Speech Pathology and Audiology Commons^™

Social Communication And Technology, Lesli G. Hughes

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

Research has been well documented as to the effects of screen time on mental health, physical health, cognitive development, and social development. However, little research exists as to the effects of screen time on the nonverbal aspects of communication, specifically eye gaze. In order to inform speech language pathologists when treating children with language and pragmatic disorders, this study examined the eye gaze of participants during physical play. Twenty-six participants from 5 to 8 years of age were recruited from a western Kentucky school. Results of eye gaze durations in participants were compared to screen time amounts in the home. …

Caregiver Training Program On Emergent Literacy Development Of Augmentative And Alternative Communication Users, Meghan Bowers

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

Teaching early literacy to typically developing individuals is widely practiced and has a vast amount of research backing its success (Strum et. al., 2006). Current research has shown that both children and adult augmentative and alternative (AAC) users are underachieving in the development of reading and spelling skills, but the underachievement in these areas is not correlated to a lack of cognitive and linguistic abilities (Sandberg, Smith, Larsson, 2010). Like their typically developing peers, AAC users must have the same repeated opportunities to participate in a wide range of literacy tasks to attain literacy skills (Strum et. al., 2006).

Children …