Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Acoustic-Perceptual Relations Between Fundamental Frequency And Expressiveness In Speakers With Hypokinetic Dysarthria, Alena Portnova

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Hypokinetic dysarthria is a motor speech disorder that occurs in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) and affects not only their speech intelligibility but also how their attitudes and emotions are perceived by listeners. People with PD have been judged as less happy, involved, friendly, and interested based only on their speech samples. A lack of speech expressiveness is one of the characteristics that is likely to be related to these negative listener judgments. Specifically, it has been suggested that a lack of fundamental frequency (F0) variation reduces speakers’ ability to express various emotions. To investigate whether speech expressiveness is related …

Speech Intelligibility Assessment: Predicting “Noncompliant” Listener Behavior, Briggs Kroff

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Purpose: When researching speech intelligibility among people with dysarthria, convenience sampling has typically been used to recruit listeners. A new online crowdsourcing method, Mechanical Turk (MTurk), results in ecologically valid results, but outlier results are often removed from the analysis and considered "noncompliant". This study aims to examine whether there is a relationship between age, gender, speech/language/hearing impairment, and whether someone is "noncompliant".

Methods: 16 speakers, both with and without dysarthria, were recorded while they read prewritten sentences. Research participants found through MTurk then listened to the sentences and transcribed them. They also were asked questions including their …

Intra-Operative Language Assessment For Adult Brain Tumor Survivors: A Systematic Review, Carissa Jolley

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Awake craniotomy and language assessment procedures for brain tumor survivors can drastically affect patient outcomes and quality of life. The goal of intra-operative language mapping is to help preserve vital communicative functions. However, there is currently no standardized set of measures for intra-operative language assessment. This systematic review identified behavioral language measures used during intra-operative procedures and the resulting outcomes for adult brain tumor patients, with the aim of helping clinicians and researchers select intra-operative language assessments supported by the highest levels of evidence.

PRISMA guidelines were used to systematically identify articles. Patient demographic and medical information, neuroimaging data, intra-operative …

Language Revitalization: Strategies To Reverse Language Shift, Jessica Jamiel Martin

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Language shift, the process by which a language loses speakers until it becomes extinct, is occurring in speech communities all over the world. This process is influenced by internal and external political, social, and economic factors unique to each community. As its causes and effects are not uniform, a universal model for reversing language shift does not exist. However, several broad principles can be applied across multiple contexts and situations for successful language revitalization. It is essential for the speech community to be the primary decision maker in any program. A thorough assessment of the community’s current status, challenges, and …

Effects Of A Telerehabilitation Group On Continuing Language Treatment After Participation In An Intensive Comprehensive Aphasia Program (Icap), Alexis Missel

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Aphasia is an acquired neurogenic language disorder encompassing oral and/or written language expression and comprehension affecting an estimated two- to two to four million people in the United States, (Simmons-Mackie, 2018; National Aphasia Association, 2016). The primary aim of the current study was to investigate an option for targeted intervention as a follow-up to an Intensive Comprehensive Aphasia Program (ICAP). There is little research assessing maintenance of communication profile gains following conclusion of the ICAPs, and there are few options that exist as tailored ICAP follow-up programs or continued intervention guided by the ICAP principle features. To address this, a …

A Compilation Of Research Experiences, Samantha C. Gotcher

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Multiple projects comprised this thesis requirement. The projects ranged in breadth and depth and included 1) literature reviews across a variety of deaf education topics, including spreadsheets summarizing each literature review, 2) development of over 100 article summaries for the Hear to Learn website, 3) authorship on a manuscript submitted to a peer-reviewed journal, and 4) a peer-reviewed poster presentation at a national conference. My experiences in engaging in these activities immersed me into a greater understanding of the research in the field, resources for services, position papers of various entities, and recommended practices in Listening and Spoken Language (LSL) …

An Investigation Of Pictography And Verbal Rehearsal On College Students’ Recall Of Expository Texts, Joshua Woodruff

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Purpose: This study investigated the effects of pictography with and without verbal rehearsal on informational recall of two types of expository texts. This study is part of a research program to further develop a treatment for younger students with language impairment called Sketch-and-Speak.

Procedure: 66 undergraduate students between the ages of 18 and 40 were tested on recall of concrete versus abstract expository texts in a randomized group experiment across three conditions: pictography with and without verbal rehearsal versus re-reading. Participants were trained on the assigned testing condition and then proceeded to the experimental procedure. In the experimental procedure, …

The Impact Of Master’S Level Education On The Assessment And Intervention Of Pediatric Swallowing, Andrea Seagren

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Purpose: Pediatric swallowing disorders is increasing in prevalence as medical advancements are made. This increase raises the need for more speech-language pathologists (SLPs) to be involved in the assessment and intervention of pediatric swallowing. However, discrepancies exist in the amount and level of education being provided during academic coursework in the area of pediatric swallowing.

