Speech Pathology and Audiology Commons^™

Impact Of Testosterone Therapy On Voices In Trans-Masculine People: A Scoping Review, Samuel E. Hedine, Jeff Conn, Deanna Britton

Student Research Symposium

Treatment of trans people by speech-language pathologists (SLPs) dates back to at least the 1980s. However, the majority of early research on the voices of trans people focused on trans-women. More recently, the field of speech-language pathology has garnered more interest in the effects of testosterone therapy in trans-masculine individuals. The goal of this project is to review current research, and compile the known effects of testosterone therapy in the trans-masculine population on common acoustic indices of voice production, including fundamental frequency (pitch), decibels/sound pressure level (dB SPL; loudness) and cepstral peak prominence (voice quality). A scoping literature search was …

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.

Data From: A Protracted Developmental Trajectory For English-Learning Children’S Detection Of Consonant Mispronunciations In Newly Learned Words, Carolyn Quam, Daniel Swingley

Speech and Hearing Sciences Faculty Datasets

Children are adept at learning their language’s speech-sound categories, but just how these categories function in their developing lexicon has not been mapped out in detail. Here, we addressed whether, in a language-guided looking procedure, two-year-olds would respond to a mispronunciation of the voicing of the initial consonant of a newly learned word. First, to provide a baseline of mature native-speaker performance, adults were taught a new word under training conditions of low prosodic variability. In a second experiment, 24- and 30-month-olds were taught a new word under training conditions of high or low prosodic variability. Children and adults showed …

Perceptions And Experiences Of Indian And Indian-American Multilingual And Multicultural Adults Who Stutter, Bhavani Ganesh

University Honors Theses

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the intersectional identities of Indian and Indian American people who stutter and explore how their multicultural and/or multilingual identities contribute to their self-perceptions and experiences of disability.

Method: Five Indian or Indian American adults (all male) who stuttered participated in a semi-structured interview via Zoom. Interview transcripts were analyzed using a phenomenological qualitative research methods process. The qualitative research process included in-vivo coding, identification of categories, and emergence of themes.

Results: Participants reported both unique and shared experiences related to their stuttering and their multicultural and multilingual backgrounds. Four major themes …

Self-Perception Of Stuttering Frequency Across The Lifespan: A Pilot Study, Natalia C. Newton

University Honors Theses

Purpose: The purpose of the current pilot study is to analyze the accuracy of self-rating of stuttering frequency as compared to clinician calculations of stuttering frequency in order to further examine possible factors that affect the accuracy of a stutterer’s self-rating of their overt stuttering.

Method: Three participants (i.e., one child, one teen, one adult) self-rated their perceptions of their stuttering frequency on a scale of 1-5 after three telepractice speech therapy sessions. Each of the telepractice therapy sessions were recorded and reviewed asynchronously after the session to conduct a disfluency count with a 300-word sample and calculate the percentage …

Explicit Learning Of Auditory Categories In Preschoolers With And Without Developmental Language Disorder, Lauren Casey

University Honors Theses

This study a part of a broader study including Quam et al. (2020) and Yu (2020) with the aim of understanding how children with and without developmental language disorder learn language. With a better understanding of the underlying learning mechanisms affected in DLD, better interventions can be implemented. The current study investigates explicit language learning in preschoolers with and without developmental language disorder (DLD). This was done by observing sound discrimination and explicit sound-meaning mapping. One child with DLD and 29 children with typical language development (TLD) participated in this study. Inclusion in each group was determined by a hearing …

Infants’ Discrimination Of Consonant Contrasts In The Presence And Absence Of Talker Variability, Carolyn Quam, Lauren Clough, Sara Knight, Louann Gerken

