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Examining Articulatory Kinematics Using Diadochokinesis In Concussed And Non-Concussed Individuals, Lindsay Deann Dolan

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Cognitive and communicative deficits associated with traumatic brain injury are an active area of research. However, no research to date has reported on the functionality of motor speech following a concussion. A common tool used to evaluate the motor speech status of potentially impaired individuals is the measurement of the diadochokinetic speech rate. The purpose of this study is to investigate diadochokinetic speech rates in individuals who experience a sports-related concussion. Determining the nature and extent of motor speech involvement post concussion will contribute to the diagnosis, prognosis, and management of recovery. The present investigation will determine; (i) if …

Language Of Intervention In Bilingual Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Alejandra Carrillo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Over the last few decades the United States has seen a heavy increase in the incidences of Autism Spectrum Disorder. Also increasing in the United States is the increase in multicultural and multilingual groups. Although both of these populations are increasing there is very limited information regarding the language abilities of bilingual individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder, the language used for intervention, and those servicing them. A survey was developed to gather information regarding the current practice trends used by Speech-Language clinicians with bilingual children with ASD. The study was conducted in El Paso, Texas a city located on the …

Benefits Of Baby Sign On Cognitive Development In Infants, Clarissa Navedo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Research in the area of baby sign language has increased dramatically over the past several years, however there is still a lack of research regarding baby signs effects on typical infant development, specifically in the area of cognition. The hypothesis of this study was that instruction of baby sign would be correlated with a significant increase in the development of cognition and language acquisition for infant participants. This study provided a five-week instructional course on baby sign for parents/caregivers to implement with their typically developing infants (n=11). The course provided instruction of baby signs, methods of implementation and encouragement to …

Event Related Potential Changes In A Two-Stimulus Auditory Oddball Task In Concussed College Athletes: A Linguistic Component, Paola G. Sanchez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

"Return to Play" decisions are done based on cognitive-communicative testing and clinical assessments; concussed athletes may benefit from electrophysiological testing for a more accurate representation of their recovery. The purpose of this study is to investigate the electrophysiological performance post-concussion analyzing the attentional differences using the traditional "oddball" paradigm with a CV linguistic component. Participants for this study were 6 male college athletes with a history of concussion and 10 participants with no history of concussion (controls). Athletes were evaluated using event-related potentials (ERPs) that were recorded during a consonant-vowel (CV) auditory oddball task. Both the P300a and P300b components …

The Impact Of Baby Sign On The Development Of Pragmatic Skills In Typically Developing Children, Lyna Marie Sullivan

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of Baby Sign on the pragmatic development of typically developing children. The participants for the study were 11 typically developing children. A one group pretest posttest case study design was used to evaluate the impact of baby sign. Prior to parents and caregivers attending a 5 week course on baby sign language, each child was administered the Developmental Assessment of Young Children (DAYC). Although, measurements were taken of the child's social, cognitive, physical, adaptive, and communication skills, standard scores of only the social subtests from the pretest to the posttest …

Effects Of Augmentative And Alternative Device On Echolalia In Autism, Cynthia Valenzuela

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study was a systematic replication of Mueller and Forbes (n.d.), which evaluated the effects of a high-tech and low-tech augmentative alternative communication (AAC) device on reducing echolalia in a verbal child with autism during conversational speech. The participant for this study was a verbal eleven-year male, who was diagnosed with autism prior to the study. A single subject alternating treatment research design was used to evaluate the effect of a high-tech speech generating AAC device (Proloquo2go) on echolalia. The participant was seen periodically twice a week for two months and periodically for one month. A functional analysis(Prizant & Rydell, …

The Clinical And Social Dimensions Of Prescribing Palliative Home Oxygen For Refractory Dyspnea, Katrina Breaden, Jane Phillips, Meera Agar, Carol Grbich, Amy P. Abernethy, David C. Currow

