Education Commons^™

Is Weak Oral Language Associated With Poor Spelling In School-Age Children With Specific Language Impairment, Dyslexia Or Both?, Jillian H. Mccarthy, Tiffany Hogan, Hugh W. Catts

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that word reading accuracy, not oral language, is associated with spelling performance in school-age children. We compared fourth grade spelling accuracy in children with specific language impairment (SLI), dyslexia or both (SLI/dyslexia) to their typically developing grade-matched peers. Results of the study revealed that children with SLI performed similarly to their typically developing peers on a single-word spelling task. Alternatively, those with dyslexia and SLI/dyslexia evidenced poor spelling accuracy. Errors made by both those with dyslexia and SLI/dyslexia were characterized by numerous phonologic, orthographic and semantic errors. Cumulative results support …

Spatiotemporal Coupling Of The Tongue In Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Mili S. Kuruvilla, Jordan R. Green, Yana Yunusova, Kathy Hanford

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

Purpose: The primary aim of the investigation was to identify deficits in spatiotemporal coupling between tongue regions in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The relations between disease-related changes in tongue movement patterns and speech intelligibility were also determined.

Methods: The authors recorded word productions from 11 individuals with ALS with mild, moderate, and severe dysarthria using an x-ray microbeam during word productions. A coupling index based on sliding window covariance was used to determine disease-related changes in the coupling between the tongue regions across each word.

Results: The results indicated decreased spatiotemporal coupling of mid-posterior tongue regions and reduced tongue speed …

Sentence Recognition From Articulatory Movements For Silent Speech Interfaces, Jun Wang, Ashok Samal, Jordan R. Green, Frank Rudzicz

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

Recent research has demonstrated the potential of using an articulation-based silent speech interface for command-and-control systems. Such an interface converts articulation to words that can then drive a text-to-speech synthesizer. In this paper, we have proposed a novel near-time algorithm to recognize whole-sentences from continuous tongue and lip movements. Our goal is to assist persons who are aphonic or have a severe motor speech impairment to produce functional speech using their tongue and lips. Our algorithm was tested using a functional sentence data set collected from ten speakers (3012 utterances). The average accuracy was 94.89% with an average latency of …

A Novel Fixed-Target Task To Determine Articulatory Speed Constraints In Persons With Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Antje Mefferd, Jordan R. Green, Gary L. Pattee

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

Purpose: The goal of this study was to determine if talkers with ALS are limited in their ability to increase lower lip and jaw speed at an early stage of the disease when their speaking rate and intelligibility are only minimally or not affected.

Method: A novel metronome paced fixed-target task was used to assess movement speed capacities during lower lip and jaw oscillations in seven talkers with ALS and seven age and gender matched controls.

Results: Lower lip peak speeds were significantly lower in talkers with mild ALS than in healthy talkers suggesting a lower lip speed constraint in …

Modification Of Perioral Stiffness In Patients With Repaired Cleft Lip And Palate, Steven M. Barlow, Carroll-Ann Trotman, Shin-Ying Chu, Jaehoon Lee

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

Objective—To measure and compare the perioral stiffness among three groups of pediatric subjects: a group of patients with a repaired cleft lip (and palate) who had a secondary lip revision surgery (revision), another group of patients with repaired cleft lip (and palate) who did not have secondary surgery (nonrevision), and a group of noncleft “normal” patients (noncleft).

Design—A parallel, three-group, nonrandomized clinical trial.

Participants—A total of 16 patients with repaired cleft lip/palate who did not have lip revision, 13 patients with repaired cleft lip/palate who had lip revision surgery and were tested at 18 to 24 months postsurgery, and 27 …

Endoscopic And Stroboscopic Presentation Of The Larynx In Male-To-Female Transsexual Persons, Derek Palmer, Angela M. Dietsch, Jeff Searl

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

Background. Male-to-female transsexual (MFT) persons often attempt to produce a female-sounding voice as part of the transition process. Endoscopic and stroboscopic data about how they accomplish this with an anatomically male larynx are lacking.

Objectives. To describe vocal fold activity in MFT persons producing their feminine voice and identify signs of vocal misuse or hyperfunction in MFT speakers, if any.

