Communication Sciences and Disorders Commons^™

Semantic Feature Analysis Treatment For Aphasic Word Retrieval Impairments: What's In A Name?, Mary Boyle

Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

This article delineates differences among treatment paradigms that have been called semantic feature analysis treatment and reviews the outcomes of these treatment studies regarding improved naming of treated items, maintenance of treatment effects over time, and generalized improvement to untreated items. Differences in outcomes among the treatment paradigms highlight the importance of using different names for different treatment paradigms.

A Survey Of Variables Influencing Speech-Language Pathologists' Use Of Evidence-Based Practice In Clinical Settings, Ailbhe Tressan Cormack

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Although the need for evidence-based practice (EBP) in speech-language pathology has been well attested, multiple barriers hamper its implementation. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare variables influencing the use of EBP by practicing speech-language pathologists (SLPs). Method: Eighty-five SLPs based out of different primary work settings in El Paso, Texas responded to a survey addressing: 1. attitudes and perceived barriers toward EBP, 2. exposure to EBP, research methodology and statistics in graduate courses, 3. time in practice, 4. practice setting(s), 5. amount and nature of support for EBP in work settings, and 6. use of research literature …

Perception And Identification Of Voice Disorders: A Comparison Study Between Hispanic And Non-Hispanics, Jacqueline Nicole Lopez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The extent of public education in the Hispanic population regarding voice disorders has been unidentified thus far, motivating the current study to assess knowledge and perception of functional and organic voice disorders among Hispanic individuals in the El Paso region. The project involved an experimental research design to investigate whether demographic variables influenced the accuracy of knowledge of voice disorders in the general population residing in the Greater El Paso Region. Results indicate that the majority of the participants perceive articulation, fluency, and voice disorders as interchangeable and are unaware of the role of medical and rehabilitation professionals in the …

Visual Phonics And Phonological Awareness Interventions: Stability Of Gains In Language And Literacy, Mara Hampton

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The current study was a follow-up to a pretest-posttest control group experiment that found speech and/or language impaired preschoolers significantly improved their receptive and expressive language skills after ten weeks of phonological awareness interventions. Following ten weeks of phonological awareness intervention, speech and/or language impaired preschoolers also made gains in early literacy skills, with greater gains in a phonological awareness group supplemented by See the Sound/Visual Phonics (visual phonics).

The present study was conducted as a follow-up six months later. The purpose was to determine the stability of gains from the two phonological awareness interventions on the development of auditory …

The Effect Of A Three Point Sensory Diet On Vocal And Verbal Behavior In A Non-Verbal Child On The Autism Scale, Chelsey Danielle Smith

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The study involved a single subject, a non-verbal child on the autism spectrum, in a clinical setting over a 10 week period. The subject was on a three point sensory diet that was administered before therapy sessions. The tactile, vestibular and proprioceptive systems were targeted with deep pressure touch, a suspension swing, and joint compression. The primary focus was on participation in therapy and language development with specific attention given to the increase of vocalizations and/or verbalizations. The child experienced the sensory diet for schedule of 1 week off, 2 weeks on, 1 week off, 2 weeks on, 1 week …

Skill Acquisition In Skin Cancer Detection, Craig Speelman, Katie Martin, Steven Flower, Terry Simpson

Research outputs pre 2011

Previous research has shown that the ability to detect potentially dangerous skin lesions is not improved by viewing a pamphlet describing the characteristic features of such lesions. A different approach to improving this skill was investigated in this study. 100 student recruits were tested to investigate the effect of practice at distinguishing between dangerous and nondangerous skin lesions. Around 30 minutes of such practice, viewing 360 pictures of skin lesions, provided a significant advantage in making decisions about a target set of dangerous and nondangerous lesions, compared to no practice or practice with a filler task. Viewing a skin cancer …

Auditory Training At Home For Adult Hearing Aid Users, Anne D. Olson

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

Research has shown that re-learning to understand speech in noise can be a difficult task for adults with hearing aids (HA). If HA users want to improve their speech understanding ability, specific training may be needed. Auditory training is one type of intervention that may enhance listening abilities for adult HA users.

The purpose of this study was to examine the behavioral effects of an auditory training program called Listening and Communication Enhancement (LACE™) in the Digital Video Display (DVD) format in new and experienced HA users. No research to date has been conducted on the efficacy of this training …

Language, Meaning, Context, And Functional Communication, Elizabeth Armstrong, Alison Ferguson

Research outputs pre 2011

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Aging And Unilateral Vestibular Disorders On The Kinematic Performance Of Vestibular Rehabilitation Exercises And Physical Function, Micah Leslie Bradshaw Klumpp

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The overall purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of unilateral vestibular disorders and aging on functional performances of activities of daily living and vestibular rehabilitation exercises by examining the correlations among actual and perceived functional measures, the kinematic measurement differences among young healthy adults, older healthy adults, and older adults with unilateral vestibular deficits, and the correlations between kinematic and functional measures. Perceived and actual functional abilities and kinematic variables were compared for young controls, older healthy controls, and patients with unilateral vestibular hypofunction with no previous vestibular rehabilitation. In older adults, better strength, balance, coordination, and …

Parent Report Of Home Literacy Experiences In Children With And Without Speech And Language Impairments, Amanda Blair Grace

