologists' Perspectives On Noise Induced Hearing Loss, Rachael L. Cleary

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Excessive noise has long been established in the literature as a prevalent workplace hazard. The high prevalence of occupational noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) has led to high economic costs and has produced many physical and mental health effects on workers exposed to occupational noise. Standards set by OSHA are implemented in the workplace in order to protect employees. Despite these regulations set by OSHA, millions of workers in the United States are still exposed to excessive occupational noise, with limited use of hearing protection. The high prevalence of occupational NIHL and low use of hearing protective devices (HPDs) brings into …

A Diagnostic Pocket Guide For Audiologists: Outer, Middle, And Inner Ear Disorders And Chronic Diseases, Ashley Andino

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Given the Scope of Practice for Audiologists as outlined by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), the diverse occupational settings audiologists belong to, and the varied multidisciplinary collaboration necessary, audiologists are tasked with needing, at minimum, a baseline understanding of a wide range of disorders. This includes not only otological diseases, but multisystem disorders that affect the auditory system. While an abundance of diagnostic audiological information on various disorders and their impacts are available, there exists a gap in the availability of condensed and accessible diagnostic information for everyday use. The goal of the resulting diagnostic pocket guide is to provide …

Augmentative And Alternative Communication Use, Service Delivery Experiences, And Communicative Participation For People With Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Betts Peters

Dissertations and Theses

People with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) often experience changes to their speech, and may use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices and techniques to maintain the ability to communicate. The use of AAC may facilitate the participation of people with ALS in various life situations involving communication. There is limited data in the literature about the AAC approaches currently used by people with ALS, the professional services they receive to support communication, or the effects of AAC on their communicative participation. This dissertation involved a nationwide online survey of people with ALS, and comprises three papers intended to add to …

Intervention Approaches For Childhood Apraxia Of Speech: An Overview Of Prevailing Treatment Methods, Toni Lewis

University Honors Theses

This paper aims to describe the theory and methods of select intervention approaches for childhood apraxia of speech so readers may better understand current treatment techniques. Covered in this paper are Rapid Syllable Transitions (ReST), Dynamic Temporal and Tactile Cueing (DTTC), Prompts for Restructuring Oral Muscular Phonetic Targets (PROMPT), as well as supplemental techniques such as augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) and ultrasound biofeedback. Also covered briefly are instances of CAS treatment in languages other than English.