Study Design. Prospective, nonrandomized, descriptive study of a convenience sample of MFT persons.

Methods. All MFT persons had endoscopic and stroboscopic procedures completed. Images were rated on a range of parameters by two experienced voice therapists to derive the descriptions. …

The Effects Of Vestibular Stimulation Rate And Magnitude Of Acceleration On Central Pattern Generation For Chest Wall Kinematics In Preterm Infants, Emily Zimmerman, Steven M. Barlow

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

Objective—To examine the role of vestibular inputs on respiratory and oromotor systems in healthy preterm infants.

Study Design—27 preterm infants were quasi-randomly assigned to either the VestibuGlide treatment or control groups. VestibuGlide infants were held in a developmentally supportive position, given a pacifier and received a series of vestibular stimuli, counterbalanced across rate and acceleration conditions, 15 minutes 3x/day for 10 days. The control infants were also held in a developmentally supportive position, given a pacifier for 15 minutes 3x/day for 10 days but did not receive the VestibuGlide stimulation.

Result—A multi-level regression model revealed that treatment infants increased their …

Aberrant Neuromagnetic Activation In The Motor Cortex In Children With Acute Migraine: A Magnetoencephalography Study, Xinyao Guo, Jing Xiang, Yingying Wang, Hope O'Brien, Marielle Kabbouche, Paul Horn, Scott W. Powers, Andrew D. Hershey

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

Migraine attacks have been shown to interfere with normal function in the brain such as motor or sensory function. However, to date, there has been no clinical neurophysiology study focusing on the motor function in children with migraine during headache attacks. To investigate the motor function in children with migraine, twenty-six children with acute migraine, meeting International Classification of Headache Disorders criteria and age- and gender-matched healthy children were studied using a 275-channel magnetoencephalography system. A finger-tapping paradigm was designed to elicit neuromagnetic activation in the motor cortex. Children with migraine showed significantly prolonged latency of movement-evoked magnetic fields (MEF) …

A Kinematic Description Of The Temporal Characteristics Of Jaw Motion For Early Chewing: Preliminary Findings, Erin M. Wilson, Jordan R. Green, Gary Weismer

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

Purpose: The purpose of this investigation was to describe age- and consistency-related changes in the temporal characteristics of chewing in typically developing children between the ages of 4 and 35 months and adults using high-resolution optically based motion capture technology.

Method: Data were collected from 60 participants (48 children, 12 adults) across 5 age ranges (beginners, 7 months, 12 months, 35 months, and adults); each age group included 12 participants. Three different food consistencies were trialed as appropriate. The data were analyzed to assess changes in chewing rate, chewing sequence duration, and estimated number of chewing cycles.

Results: The results …

Frequency Modulation And Spatiotemporal Stability Of The Scpg In Preterm Infants With Rds, Steven M. Barlow, Mimi Burch, Lalit Venkatesan, Meredith Harold, Emily Zimmerman

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

The nonnutritive suck (NNS) is an observable and accessible motor behavior which is often used to make inference about brain development and pre-feeding skill in preterm and term infants. The purpose of this study was to model NNS burst compression pressure dynamics in the frequency and time domain among two groups of preterm infants, including those with respiratory distress syndrome (RDS, N = 15) and 17 healthy controls. Digitized samples of NNS compression pressure waveforms recorded at a 1-week interval were collected 15 minutes prior to a scheduled feed. Regression analysis and ANOVA revealed that healthy preterm infants produced longer …

Augmented Input: The Effect Of Visuographic Supports On The Auditory Comprehension Of People With Chronic Aphasia, Sarah E. Wallace, Aimee R. Dietz, Karen Hux, Kristy S.E. Weissling

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

Background: Augmented input (AI), or the use of visuographic images and linguistic supports, is a strategy for facilitating the auditory comprehension of people with chronic aphasia. To date, researchers have not systematically evaluated the effects of various types of AI strategies on auditory comprehension.

Aims: The purpose of the study was to perform an initial evaluation of the changes in auditory comprehension accuracy experienced by people with aphasia when they received one type of AI. Specifically, the authors examined the effect four types of non-personalized visuographic image conditions on the comprehension of people with aphasia when listening to narratives.

Methods …