Speech and Hearing Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

To learn speech‐sound categories, infants must identify the acoustic dimensions that differentiate categories and selectively attend to them as opposed to irrelevant dimensions. Variability on irrelevant acoustic dimensions can aid formation of robust categories in infants through adults in tasks such as word learning (e.g., Rost and McMurray, 2009) or speech‐sound learning (e.g., Lively et al., 1993). At the same time, variability sometimes overwhelms learners, interfering with learning and processing. Two prior studies (Kuhl & Miller, 1982; Jusczyk, Pisoni, & Mullennix, 1992) found that irrelevant variability sometimes impaired early sound discrimination. We asked whether variability would impair or facilitate discrimination …

Nonword Reading In Children Who Do And Do Not Stutter, Bailey Broxson, Laura Qualls, Tram Nguyen

Student Research Symposium

Stuttering is a multifactorial disorder characterized by disruptions in the forward flow of speech (ASHA). Previous research has demonstrated that children and adults who stutter have phonological working memory systems that are less efficient and accurate than children and adults who do not stutter. This difference in phonological working memory plays a key role in the production of stuttered speech. Anecdotally, speech-language pathologists who work with children who stutter report that three clients also demonstrate difficulty decoding novel works during reading tasks. To date, the link between phonological working memory, stuttered speech, and reading have not been explored. The purpose …

The Distribution Of Talker Variability Impacts Infants’ Word Learning, Carolyn Quam, Sara Knight, Louann Gerken

Speech and Hearing Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Infants struggle to apply earlier-demonstrated sound-discrimination abilities to later word learning, attending to non-constrastive acoustic dimensions (e.g., Hay et al., 2015), and not always to contrastive dimensions (e.g., Stager & Werker, 1997). One hint about the nature of infants’ difficulties comes from the observation that input from multiple talkers can improve word learning (Rost & McMurray, 2009). This may be because, when a single talker says both of the to-be-learned words, consistent talker’s-voice characteristics make the acoustics of the two words more overlapping (Apfelbaum & McMurray, 2011). Here, we test that notion. We taught 14-month-old infants two similar-sounding words in …

Participation In Camp Dream. Speak. Live: Affective And Cognitive Outcomes For Children Who Stutter, Courtney T. Byrd, Elizabeth Hampton, Megann Mcgill, Zoi Gkalitsiou

Speech and Hearing Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Objective: The purpose of this study was to explore the influence of participation in Camp Dream. Speak. Live., an intensive therapy program, on the communication attitudes, peer relationships and quality of life of children who stutter. Method: Participants were 23 children who stutter (n=5 females; n=18 males; age range 4–14 years) who attended a weeklong intensive therapy program that was exclusively developed to address the affective and cognitive components of stuttering. Outcome measures included the KiddyCAT Communication Attitude Test for Preschool and Kindergarten Children who Stutter, the Overall Assessment of the Speaker’s Experience of Stuttering (OASES), and the Patient Reported …

From Grapheme To Phonological Output: Performance Of Adults Who Stutter On A Word Jumble Task, Megann Mcgill, Harvey Sussman, Courtney T. Byrd

Speech and Hearing Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Purpose

The purpose of the present study was to extend previous research by analyzing the ability of adults who stutter to use phonological working memory in conjunction with lexical access to perform a word jumble task.

Method

Forty English words consisting of 3-, 4-, 5-, and 6-letters (n = 10 per letter length category) were randomly jumbled using a web-based application. During the experimental task, 26 participants were asked to silently manipulate the scrambled letters to form a real word. Each vocal response was coded for accuracy and speech reaction time (SRT).

Results

Adults who stutter attempted to solve …

Psychometric Evaluation Of Lexical Diversity Indices: Assessing Length Effects, Gerasimos Fergadiotis, Heather Harris Wright, Samuel B. Green

Speech and Hearing Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Purpose—Several novel techniques have been developed recently to assess the breadth of speaker’s vocabulary exhibited in a language sample. The specific aim of this study was to increase our understanding of the validity of the scores generated by different lexical diversity (LD) estimation techniques. Four techniques were explored: D, Maas, Measure of Textual Lexical Diversity (MTLD), and the Moving Average Type Token Ratio (MATTR).

