Speech Pathology and Audiology Commons^™

Considering Extended High-Frequency Audiometry As A Screening Tool For Auditory Processing Disorder, Maylee Martin

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of this research project is to describe Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) and its background and etiology, signs and symptoms, and treatment options. APD is an auditory disorder that affects the central nervous system. Individuals with auditory processing disorders are able to detect sounds at normal hearing levels and pass a standard hearing test, but struggle with higher order auditory skills such as auditory discrimination, binaural processing, including understanding in the presence of background noise, and temporal processing (ASHA, 2005). A full auditory processing test battery is time consuming, and many audiologists are not skilled in administering typical APD …

A Survey Study Of Speech-Language Therapists’ Experiences With Teletherapy At The Onset Of The Covid-19 Crisis, Jason A. Rosas

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The present study aimed to understand how delivering pediatric treatment services via ‘teletherapy’ affected speech-language therapists (SLTs) during the initial outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis in 2020. SLTs reported on their experiences with the change from in-person to remote service delivery via two national surveys distributed at the start of the pandemic between April 2020 and July 2020. To explain SLTs’ survey responses, this dissertation introduced the Professional Adaptation Model (PA Model). The PA Model facilitated evaluation of the SLTs’ professional environment and the psychological constructs of their professional identity believed to influence the transition to speech-language teletherapy. Specifically, …

The Impact Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Special Education: A Case Study, Megan Cercone

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of this research project is to explore the possible impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on special education by evaluating the experiences of one child with disabilities who attends public schools. METHODS: A semi-structured interview was conducted with the two parents of the child, who has physical disabilities and an IEP through his school, meaning he receives special education services through intervention teachers, physical therapists, occupational therapists, and speech therapists. The interview was recorded and transcribed, and then interview transcripts were evaluated to identify themes in the subjects’ responses regarding their child’s experience with public education during the pandemic. …

An Exploration Of Audiologists' Readiness To Adopt Connected Hearing Healthcare For Remote Hearing Aid Fitting, Luisa Natalia Perez Velez

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Background: Globally, the increasing prevalence of hearing loss and need for improved access to hearing healthcare services, highlights the growing need for alternative service delivery models. A Connected Health model emerges as a solution for this need, focusing on the use of telecommunication technologies. This model, extended to audiology, can help to better ‘connect’ a patient to their own care process and to their provider during audiological diagnostics, treatment, and management services, at a distance and in an effective and timely manner. The strong capacity for and underutilization of Connected Audiology within current aural (re)habilitation service models have led to …

Telemedicine In Pediatric Speech Therapy: Characteristics Of Child, Mother, And Speech-Language Pathologist Vocal Interaction., Abigail L Betts

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

Telemedicine is a potential solution to provide distant or underserved clients with access to their clinician. The purpose of this thesis is to examine how the use of telemedicine affects the vocal characteristics of children who received cochlear implants (CI), their mother, and a speech-language pathologist (SLP) as they engage in a speech-language therapy intervention. The children (n = 5), her caregiver, and the SLP engaged in one 30 minute in person session and one 30 minute telemedicine session in a counterbalanced order. The frequency of vocalizations, vocal turns, and between-speaker pause (BSP) duration in both sessions were examined. The …

Ipad Use To Enhance Conversations Between Persons With Dementia And Their Family Caregivers, Kelsey Dynes

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Electronic conversational memory notebooks, a more current application of previous hardcopy versions, consist of personally relevant photographs and accompanying sentences. The notebooks help persons with dementia access memories during conversations. Person-centred communication (PCC) recognizes the individual, accommodating for personal beliefs and intentions. The purpose of the current study was to determine whether persons with dementia and their family caregivers could be educated and trained to use PCC while using an iPad-based electronic conversational memory notebook. Seven persons with mild to moderate dementia and their family caregiver completed the six-week study. Participants were educated and trained to use PCC while conversing …

Development Of A Journaling Application To Track Progress Of Adaptation To Amplification For Adult Patients: Deardiary, Nicole C. Snider

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The DEar Diary application is an illustration of concept of an Apple iOS (operating system) application designed as a tool for supporting compliance and satisfaction with the use of amplification. The audiologist’s main purpose is to counsel, support and to provide rehabilitative counseling to their patients. Helping a patient succeed while using hearing devices for the first time is a complicated task which can be accomplished with the proper counseling and helpful tools in place.

The use of a journal to write down experiences and providing written support material the patient can refer to once they are out of the …

Professional Competencies For E-Helpers: A Telepractice Resource, Hannah M. Schlaak

Theses and Dissertations--Communication Sciences and Disorders

The primary purpose of this study was to craft and validate a set of core competencies necessary for an e-Helper to possess. A review of the literature guided the creation of the initial competencies. Following expert review, the competencies were revised and formatted into an online survey which was sent to respondents in four target groups: (a) school administrators who had adopted telepractice as a service delivery model; (b) SLPs experienced in telepractice within a school setting; (c) current e-Helpers, and (d) scholars experienced in telepractice. Sixty percent (21 out of 35) of the competencies were rated as “important” by …

Affordable And Accessible Hearing Healthcare Interventions In The United States: A Literature Review And Prospective Analysis, Garrett Thompson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Age-related hearing loss is a significant public health concern with serious and far-reaching consequences including: social isolation, depression, faster cognitive decline, and increased risk of falls. Hearing loss is a widespread condition, it is in fact a leading cause of disability among older people. Hearing aids, the primary intervention for adults with hearing loss, are costly and inaccessible to many patients who need them. Among other reasons, these factors have led to a low uptake rate among the adult population; only one in seven adults who could benefit from wearing hearing aids utilizes them. Given the status quo of high …

Analysing A New Mobile Bilateral Audiology Test For Children, Luke J. Brook

Theses : Honours

Hearing loss in Australian children, primarily Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, is a growing concern for the Australian public health sector. In certain rural communities up to 90 per cent of children have been found to experience some form of hearing loss. Although hearing loss can be the result of a number of different causes, including congenital influences, the most common cause of hearing loss in Australian children is attributed to a common middle ear infection, otitis media.

To address the issue, numerous solutions have been proposed, tested and implemented, although the problem persists due to geographic, environmental and cultural …