Special Education and Teaching Commons^™

Supporting Narrative Retells For People With Aphasia Using Aac: Photographs Or Line Drawings? Text Or No Text?, Julie Griffith, Aimee R. Dietz, Kristy S.E. Weissling

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

People with aphasia (PWAs) have demonstrated the ability to learn augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices that employ traditional grid layouts to enhance their communication; however, the process is typically lengthy and yields limited generalization (Fox & Fried-Oken, 2001; Koul & Harding, 1998). In response, researchers have begun to investigate the use of visual scene displays (VSDs) to support the communication interactions of PWAs by capitalizing on their relatively intact episodic memory (Beukelman, Dietz, McKelvey, Hux, & Weissling, in press; Dietz, Beukelman, & McKelvey, 2006a; Dietz, McKelvey, Beukelman, Weissling, & Hux, 2006b; McKelvey, Dietz, Hux, Weissling, & Beukelman, 2007). High-technology …

There Is A Continued Need For Empirical Data Supporting The Treatment Of People With Aphasia In The Acute Care Setting Including The Use Of Modified Melodic Intonation Therapy, Miechelle L. Mckelvey, Kristy S.E. Weissling

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

Abstract from & commentary on: Conkly, D., Novac, E., Boissy, A. Bethoux, F., & Chemali, K. (2012). The effects of modified melodic intonation therapy on nonfluent aphasia: A pilot study. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 55, 1462–1471.

Q: What are the immediate effects of Modified Melodic Intonation Therapy (MMIT) on the modified repetition and responsive subtests of the Western Aphasia Battery (WAB) in stroke patients with Broca’s aphasia?

While this study had several limitations, the basic premises—the exploration of the effectiveness of changes to traditional MIT and the exploration of treatment in very acute stages—were valuable. Further systematic …

Maximizing Audibility And Speech Recognition With Non-Linear Frequency Compression By Estimating Audible Bandwidth, Ryan W. Mccreery, Marc A. Brennan, Brenda Hoover, Judy Kopun, Patricia G. Stelmachowicz

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

Objective—Nonlinear frequency compression attempts to restore high-frequency audibility by lowering high-frequency input signals. Methods of determining the optimal parameters that maximize speech understanding have not been evaluated. The effect of maximizing the audible bandwidth on speech recognition for a group of listeners with normal hearing is described.

Design—Nonword recognition was measured with twenty normal-hearing adults. Three audiograms with different high-frequency thresholds were used to create conditions with varying high-frequency audibility. Bandwidth was manipulated using three conditions for each audiogram: conventional processing, the manufacturer’s default compression parameters, and compression parameters that optimized bandwidth.

Results—Nonlinear frequency compression optimized to provide the widest …

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 …

Kit And Dick Schmoker Reading Center- By The Numbers, Guy Trainin, Amanda Hall, Britney Tonniges

Research and Evaluation in Education, Technology, Art, and Design

This is an infographic showing the activity at the UNL Reading Center since it's inception.

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 …

Male And Female Perceptions Of Aftercare Supports And Services, Jacqueline N. Huscroft-D'Angelo

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Youth depart residential care with many continued risk factors, unique needs, and challenges as they reintegrate into the home, school, and community settings. Currently, there is limited research on needs and best practices in aftercare services and supports for youth departing from residential settings and even less is known about how these differ by gender. While preliminary studies have explored perceptions of need during reintegration and aftercare by youth and caregivers, little is known about how these may differ by gender or if perceptions change over time after experiencing the initial transition period. One way to address this knowledge gap …

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 …

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 …

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) …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Impact Of Computerized “Sounding Out” On Spelling Performance Of A Child Who Uses Aac: A Preliminary Report, Jillian H Mccarthy, David R. Beukelman, Tiffany Hogan

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

Spelling is a vital skill for people who rely on augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). The ability to spell words provides an opportunity to create novel and spontaneous communication and increases educational, social, and employment opportunities for children and adults. However, many children and youth who rely on AAC struggle to gain functional spelling skills and written language. The purpose of this preliminary investigation was to develop a strategy to provide auditory letter-sounds using commercially available computer equipment and to evaluate how such a computerized “sounding out” strategy influences spelling accuracy for one child who required AAC support. The spelling …

Quantifying Articulatory Distinctiveness Of Vowels, Jun Wang, Jordan R. Green, Ashok Samal, David B. Marx