Nursing Papers and Journal Articles

Background: Chronic breathlessness is a significant problem in palliative care and oxygen is often prescribed in an attempt to ameliorate it. Often, this prescription falls outside the current funding guidelines for long-term home oxygen use. The aim of this qualitative study was to understand the factors that most influence Australian specialist palliative care nurses' initiation of home oxygen for their patients. Methods: A series of focus groups were held across three states in Australia in 2011 involving specialist palliative care nurses. The invitation to the nurses was sent by e-mail through their national association. Recorded and transcribed data were coded …

Addressing The Higher Level Language Skills For The Common Core State Standards In Kindergarten, Ashley Bourque Meaux

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Kindergarten is a critical year, providing a foundation for children’s success in school. With a common set of standards, the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), finalized and made available to states for adoption critical skills in numeracy and literacy will be uniformed from kindergarten through high school. Some children enter school with a sufficient foundation to support success in kindergarten and subsequent years. However, some children either because of lack of exposure during preschool years (e.g., Aikens & Barbarin, 2008; Hart & Risley, 1995; Schacter, 1979; Snow, Burns & Griffin, 1998) or because of language delays associated with developmental disabilities …

A Discourse Analysis Of Ontario's Family Health Teams, Rachelle Ashcroft

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Inspired by critical social work practice, this study engages in a discourse analysis of Ontario’s Family Health Team (FHT) model. The purpose for this study is threefold; namely, a) to deepen our understanding of health discourses promoted by Ontario’s FHT model; b) to explore how Ontario’s FHT model compares to Haggerty, Burge, Lévesque, Gass, Pineault, Beaulieu, & Santor’s (2007) conceptual model of PHC; and c) to promote critical reflection in order to help inform decisions on how to improve quality of care and enhance health equity in FHTs. This study is guided using the overarching question: What health care practices …

A Novel Community-Based Study To Address Disparities In Hypertension And Colorectal Cancer: A Study Protocol For A Randomized Control Trial, Joseph Ravenell, Hayley Thompson, Helen Cole, Jordan Plumhoff, Gia Cobb, Lola Afolabi, Carla Boutin-Foster, Martin Wells, Marian Scott, Gbenga Ogedegbe

Wayne State University Associated BioMed Central Scholarship

Abstract

Background

Black men have the greatest burden of premature death and disability from hypertension (HTN) in the United States, and the highest incidence and mortality from colorectal cancer (CRC). While several clinical trials have reported beneficial effects of lifestyle changes on blood pressure (BP) reduction, and improved CRC screening with patient navigation (PN), the effectiveness of these approaches in community-based settings remains understudied, particularly among Black men.

Methods/design

MISTER B is a two-parallel-arm randomized controlled trial that will compare the effect of a motivational interviewing tailored lifestyle intervention (MINT) versus a culturally targeted PN intervention on improvement of BP …

Continuity Of Cancer Care: Where Do Primary Care Practitioners Fit In?, M Jiwa, A Mcmanus, A Dadich

Medical Papers and Journal Articles

Cancer is the leading cause of illness in Australia and is a national health priority. Primary care in Australia is well positioned to support individuals diagnosed with cancer and their family/caretakers. However, obstacles exist that impact on the quality and continuity of care that primary care providers and community health professionals can provide. A rapid review of the research available revealed that the knowledge, attitudes and beliefs held by health professionals and patients can impact engagement in early detection, treatment and follow-up care. Health professionals have limited knowledge of evidence-based practices, while cancer literacy among minority groups, including Aboriginal Australians, …

Physical Activity: Its Implication On Attention Span And Quality Of Life In Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders, Beron W.Z. Tan, Lynne Cohen, Julie A. Pooley

Research outputs 2013

This study examined the effects of physical activity on the attention span and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) children in Singapore. Male participants (N = 12) aged 2-6 years, diagnosed with ASD were randomly assigned to either a physical activity or non-physical activity group. In the physical activity group, participants were administered 8 tri-cycling sessions; both groups of participants were measured for their attention span, and their parents completed the HRQoL questionnaires. Results indicate that as the exercise increases, the physical activity group demonstrated increasingly longer duration of attention span. These results extend the findings …

Faculty Publications 2012, Lsu Health Sciences Center New Orleans

Historical Faculty Publications

This Faculty bibliography contains 821 publications.