Method—Four LD indices were estimated for language samples on four discourse tasks (procedures, eventcasts, story retell, and recounts) from 442 neurologically intact adults. The resulting data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

Results—The scores on the …

Measuring Global Coherence In Aphasia, V. Galetto, S. Kintz, T. West, Heather Harris Wright, Gerasimos Fergadiotis

Speech and Hearing Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Discourse coherence may be conceptualized as representing the listener's ability to interpret the overall meaning conveyed by the speaker. Discourse schemas serve as the organizing frameworks for placing the essential discourse elements within a language sample (Bloom, Borod, & Santschi-Haywoor, Pick, & Obler, 1996; Peterson & McCabe, 1983). When the essential elements are provided a logical consistency of the discourse schema is maintained and the listener perceives the discourse as coherent (Ditman & Kuperberg, 2010; Trabasso, van den Broek, & Suh, 1989; van den Broek, Virtue, Everson, Tzeng, & Sung, 2002). Global coherence refers to the ability to semantically relate …

Effects Of Truncation On Language Sample Analysis In Aphasia, Gerasimos Fergadiotis, Heather Harris Wright

Speech and Hearing Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

The goal of this study is to determine if the length of a language sample elicited from a person with aphasia (PWA) is of consequence when making inferences about the patient's functional language ability. When conducting a language sample analysis, a sample representing a snapshot in time is used to make inferences about an individual's language capacity in general. However, current findings are inconclusive regarding the ideal length of the language sample necessary to draw valid conclusions about patients (e.g. Heilman, Nockerts, & Miller, 2010).

Coherence In Stories Told By Adults With Aphasia, Heather Harris Wright, Anthony Koutsoftas, Gerasimos Fergadiotis, Gilson Capilouto

Speech and Hearing Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Discourse coherence is the conceptual organization of discourse and it can be subdivided into two types: global and local. Of interest for the current study is global coherence; that is, how the discourse relates to the overall topic (Glosser & Deser, 1990). Coherence has been measured in persons with aphasia (PWA) using different elicitation tasks (e.g., recounts, story retelling, event-casts) and different scoring methods (ie., rating scales, coherence, violations, total counts) and results have varied across studies (Christianson, 1995; Coelho & Flewellyn, 2003; Glosser & Deser, 1990; Ulatowska, et al., 2004). These differences may reflect differences in how coherence is …

Psychometric Properties Of The Pyramids And Palm Trees Test, Gerasimos Fergadiotis, Heather Wright, Gilson Capilouto

Speech and Hearing Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Pyramids and Palm Trees Test (PPT) is a nonverbal measure of semantic memory that has been frequently used in previous aphasia, agnosia, and dementia research. Very little psychometric information regarding the PPT is available. The purpose of this study was to investigate the psychometric properties of the PPT in a population of healthy college students. Results indicated that the PPT achieved poor test–retest reliability, failed to obtain adequate internal consistency, and demonstrated poor convergent validity, but showed acceptable discriminant validity. The results of this study suggest that the PPT lacks acceptable reliability and validity for use with a college …

High Frequency Pure Tone Audiometry And High Frequency Distortion Product Otoacoustic Emissions: A Correlational Analysis, Kimberly J. Lavoie

Dissertations and Theses

Previous studies show that pure tone thresholds are strongly correlated with distortion product otoacoustic emission amplitudes when evaluating the frequency range from 1 to 8 kHz (Avan & Bonfils, 1993). Little is known about correlations between these two measures at higher frequencies from 9-16 kHz. This study compared pure tone thresholds and distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs) in this high frequency range for 29 normal hearing subjects ages 18-30. Pure tone thresholds were obtained at 250-16 kHz and distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAE) 2,211-17,675 were measured in the same ears. DPOAE amplitudes were measured using a constant F1/F2 ratio of …

A Comparison Of Listener And Speaker Perception Of Stuttering Events, Anne Jocelyn Schagen