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

The articulatory distinctiveness among vowels has been frequently characterized descriptively based on tongue height and front-back position; however, very few empirical methods have been proposed to characterize vowels based on time-varying articulatory characteristics. Such information is not only needed to improve knowledge about the articulation of vowels but also to determine the contribution of articulatory imprecision to poor speech intelligibility. In this paper, a novel statistical shape analysis was used to derive a vowel space that depicted the quantified articulatory distinctiveness among vowels based on tongue and lip movements. The effectiveness of the approach was supported by vowel classification accuracy …

The Status Of Students With Special Needs In The Instrumental Musical Ensemble And The Effect Of Selected Educator And Institutional Variables On Rates Of Inclusion, Edward C. Hoffman Iii

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, Student Creative Work, and Performances

The purpose of this study was to describe the current status of students with special needs in the instrumental musical ensemble and to examine the effect of selected educator and institutional variables on rates of inclusion. An online survey was designed by the researcher and distributed electronically to 600 practicing K-12 instrumental music educators in the states of Idaho, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, and Rhode Island. While 13.6% of the total school-aged population nationwide received special education services, demographic data provided by respondents revealed that students with special needs accounted for 6.8% of all students participating in bands, orchestras, …

The Co-Emergence Of Cognition, Language, And Speech Motor Control In Early Development: A Longitudinal Correlation Study, Ignatius S. B. Nip, Jordan R. Green, David Marx

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

Although the development of spoken language is dependent on the emergence of cognitive, language, and speech motor skills, knowledge about how these domains interact during the early stages of communication development is currently limited. This exploratory investigation examines the strength of associations between longitudinal changes in articulatory kinematics and development of skills in multiple domains thought to support early communication development. Twenty-four children were investigated every 3 months between the ages of 9 and 21 months. Movements of the upper lip, lower lip, and jaw were transduced using a three-dimensional motion capture system to obtain age-related changes in movement speed …

Subthalamic Nucleus Deep Brain Stimulation Changes Velopharyngeal Control In Parkinson’S Disease, Michael J. Hammer, Steven M. Barlow, Kelly E. Lyons, Rajesh Pahwa

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

Purpose

Adequate velopharyngeal control is essential for speech, but may be impaired in Parkinson’s disease (PD). Bilateral subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (STN DBS) improves limb function in PD, but the effects on velopharyngeal control remain unknown. We tested whether STN DBS would change aerodynamic measures of velopharyngeal control, and whether these changes were correlated with limb function and stimulation settings.

Methods

Seventeen PD participants with bilateral STN DBS were tested within a morning session after a minimum of 12 h since their most recent dose of anti-PD medication. Testing occurred when STN DBS was on, and again 1 h …

Feasibility Of Group Voice Therapy For Individuals With Parkinson’S Disease, Jeff Searl, Kristel Wilson, Karen Haring, Angela M. Dietsch, Kelly E. Lyons, Rajesh Pahwa

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

Purpose: The primary purpose was to demonstrate the feasibility of executing treatment tasks focused on increasing loudness in a group format for individuals with Parkinson’s disease (PD). A second purpose was to report preliminary pre-to-post treatment outcomes for individuals with PD immediately after they complete the group program.

Methods: The group intervention is described. Fifteen adults with PD who participated in the group and three clinicians leading the group provided feedback about the execution of the intervention. The participants also provided voice samples and self-ratings of voice handicap once before completing the 8-week voice group and once immediately …

Communication Support For People With Als, David R. Beukelman, Susan Fager, Amy Nordness

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

Almost all people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) experience a motor speech disorder, such as dysarthria, as the disease progresses. At some point, 80 to 95% of people with ALS are unable tomeet their daily communication needs using natural speech. Unfortunately, once intelligibility begins to decrease, speech performance often deteriorates so rapidly that there is little time to implement an appropriate augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) intervention; therefore, appropriate timing of referral for AAC assessment and intervention continues to be a most important clinical decision-making issue. AAC acceptance and use have increased considerably during the past decade. Many people use …

The Influence Of Neighborhood Density And Word Frequency On Phoneme Awareness In 2nd And 4th Grades, Tiffany Hogan, Ryan P. Bowles, Hugh W. Catts, Holly L. Storkel