The Experiences Of Mothers Of Children With Autism In Jamaica: An Exploratory Study Of Their Journey, Angela R. Mann

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs), also referred to as Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDDs), are characterized by deficits in verbal and nonverbal communication, social interaction, and repetitive or restricted interests and behaviors. To date, much of the literature on ASDs has been conducted from a western perspective, although interest in ASDs from a global perspective has dramatically increased in recent years. Over the last decade, there have been numerous conceptual papers attempting to explain how autism might be experienced in other parts of the world. However, in actuality, little research has been conducted in this area, and further exploration of the experiences …

Desert In The Springs: Ethnography Of A Food Desert, Margeaux Alana Chavez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

"Food desert" commonly describes food insecure areas with few fresh food outlets. Though used in a number of sources, the definition of "food desert" remains largely undeveloped and research is often deficit oriented, failing to account for community assets that may exist within food deserts but are underutilized or under-supported. Using an assets-based, ethnographic approach, this study combines GIS and survey methodology with participant observation and qualitative interviews to assess the potential positive effect of urban agriculture on food accessibility in Sulphur Springs, a USDA identified urban food desert in Tampa, Florida.

Ethnographic data suggest that within this neighborhood, residents …

Examining The Effectiveness Of Intensive Language Action Therapy In Individuals With Nonfluent Aphasia, Rachel A. Goff

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

Background: Individuals with nonfluent aphasia may have significant difficulties with functional spoken communication tasks in their daily life. Aphasia treatment held in a group setting may provide an enriched communicative context wherein the requirements of spoken language are similar to those within functional day-to-day communicative situations. Thus engaging in a spoken language activity in a group setting may directly target generalization of trained skills to those required in real-life, social communication situations. The present study is concerned with an aphasia group treatment that requires focused practice of spoken language during a social-functional communication task. Intensive Language Action Therapy (ILAT) …

My Journey From Physician To Psychologist: Relational Touch In Psychotherapy, Brita S. Reed

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

A physician's armamentarium includes the presence of the tool of touch which is used not only to diagnose and to heal, but also to reassure patients that they are safe and well cared for in the hands of the physician. The use of touch in the practice of psychology, however, is relatively proscribed. In this essay, I examine how we, as psychologists, can best "hold" our clients without the use of touch. In the first part of this essay, I explore some theoretical considerations on relational touch in psychotherapy. I define relational touch as touch that occurs between people and …

Neurophysiological Indices Of The Effect Of Cognates On Vowel Perception In Late Spanish-English Bilinguals, Carol A. Tessel

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The field of research in bilingualism and second language (L2) acquisition has yielded overwhelming evidence that acquiring a second language later in life will result in less accurate production and perception of consonants and vowels in the second language. These effects, in part, are a result of interference from the already formed phonetic categories shaped by early exposure to the L1 (Iverson, 2007). Phonetic categories from the L2 will, at least initially, be mapped onto phonetic categories from the L1 (Flege, 1995). Shared storage of similar lexical items from L1 and L2 may also take place resulting in differences in …

Determining The Association Between Turkish Women’S Menopausal Symptoms And Their Marital Adjustment, Asli Si̇s Çeli̇k, Türkan Pasi̇nli̇oğlu

Turkish Journal of Medical Sciences

To determine the association between women's menopausal symptoms and their marital adjustment. Materials and methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on 263 Turkish women chosen using an improbable randomized sampling method. A questionnaire, the Menopause Symptom Rating Scale (MSRS), and the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS) were used to collect data. Percentage distributions, the t-test in independent groups, the one-way ANOVA test, Pearson correlation analysis, and the Kruskal-Wallis test were used in the evaluation of the data. Results: The mean of the overall MSRS score for women was 22.67 ± 8.06 and the mean of the overall DAS score for …