Dissertations and Theses

Stuttering identification, measurement, research, and treatment have for many years had their basis in listener judgment of stuttering, but the covert aspects of stuttering are not behaviorally observable, and inter-rater reliability has repeatedly been shown to be low. Perkins (1990) has emphasized the importance of consulting the speaker for the most reliable perspective on stuttering identification. The question raised in this study is whether there is a significant correlation between stuttering identification based upon internal perception by a speaker who stutters, and identification based upon external perception of listeners, with points of inter-rater disagreement removed. Six adult males, aged 18 …

A Study Of The Level Of Knowledge Of Adult Foster Care Home Providers In Multnomah County In The State Of Oregon About Hearing Loss, Hearing Aids And Communication Strategies, Marsha Peters Johnson

Dissertations and Theses

The level of knowledge about hearing aid use, function, and maintenance of caregivers of the elderly persons who are hearing impaired and residing in adult foster care homes in Multnomah County in the state of Oregon was assessed via a 1 7 question survey. Twenty subjects participated in the study. Subjects' responses demonstrated poor knowledge about this subject and indicated that residents' needs are unmet. The results clearly demonstrate the subjects' limited knowledge of the operation of hearing aids, poor grasp of the basic troubleshooting methods for repair, and inaccurate perceptions of hearing aid adjustment. Access to professional audiologic care …

Comparison Of Intelligibility Estimation And Orthographic Transcription Methods By Preprofessional Speech-Language Pathologists, Kristi M. Mowe

Dissertations and Theses

When the fundamental means of communications is speech, the main component for successful communication is intelligibility. The speech of children with disordered phonologies is often unintelligible; therefore, accurate and reliable methods of measuring intelligibility are essential when determining eligibility, and in selecting and providing appropriate treatment.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the percentage estimation method and the orthographic transcription method when measuring speech intelligibility by preprofessional listeners. For this study, the standard measurement of intelligibility was defined as the percentage of words understood in a continuous speech sample derived from orthographic transcription of the …

The Use Of The California Consonant Test And The Northwestern University Auditory Test No. 6 In Hearing Aid Evaluations For Individuals With Precipitous Losses Above 1 Khz, Bradley James Allard

Dissertations and Theses

These two joint-studies used recorded versions of the Northwestern University Auditory Test Number 6 (NU-6) and the California Consonant Test (CCT) in the hearing aid evaluations (HAEs) of 12 male and one female subjects, aged 41 to 87 years. They exhibited precipitous high frequency losses beyond 1 kHz in at least one ear. All subjects were evaluated without amplification and while monaurally aided with two conventional high pass hearing aids. Ten of the subjects were evaluated in multi-talker noise and 11 were tested in quiet. Since the CCT was more heavily weighted than the NU-6 with target phonemes sensitive to …

A Comparison Of Two Articulation Carry-Over Techniques, Robyn Schwartz

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this investigation was to determine the comparative effectiveness of two articulation carry-over techniques. It was hoped that through this comparison answers regarding carry-over results could be ascertained for purposes of aiding public school clinicians currently spending the majority of management time on carry-over. If one technique was found to be superior, its use among speech pathologists might aid in changing this time allocation trend.

An Investigation Of Observer Evaluation Accuracy Of Clinical Sessions, Douglas Scott Peterson

Dissertations and Theses

Student speech-language pathologists begin their academic preparation as observers. Observations of the clinical management session are for the purpose of providing student clinicians with insight into the management process by providing clinical models. To make observation experiences meaningful there must be some guiding framework which will demonstrate the significance of behaviors observed.

An Investigation Of Client Fluency Maintenance Between 1972-1977 At Portland State University, Pricilla Lynn Ginter

Dissertations and Theses

The use of so many different therapeutic approaches to stuttering raises frequent questions about methodology and treatment. Confidence in a methodology and treatment approach depends upon follow-up research conducted with systemic analysis of the individuals prior to treatment and following treatment.