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that two lexical characteristics – neighborhood density and word frequency – interact to influence performance on phoneme awareness tasks. Phoneme awareness was examined in a large, longitudinal dataset of 2nd and 4th grade children. Using linear logistic test model, the relation between words’ neighborhood density, word frequency, and phoneme awareness performance was examined across grades while co-varying type and place of deletion. A predicted interaction was revealed: words from dense neighborhoods or those with high frequency were more likely to yield correct phoneme awareness responses across grades. Findings support an …

Current And Future Aac Research Considerations For Adults With Acquired Cognitive And Communication Impairments, Melanie Fried-Oken, David R. Beukelman, Karen Hux

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

Adults with acquired language impairments secondary to stroke, traumatic brain injury, and neurodegenerative diseases are candidates for communication supports outside of the traditional restoration-based approaches to intervention. Recent research proves repeatedly that augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) provides a means for participation, engagement, conversation, and message transfer when individuals can no longer expect full return of premorbid communication skills and that inclusion of communication supports should begin early. We discuss current research and future directions for integrated systems of technical supports that include low-technology, high tech, and partner-dependent strategies for adults with severe and chronic aphasia, cognitive-communication problems resulting from …

A Mixed Methods Study Of How The Transition Process Impacts The Autonomy Of Pre-Service Secondary Mathematics Teachers, Linda Kasal Fusco

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This mixed methods study sought to identify the impact that transition into the practice of teaching had on the autonomy of pre-service secondary teachers of Mathematics.  It was based on the belief that a Mathematics teacher’s autonomy depended on: beliefs about Mathematics and how it was learned, reflections on the teaching practice, and social constraints of a secondary school culture. Data was collected between January 2009 and March 2010.  In Phase I (Quantitative) the participants (N = 30), selected from ten State University of New York teacher preparation colleges and universities, completed five instruments to quantify the three factors of …

Vowel Recognition From Continuous Articulatory Movements For Speaker-Dependent Applications, Jun Wang, Jordan R. Green, Ashok Samal, Tom D. Carrell

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

A novel approach was developed to recognize vowels from continuous tongue and lip movements. Vowels were classified based on movement patterns (rather than on derived articulatory features, e.g., lip opening) using a machine learning approach. Recognition accuracy on a single-speaker dataset was 94.02% with a very short latency. Recognition accuracy was better for high vowels than for low vowels. This finding parallels previous empirical findings on tongue movements during vowels. The recognition algorithm was then used to drive an articulation-to-acoustics synthesizer. The synthesizer recognizes vowels from continuous input stream of tongue and lip movements and plays the corresponding sound samples …

The Perception Of Natural, Cell Phone, And Computer-Synthesized Speech During The Performance Of Simultaneous Visual-Motor Tasks, Nirmal Kumar Srinivasan

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study investigated the influence of top-down and bottom-up information on speech perception in complex listening environments. Specifically, the effects of listening to different types of processed speech were examined on intelligibility and on simultaneous visual-motor performance. The goal was to extend the generalizability of results in speech perception to environments outside of the laboratory. The effect of bottom-up information was evaluated with natural, cell phone and synthetic speech. The effect of simultaneous tasks was evaluated with concurrent visual-motor and memory tasks. Earlier works on the perception of speech during simultaneous visual-motor tasks have shown inconsistent results (Choi, 2004; Strayer …

Rap: A Reading Comprehension Strategy For Students With Learning Disabilities, Courtney D. Blume

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Students with learning disabilities frequently struggle with reading comprehension. The purpose of this study was to investigate the efficacy of a paraphrasing cognitive strategy, RAP, on reading comprehension and the maintenance effects two months after treatment for students with learning disabilities. RAP was taught using the Strategic Intervention Model (SIM) developed by the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning (Schumaker, Deshler, & Ellis, 1986). This study utilized a multiple baseline design across participants for three fourth grade students with learning disabilities from the Midwest. In addition to a learning disability, two of the students also had speech-language impairments …

The Social Inclusion Of Young Adults With Intellectual Disabilities: A Phenomenology Of Their Experiences, Sarah A. Hall

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Social inclusion enhances the quality of life of young adults with intellectual disabilities (ID). Young adults with ID continue to face prejudice and discrimination that limit their social inclusion. They experience limited social inclusion because there are not enough appropriate activities available and they have limited opportunities to develop friendships. The social inclusion that people with disabilities experience within their local community varies greatly.

There is a deficiency in the literature concerning the social inclusion of young adults with ID. Previous considerations of disability have focused primarily on physical access and reflect the local contexts in which the participants live. …