An Exploration Of The Past, Present And Future Of Nursing In Early Parenting Services In Australia, Elaine Bennett

Theses

Nursing has a long history of providing services to families and children over the past century and more within Early Parenting Services (EPS) in Australia. Much has been written on issues regarding the general nursing workforce and requirements for the future, but little is known about the role of nursing within the EPS area around Australia in the context of an interdisciplinary team.

The aim of this study was to describe how nursing has responded to the changing needs of EPS in Australia and to investigate nurses’ and allied professionals’ perceptions of the nursing role within an interdisciplinary team. This …

Migration Matters : The Experience Of United Kingdom Registered Nurses Migrating To Western Australia, Caroline J. Vafeas

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This qualitative study uses heuristic inquiry to investigate the unique journey of 21 registered nurses (RN) who migrated from the United Kingdom (UK) to Perth in Western Australia (WA) between 2003 and 2008. The study explores the reasons for migration as well as the professional, social and psychological impact on each participant and their accompanying family during the first two years of settling in a new country.

In the contemporary climate of international nurse mobility, many employers are attempting to attract new employees, often with tantalising offers of an immediate visa and the enticement of a better climate and standard …

Probabilistic Cue Combination: Less Is More, Daniel Yurovsky, Ty W. Boyer, Linda B. Smith, Chen Yu

Psychology: Faculty Publications

Learning about the structure of the world requires learning probabilistic relationships: rules in which cues do not predict outcomes with certainty. However, in some cases, the ability to track probabilistic relationships is a handicap, leading adults to perform non-normatively in prediction tasks. For example, in the dilution effect, predictions made from the combination of two cues of different strengths are less accurate than those made from the stronger cue alone. Here we show that dilution is an adult problem; 11-month-old infants combine strong and weak predictors normatively. These results extend and add support for the less is more hypothesis: limited …

Does Baby Sign Open The Door To Second Language Learning?, Nicole A. Hulme

Honors Program Theses

The purpose of this thesis project is to determine the relationship between an infant's acquisition of Baby Sign and their ability to acquire a second language later in life. An explanation of why infancy is a critical time for language development will be presented and information about the impact of Baby Sign on an infant's development will be provided. There are many research and popular claims regarding Baby Sign that will be discussed, in addition to research findings concerning second language learning. Based on this research, conclusions about the connection between Baby Sign and second language learning will be drawn …

Communication Disorders And Indigenous Australians : A Synthesis And Critique Of The Available Literature, Jasmyn Hall

Theses : Honours

Purpose: To synthesise and critique the available diverse literature related to communication disorders experienced by Indigenous Australians. This is in order to provide health professionals with a resource guide for evidence based decision making. The review has a specific focus on prevalence, assessment and effective treatment of communication disorders and explores these across the lifespan.

Method: A three phase systematic search process was adopted. A number of key databases, speech pathology journals and grey literature sources were searched to obtain articles relevant to the research aims. Two researchers independently rated articles for inclusion as well as methodological quality using the …

Speech And Language Processes In Children Who Stutter Compared To Those Who Do Not Within An Oral Narrative Task, Sarah Pillar

Theses : Honours

Background and Purpose: Language ability in children who stutter has been linked to the occurrence of stuttering, however, the validity of research supporting this connection has been recently questioned. Previous research, within this area, has been limited by methodological confounds, such as lack of appropriately matched comparison groups, and the use of measures with insufficient sensitivity to potentially examine the subtle differences between children who stutter (CWS) and children who do not stutter (CWNS). Frequent hesitations or pauses are defining characteristics of the speech of people who stutter. However, little is known about the nature and frequency of the pauses …