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to evaluate caregivers’ perceptions of their children’s literacy experiences and determine if their perceptions differed as a function of whether their children presented with speech and language impairment or with typical language development. Participants were caregivers of children, between the ages of 24 and 54 months. Eleven children presented with speech and language impairments (S/LI) and 14 children presented with typically developing (TD) language. Caregivers’ perceptions about early home literacy experiences were collected through a questionnaire. Results showed that there were no statistically significant differences between the two groups of caregivers’ responses to the …

Do Vision And Audition Influence Bimanual Timing Coordination For In-Phase And Anti-Phase Patterns In A Linear Slide Task?, Elizabeth U. Grillo, Quincy Almeida, Timothy D. Lee, Katherine Verdolini Abbott

Communication Sciences & Disorders Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Communicative Competence In Persons With Aphasia: The Impact Of Executive Function, Judy Marie Mikola

Wayne State University Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between executive function and performance on selected linguistic tasks in persons with aphasia secondary to left frontal lesions.

A group of 15 persons with aphasia (PWA) completed three communication board tasks of varying levels of complexity and structure. The subject's functional use of the picture/word communication board was tested during a Story Retelling task. In addition, the PWA's executive function skills were examined using six nonverbal tests. The PWA group performance scores were compared to that of the neurologically healthy control group.

Results demonstrated that the control group performed significantly …

Discrimination Of Tone Contrasts In Mandarin Disyllables By Naïve American English Listeners, Shari Salzhauer Berkowitz

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The present study examined the perception of Mandarin disyllabic tones by inexperienced American English speakers. Participants heard two naturally-produced Mandarin disyllables, and indicated if the two were the same or different. A small native Mandarin-speaking control group participated as well. All 21 possible Mandarin contrasts where the initial syllable varied but the final syllable stayed the same were tested. Acoustic analysis was performed on the stimuli under study. Mandarin subjects scored at ceiling on all contrasts. American English subjects performed poorly on contrasts where the difference in mean F0 was small, or where the difference in the offset F0 of …

Vocal Warm-Up Practices And Perceptions In Vocalists: A Pilot Survey, Allison Kimberly Gish

LSU Master's Theses

Vocal warm-up exercises are believed to contribute to the prevention of vocal fold injury in professional voice users. Professional singers and students of singing consider a regular vocal warm-up regimen essential. There is conflicting information in the vocal pedagogy literature about the most effective and widely used vocal warm-up exercises and the optimal frequency and duration of vocal warm-up sessions. The goal of this current study was to investigate the characteristics of vocal warm-up regimens in the singing community using a survey. One hundred seventeen participants completed the survey. Participants included voice students from undergraduate, masters, and doctoral music programs …

The Effect Of Person Versus Aac Directed Apraxia Therapy On Elicited Imitation For Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Jeanna Rachelle Probst

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

The Application Of Visual Phonics And Phonological Awareness Interventions To Address Emergent Literacy Development In Speech-Language Impaired Preschoolers, Elizabeth K. Gergits

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

The Auxiliary System Of Typically Developing Children Acquiring African American English, Brandi Lynette Newkirk

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study’s purpose was to examine the acquisition and use of BE, DO, and modal auxiliaries by African American English (AAE)-speaking children. The impetus for this work was the lack of information regarding the developmental trajectory of these auxiliary types and their use, in AAE relative to what is known about auxiliary acquisition and use in Mainstream American English (MAE). The study used two datasets of language samples: one that contained 48 language samples from 3 ½-year-old children and one that contained 36 longitudinal language samples of five children who were between 18 and 51 months of age. Results from …

Investigation Of Speech Samples From Typically Developing Preschool Age Children: A Comparison Of Single Words And Imitated Sentences Elicited With The Paba-E, Matthew William Olsen

Dissertations and Theses

Assessment of speech sound production in young children provides the basis for diagnosis and treatment of speech sound disorders. Standardized single-word articulation tests are typically used for identification of speech sound errors because they can provide an efficient means of obtaining a speech sample for analysis and comparison to same-age peers. A major criticism of single-word articulation tests is that they may not accurately reflect speech sound production abilities in conversation. Comparison of performance in single-word and conversational contexts has produced conflicting results in the available research.

The purpose of the present study was to compare speech samples obtained using …

Investigation Of A Classroom-Based Reading Intervention Strategy For Older Elementary Students With Poor Decoding Skills, Shara Brinkley

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Using a response to intervention framework, this study investigates the efficacy of a classroom-based intervention for struggling readers with decoding deficits in the upper elementary grades. Twenty two students in the fourth and sixth grades from four classrooms in low-performing schools received either a short 20-minute intervention delivered by their teacher or access to the lessons for an equivalent amount of time but no teacher instruction. Using three orthographic patterns, the 24 lessons consisted of a series of ten minimally contrasted words differing by one letter. The students in the experimental group decoded the words using a visual alphabet (Phonic …

Child Acquisition Of Referring Expressions, Carlton M. Downey

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Children, like adults, use referring expressions to refer to specific objects, events, or people. Research has provided insights into how children use referring expressions and the appearance of forms developmentally (Radford, 1990; Abu-Akel, et al., 2004; Pine & Lieven, 1997). This study examined how three, four, and five year-old children use referring expressions across increasingly more decontextualized tasks as defined by the Situational-Discourse-Semantic (SDS) Model (Norris & Hoffman, 1993, 2002) . The participants included 4 three-year-old, 12 four-year-old, and 20 five-year-old children. Language samples were elicited using seven tasks of increasing difficulty. The referring expressions produced for each task were …