Method 1: The investigation had a two-tier approach. Part one included a survey specifically targeting SLPs who graduated within the most recent accreditation standards (2014 to present) and masters level students in their second year of graduate school (n=100). Part two explored academic courses offered …

An Examination Of Entrainment In Typically Developing Children, Kiersten A. Pope

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Purpose: Conversational entrainment describes the tendency for individuals to align their behavior with their communication partners and is essential for successful interaction. Evidence of entrainment in adults is robust, yet research regarding its development is sparse. Here, we investigate the effectiveness of a quasi-conversational paradigm for the purpose of identifying the speech rate entrainment abilities of children.

Method: Data were collected from a total of 50 typically developing children from 5-14 years old. Participants completed an entrainment task to identify the presence of speech rate modification depending on the presence of “fast” or “slow” stimuli. The entrainment task utilized a …

The Relationship Between Narrative Proficiency And Syntactic Complexity Of Spontaneously Generated Stories Elicited From Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder (Asd), Megan Israelsen

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine whether a narrative program designed to increase narrative language proficiency was associated with improved syntactic complexity for 5, school-aged children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

Method: A multiple-baseline across participants design was employed. Children participated in a narrative intervention for 45 minutes, twice weekly for a period of time ranging from 19 to 33 sessions. Spontaneously generated narratives were collected after every other intervention session and analyzed for narrative and syntactic complexity.

Results: Results indicated that during baseline, three of the student’s spontaneous stories contained syntactically complex utterances that were comparable …

Judgments Of Intelligence And Likability For Young Adult Female Speakers Of American English: The Influence Of Vocal Fry And The Surrounding Acoustic-Prosodic Context, Michelle Parker

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Objective: There is little consensus about how the use of the voice quality feature, vocal fry, in the speech of college-aged American women influences listener judgements of the speaker. This study investigates how vocal fry influences the judgement of speaker intelligence and likeability in this population, while taking into account the surrounding acoustic-prosodic context, specifically speech rate and voice pitch.

Method: Speech samples were obtained from eight American English speaking females who presented with different combinations of voice pitch (low or high), speech rate (slow or fast), and vocal fry (presence or absence). Listener judgements from 463 adults (262 males; …

Does Talker Familiarity Or Time Of Testing Facilitate Sentence Recognition When Listening In Noise?, Madison S. Buntrock

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

At the most elementary level, the speech signal is comprised of two parts: linguistic information and indexical information. The linguistic information is the phonetic information of the signal and indexical information is speaker specific and is the paralinguistic information of the signal. Part of this indexical information is talker specific characteristics; which have been shown to help people understand speech. The talker specific characteristic we looked at was talker familiarity. Talker familiarity has been shown to help babies segment speech and adults listen in noise and recall stories. We looked at talker familiarity to see if it would benefit typically …

Pitch Perception In Preschool-Age Children Who Are Deaf Or Hard Of Hearing, Megan Lambert

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This research thesis will 1) provide an overview of the psychoacoustics of music perception, particularly as related to the properties of pitch perception in young children and 2) describe the methods and outcomes of an exploratory study to evaluate the efficacy of obtaining pitch perception data from preschool age children with hearing loss. Each child completed a series of three tasks, including coaching and practice, single note perception, and pitch contrasts. All of the children readily understood the single-note pitch perception task. Pitch contrast performance across participants ranged from 50% to 96% correct for the first data collection period and …

Conversational Alignment: A Study Of Neural Coherence And Speech Entrainment, Kristen M. Jensen, Stephanie A. Borrie, Breanna E. Studenka, Ronald B. Gillam

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Conversational alignment refers to the tendency for communication partners to adjust their verbal and non-verbal behaviors to become more like one another during the course of human interaction. This alignment phenomenon has been observed in neural patterns, specifically in the prefrontal areas of the brain (Holper et al., 2013; Cui et al., 2012; Dommer et al., 2012; Holper et al., 2012; Funane et al., 2011; Jiang et al., 2012); verbal behaviors such acoustic speech features (e.g., Borrie & Liss, 2014; Borrie et al., 2015; Lubold & Pon-Barry, 2014), phonological features (e.g., Babel, 2012; Pardo, 2006), lexical selection (e.g., Brennan & …

Classroom Amplification: The Necessity Of Sound-Amplification In The Classroom, Kalley Ellis