The Use Of The Communication Checklist - Adult (Cc-A) For Assessing The Communication Abilities Of Individuals Post Traumatic Brain Injury, David B. Fitzgerald

Theses : Honours

Background and aims: Standardised and non-standardised assessments are used in speech pathology to evaluate an individual’s communication abilities post traumatic brain injury (TBI; e.g. Turkstra et al., 2005b). However, valid, reliable and norm-referenced standardised assessments that examine functional communication abilities of individuals post TBI outside of the clinical environment are limited. This study sought to investigate the validity of the Communication Checklist - Adults (CC-A; Whitehouse & Bishop, 2009), a caregiver questionnaire that assesses the communication abilities of individuals post TBI.

Method: The project recruited 14 participants post TBI with varying communicative impairment severities. Each participant completed a routine communication …

Tpm: Cloud-Based Tele Ptsd Monitor Using Multi-Dimensional Information, Roger Xu, Gang Mei, Guangfan Zhang, Pan Gao, Aaron Pepe, Jiang Li, James D. Westwood (Ed.), Susan W. Westwood (Ed.), Li Felländer-Tsai (Ed.), Randy S. Haluck (Ed.), Richard A. Robb (Ed.), Steven Senger (Ed.), Kirby G. Vosburgh (Ed.)

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

An automated system that can remotely and non-intrusively screen individuals at high risk for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and monitor their progress during treatment would be desired by many Veterans Affairs (VAs) as well as other PTSD treatment and research organizations. In this paper, we present an automated, cloud-based Tele-PTSD Monitor (TPM) system based on the fusion of multiple sources of information. The TPM system can be hosted in a cloud environment and accessed through landline or cell phones, or on the Internet through a web portal or mobile application (app).

Writing Supports For Older Students With Significant Disabilities: Examining Two Students' Journeys Towards Becoming Writers, Emily Helen Freeman

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This study describes the changes in linguistic and social communicative competencies that occurred when two older students with significant disabilities where provided with writing opportunities, instruction, and supports over a semester of the academic year. The goals of the study were to identify themes and patterns in the skills associated with linguistic and social communicative competence as evidenced in writing over time. A second aim of this study was to identify instruction methods and assistive technology supports being used in the classroom and describes the themes and patterns that emerged in the students’ writing given the presence of these curriculum …

Personalizing Aac For People With Aphasia: The Role Of Text And Pictures, Aimee R. Dietz, Kristy S.E. Weissling, Julie Griffith, Miechelle L. Mckelvey

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

Over time, and with intensive instruction, people with aphasia (PWAs) can learn to use grid-based, categorically organized, high-technology AAC layouts during structured tasks (e.g., Hough & Johnson, 2009). In an effort to reduce the training intensity required to teach PWAs to use AAC; researchers developed visual scene displays (VSDs), designed to complement the residual cognitive and linguistic abilities of PWAs by tapping their intact episodic memory. VSD interfaces incorporate personally relevant (PR) photos, text, and speech output (Dietz, McKelvey, & Beukelman, 2006; Weissling & Beukelman, 2006). VSDs appear to facilitate improved communication success (e.g., McKelvey, Dietz, Hux, Weissling, & Beukelman, …

Transcultural Self-Efficacy Of Nursing Education Leaders And Faculty Related To Non-Binary Sexual Identities, Grace Hoyer

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Higher nursing education has demonstrated effective modalities in leadership, practice, and health policy (Antrobus & Kitson, 1999). However, advancement in understanding populations of non-binary sexual identities need further recognition in nursing academic education, within both faculty and administration realms.

This study is about transcultural efficacy (TSE), an essential component of nursing education and leadership, as it relates to aspects of non-binary sexual identities. Non-binary sexual identities include groups and individuals identified publicly or personally outside the binary (male/female), majority group of heterosexuals. This group may include but is not limited by the titles of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, queer, genderqueer, …