Speech Pathology and Audiology Commons^™

Development Of Group Treatment Tasks For Adults With Neurological Disorders, Melody R. Groben

Senior Honors Projects

Gateway Café and Wellness Center is a support program offered at the University of Rhode Island for individuals with Acquired Brain Injuries (ABI), such as Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI) and Stroke. Individuals affected by ABI’s most commonly have difficulties with their cognitive, linguistic, and independence skills. Services provided to people living with ABI’s are very scarce in our community today, so allowing people to interact during Gateway Café allows these adults to receive treatment. This is achieved as URI students plan, organize, and execute activities that require the utilization of cognitive linguistic skills by the Gateway Café members. Furthermore, Gateway …

The Importance Of Interprofessional Education To Develop Successful Interprofessional Collaborative Teams In Healthcare, Christina Sebastiao

Senior Honors Projects

Many individuals live with chronic illnesses, various disabilities, and other complex needs that require an array of medical services from multiple disciplines within the healthcare field. To address the medical, behavioral and social needs of these patients, there has been an emphasis on providing treatment through interprofessional collaborative teams and interprofessional practice (IPP). These teams consist of multiple health professionals from various disciplines.

To ensure IPP teams are efficient and effective in the workplace, the application of interprofessional education (IPE) is key. The goal of IPE is to increase competency in interdisciplinary collaborative skills in students and future practitioners. In …

The Effects Of Gesture On Early Language Production, Gabrielle Zeyl

Senior Honors Projects

Over the last decade, baby sign language (adapted signs for simple words like milk or mom) has become a trending parenting fad. Although significant research is still lacking on the subject, there is evidence suggesting that the use of early gestures is beneficial in promoting spoken language in typically developing children. Given developmental support for early gesture, this project aims to investigate the use of manual gestures to support speech sound production for a young child with speech and language delay. This project is two-fold. Part one included an extensive literature review of existing research on baby sign, gesture and …

A Case Study Of Cochlear Implants And Complications, Carly E. Amurao

Senior Honors Projects

A cochlear implant is an electronic medical device that replaces the function of the damaged inner ear, allowing the individual access to sound. In recent years, there has been tremendous progress in developing technology in the area of cochlear implants to aid those with severe/profound hearing loss. Specifically, there has been a movement towards bilateral implantation. Each cochlear implant candidate has a unique hearing loss, and must reach required bench marks in order to be considered a viable candidate for a cochlear implant. This process includes: meeting the required level of hearing loss, a required trial with hearing aids that …

The Effect Of Grief On Bonding With A Deaf Child, Gabriela Cardona

Senior Honors Projects

Since hearing screenings for children happen after birth, there is no way for

parents to prepare themselves for having a child with hearing loss and any

lifestyle changes that will follow. Many parents have trouble coping with and

accepting the news of having a deaf or hard-of-hearing child. This diagnosis also

often brings along with it the stress of additional necessary appointments and

decisions. The parent’s idea of a “perfect and ideal” child is gone. Parents need

to grieve the loss of this idea while also tending to their child and giving their

child the opportunities and support needed for …

Dysarthria: A Study Of Effects On Communication, Casey Johnsen

Senior Honors Projects

Dysarthria is an impairment characterized by slow, weak, and imprecise muscle movements that affect one’s speech and communication. The specific characteristics of dysarthria vary depending on the site and extent of the lesion. Some general examples include articulatory-resonatory incompetence, imprecise consonants, distorted vowels, hypernasality, low pitch, harshness, strained-strangled voice and prosodic disturbances including slow rate. Dysarthria can be found in both children and adults, and is caused by neurologic disorders such as stroke, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, Parkinson’s disease, or muscular dystrophy. Dysarthria can negatively impact one’s social participation. The extra effort it takes to speak and the frustration of …