The purpose of this study was to conduct a follow-up evaluation on R.L. Casteel's Four Stage Stuttering Program at Portland State University and to examine the degree of maintained fluency in relation to entering baseline, time in program, and exit stage.

Relationship Of Auditory Short-Term Memory And Articulation Ability Of Eight-Year-Olds, Winona Eugenia Hoffinger

Dissertations and Theses

This study investigated the relationship of auditory short-term memory and articulation ability of eight-year-old children to determine if a relationship existed between auditory short-term memory ability and articulation ability. The specific question posed was: Is there a statistically significant difference in the auditory short-term memory ability of eight-year-olds with three or more phoneme errors and eight-year-olds with no phoneme errors?

The Berrigans At Catonsville: A Case Study In Symbolic Behavior As Rhetoric, Susan Baker

Dissertations and Theses

In May of 1968, Father Daniel Berrigan, a Jesuit priest, and his brother, Father Philip Berrigan, a Josephite priest, and seven others, entered the draft board offices in Catonsville, Maryland where they removed 378 draft files and burned them with homemade napalm.

This paper examines that event as a case study in symbolic behavior as rhetoric. In doing so, the author first seeks a definition of rhetoric, and a definition of symbolic behavior. Background material, both on the Berrigans, and on symbolic behavior as rhetoric is provided.

The major portion of the paper deals with the analysis of the event …

The Use Of Telegraphic Reading Material By Aphasic Patients, Sylvia Diane Tovey

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to determine if aphasic patients have significantly more correct answers for telegraphically written material when compared to normally written material.

Twenty subjects from the greater Portland metropolitan area were selected to be included in this study. The ages or the subjects ranged from forty-two through sixty-five years with a mean of fifty-four years.

The test material consisted of two paragraphs controlled for fourth grade grammar and vocabulary and two paragraphs controlled for sixth grade grammar and vocabulary. A normally written and a telegraphically written paragraph were used for each of the four paragraphs for …

A Quantitative Study Based On A Sonographic Examination Of Four Vowel Sounds In Alaryngeal Speech, Cheryl Ann Schultz

Dissertations and Theses

Laryngectomy, as a treatment for malignant laryngeal lesions, requires the patient to seek a substitute method of producing speech. Three types of alaryngeal speech were described: esophageal, Asai, and artificial larynx. One consideration in deciding which mode of speech is best for the patient is how closely each type of alaryngeal speech approximates normal.

This investigation was an objective examination of esophageal, Asai, and artificial larynx speech as compared with normal in males and females.

The Maximum Duration Of Phonation Of /A/ In Children, Kerry Lewis

Dissertations and Theses

Measurement of maximum duration of phonation has been suggested by several voice experts as a clinical tool for assessing vocal function (Arnold, 1955; Irwin, 1965; Yanagihara, Koike and von Leden, 1966; and Boone, 1971). Most of the investigations of maximum phonation time have been conducted using adult populations. exceptions to this can be found in the studies by Launer (1971) and Coombs (1976). An apparent need, therefore, existed to investigate maximum phonation time in children.

The present study was designed to investigate the affects of age, sex, height, weight and vital capacity on the maximum duration of phonation of sustained …

Listening Rate Preferences Of Language Disordered Children As A Function Of Grammatical Complexity, Wendy Lee Orloff

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this investigation was to determine if performance on a language comprehension task, varying in number of syntactical units (i.e., grammatical complexity) was affected by altered rates of speech. A total of twenty-four language disordered children, aged 7 years, 8 months, through 9 years, 8 months, who were enrolled in language/learning disorders classrooms in the Portland Public Schools served as subjects. The Assessment of Children’s Language Comprehension (Foster et al., 1972) test was administered to each subject via audio-tape at one expanded (100 wpm), one normal (150 wpm), and two compressed rates (200, 250 wpm) of speech.

The …