Speech Pathology and Audiology Commons^™

Comparing Two Naturalistic Pragmatic Assessments: The Celf-5 Pragmatic Activities And The Yale In Vivo Pragmatic Protocol (Yipp), Rebecca Reid

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Pragmatics, or the social use of language, is a dimension of communication skills that is very difficult to assess due to its dependence on cultural norms, situational context, and speaker differences. Of the current methods for evaluating pragmatic language skills in children, the literature most frequently recommends naturalistic assessment because it allows the clinician to most closely simulate a real-life interaction. Despite these recommendations, limited information exists to guide clinicians in making decisions about which activities yield the most representative pragmatic language sample. This preliminary study compared two naturalistic pragmatic assessments, the Pragmatic Activities from the Clinical Evaluation of Language …

A Step Towards Differentiating Language Difference From Disorder, Sarah Scribano

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

English learners (ELs) composed 10% of the American school-age population in the 2014 – 2015 school year. However, only a small percentage of speech language pathologists (SLPs) report feeling well qualified to address the cultural and linguistic needs of ELs. This can be attributed to a number of factors, including inadequate clinical markers, a shortage of developmental data for ELs, and a lack of cultural consideration in standardized assessments. Due to these barriers, SLPs struggle to differentiate between language differences and language disorders and are at risk for over-identifying or under-identifying language impairment (LI) in ELs. Research suggests that a …

Augmented Reality For At-Home Speech Intervention, Emily Vayo

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Augmented Reality (AR) is a technology that allows users to view graphics, videos, or other applications in their environment in real time using mobile devices, such as a smartphone or tablet. It provides an interactive way to combine technology and learning. Although AR has potential applications in the field of Communication Sciences and Disorders, few studies have investigated its reliability in speech intervention. This project explores whether parents are receptive to implementing AR technology into speech intervention and addresses one way to make intervention more engaging. The project looked at parental attitudes toward AR in integrating speech intervention goals at …

Pupillometry As A Test Of Infant Word Recognition, Kierra Lynch

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

By 11 months of age, infants recognize commonly occurring word forms in their environment. The Head Turn Preference Paradigm (HTPP) is the one method of measuring infant word form recognition. The HTPP uses looking times as judged by a head turn of the infant towards or away from a speaker. This method is thus subject to infant attention, which can make it difficult to get accurate results when infants are not paying attention due to external factors (for example, teething). Pupillometry is a non-invasive, physiological measurement that uses pupil dilation to assess cognitive processes. Pupil dilations have been found to …

Does Emg Monitoring In A Cvemp Matter?, Kimberly Fleck

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

To determine if EMG monitoring or the use of amplitude normalization would significantly reduce the amplitude variability and amplitude asymmetry of the cVEMP in children ages 3 and under, we first needed to create a control group with young, healthy adults to compare the pediatric group to. We also wanted to replicate earlier studies that showed EMG monitoring and amplitude normalization does not have an impact on the VEMP in young, healthy adults. We tested two different positions, sitting and supine. Supine is the optimal position to generate EMG, but we wanted to have control data in case the pediatric …

Use Of Behavior Strategies In Speech-Language Therapy: A Survey Of Virginia School Based Speech-Language Pathologists, Gillian Withers

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

In the public schools, Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) serve as clinicians to children with various language, articulation, and communication disorders. Often times, these conditions are present in children who also have disruptive or inattentive behaviors. SLPs in the school system are required to provide effective treatment to each child; however, too often the effectiveness of treatment is hindered by behavior outbursts from the children. Although there are empirically supported plans and strategies for behavior management in general elementary school classrooms, little is known about the knowledge and implementation practices of SLPs who serve school-age children. The purpose of this honors thesis …

The Build-Up Of Auditory Stream Segregation In Adult Cochlear Implant Users: Effect Of Differences In Frequency And Amplitude-Modulation Rate, Alexandria Matz

Dissertations, 2014-2019

This project will use an objective approach to evaluate the effect of inter-subsequence frequency difference and amplitude-modulation rate on build-up stream segregation in CI users. Six post-lingually deafened CI users, between 18 and 75 years old, have been studied and compared to four normal-hearing listeners, between 18 and 75 years old. Repeated pairs of A and B noise bursts were adopted from a previous work (Nie et al., 2014) with modifications and additional conditions, where A and B bursts are narrow-band noise carrying sinusoidal amplitude modulation (AM). The A and B bursts in a stimulus sequence differed either in the …

Envelope-Following Responses And The Effects Of Cochlear Delay, Nicole Jones

Dissertations, 2014-2019

There is great interest in developing clinical applications for phase-locked auditory potentials that are elicited by human speech. A common analysis of vowel-elicited responses is to analyze the envelope-following response (EFR) amplitude at the fundamental frequency (F0) of the eliciting vowel. For this study, we systematically examined the effect of modeled vowel formants on EFR amplitude. EFRs were elicited using a fundamental frequency of 103 Hz, representative of a male speaker’s fundamental frequency. Stimuli consisted of two simultaneously presented sinusoidally amplitude-modulated tones with the same F0. One carrier frequency was fixed at 353 Hz, representing a first formant frequency; the …

Melodic Contour Identification And Speech Recognition By School-Aged Children, Michael P. Morikawa

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Using the Sung Speech Corpus (SSC), which encompasses a single database that contains musical pitch, timbre variations and speech information in identification tasks, the current study aimed to explore the development of normal-hearing children’s ability to use the pitch and timbre cues. Thirteen normal hearing children were recruited for the study ages ranging from 7 to 16 years old. Participants were separated into two separate groups: Younger (7-9) and Older (10-16). Musical Experience was taken into account as well. The Angel Sound ™ program was utilized for testing which was adopted from previous studies, most recently Crew, Galvin, and Fu …

Objective Differences Between Premium And Mid-Level Digital Hearing Aids, Chelsea C. Barry

Dissertations, 2014-2019

This ongoing study compared premium and mid-level hearing aids from major manufacturers on noise reduction and general electroacoustic characteristics. The findings of this study will contribute to the scarce independent literature evaluating currently available hearing aid technology. Measuring the overall gain reduction in response to a steady state noise can objectively test noise reduction. However, such a method does not specifically test a hearing aid’s ability to reduce speech in specific narrow frequency bands. Hanline & Rout (2008) developed a set of stimuli to evaluate multichannel noise reduction algorithms more precisely. We used these stimuli to test noise reduction abilities …

Distractions In Hearing: Measuring Impulsivity In Service Members With A Mtbi, Kathleen Margaret Chopra

Dissertations, 2014-2019

One of the cognitive symptoms associated with the diagnosis of a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is the degradation of focus and attention. This pilot study was designed to quantify examples of such capabilities in Service Members diagnosed with mTBI and to compare their abilities to peers without an mTBI diagnosis. Specifically, we compared participant groups on their false alarm rates and thresholds for contralateral and informational masking tasks to document the participants’ ability to focus and detect an auditory stimulus in the presence of distracting maskers. In this study, comparing the overall performance of Service Members, with and without …

Variations In Breastfeeding Practices In The Nicu: A Mixed Methods Investigation, Elizabeth Emaleo Nottingham

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Abstract

Human milk is crucial for the healthy development of infants, particularly preterm infants. Practice patterns and resource allocations to support and promote optimal breastfeeding in this population of infants varies by facility. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to explore differences in practice patterns, describe nurses’ knowledge and perceptions about breastfeeding in the NICU, and identify factors contributing to the differences between hospitals.

Researchers used a sequential explanatory design to gather both quantitative and qualitative data. In the first quantitative phase, a Web-based questionnaire was developed and deployed via Qualtrics to all hospitals with a Neonatal-Perinatal Fellowship …

Development Of A Questionnaire To Assess Attitudes Toward Hearing Aids, Corinne O'Shaughnessy

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Many reasons have been postulated as to why persons with hearing loss are reluctant to engage in the hearing rehabilitation process. While not the only determinant, an individual's attitudes toward hearing loss and hearing aids have been shown to affect adoption of amplification adversely and eventual outcomes of hearing aid use. Several attempts have been made to develop test instruments for attitudes toward hearing loss, but nothing specific to attitudes toward hearing aids or hearing aid technology. The primary objective of this study was to develop a questionnaire to assess attitudes toward hearing aids using the ABC model of attitude …