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

In a classroom, the optimal signal-to-noise ratio, as is recommended by the American Nation Standards Institute (ANSI), is 35 dBA, with the reverberation reaching a maximum of 0.6s (Lewis, 2008); yet, in classrooms today, the typical signal-to-noise ratio ranges from 40-73 dBA (Lewis, 2008). With at least 75% of the school day being spent in listening activities (e.g. reading, instructions, lecture, etc.), this noise level in the classroom has great impact on what a child hears and, thus, learns (Blazer, 2008). Unfortunately, with each new year, classroom sizes are increasing and creating an even more detrimental noise level and signal-to-noise …

Assessment Of Morphosyntactic Development Of Preschool Children With Hearing Loss Using The Clinical Evaluation Of Language Fundamentals-Preschool Second Edition, Angela Anderson

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

It is recommended that children with HL are assessed using standardized assessments normed on hearing peers (Houston & Caraway, 2009; Joint Commission on Infant Hearing (JCIH), 2007). However, as these assessments are more commonly administered to children with HL there is reason to further investigate the sensitivity of these assessments particularly in their ability to identify weaknesses specific to HL. The CELF-Preschool 2 (Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals – Preschool (Wiig, Secord & Semel, 2004)) has been found to be a valid tool for diagnosing language impairment in normal hearing children (Spaulding, Plante, & Farinella, 2006). However, this assessment has …

Comparison Of Two Approaches To Improving Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency For School-Aged, English Language Learners: Two-Group, Pretest/Posttest Design, Tanja A. Dalton

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This preliminary study was designed to examine which of two interventions (standard practice or narrative based) was associated with better improvement in cognitive academic language proficiency, or literate language, for school-age children learning as a second language(English Language Learners; ELLs). We hypothesized that narrative-based intervention would yield better outcomes than the standard practice intervention because it provided children with contextual cues, redundancy, and predictability, which should promote learning and generalization.

We employed a pre/post test design and included 18 children (ELLs) who were at-risk for language and learning problems to test the hypothesis that narrative-based language intervention would yield better …

Maximum Repetition Rates In Children At-Risk For Dyslexia, Amy L. Baxter

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

My senior thesis has focused on current research exploring precursor communication skills being conducted by Dr. Ben Massen at the Radboud University Medical Center in Nijmegen in the Netherlands. To that end, I worked in an acoustics lab analyzing Maximum Repetition Rates (MRR), also known as diadochokinetic rates, DDKs, in young children's speech development. This four year funded research project began in 2004.

In this paper I will provide an overview of the underlying theoretical considerations guiding the study and then describe my particular contribution to the effort, completed during Fall semester 2005 while I was a foreign exchange student.

Effects Of Literacy Based Communication Intervention On Expressive Language Of A Young Child, Celeste C. Reynolds

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

A positive correlation has been demonstrated between improved expressive language skills and intervention using literacy related activities in the school-aged populations for both normally developing and developmentally delayed children. Norris (1991) found that children's literature provides meaningful contexts that are ideal for helping school aged children learn language in a manner that is interesting an does not artificially fragment language into subcomponents or splinter skills. Children can learn to recognize and use the abstract, complex, and subtle aspects of language in the context provided in written language. "The use of written language for intervention provides a context for integrating spoken …

Pre-Referral Portfolio Assessment For Limited English Proficient Students, Elizabeth Grayce Stevens

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

What can be done to ensure that the needs are met of children who are limited in proficiency of the English language? Such is the familiar query of educators and professionals alike. In fact, one elementary school principal stated that this question often presents itself as the first item of business when administrators meet together (Marian Waterman, personal communication, October, 1997). How do we know where to place a child? How do we evaluate progress? When progress is limited, how do we know if the child requires special education services? The answers lie in appropriate assessment.

Black English, Karen Tibbitts Filimoehala

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Black English has recently entered the media spotlight with the passing of the Ebonics resolution by the Oakland School Board on Dec. 18, 1996. In this resolution, the school board unanimously voted to recognize Black English or "Ebonics" (a term which combines the words "ebony" and "phonetics")(LeLand & Joseph, 1997, p. 78) as the primary language of many of its students, and to teach students in their primary language in order to maintain the "legitimacy and richness" of the language, and to help students master standard English. Needless to say, the resolution was met with highly charged arguments - some …

The Acoustic Transparency Of Ad*Hear Wax Guards When Measuring Dpoaes, Tiffany Lloyd Shelton

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Approximately one to six of every 1,000 children is born deaf or with some degree of permanent hearing loss (Parving, 1993; Watkins, Baldwin, & McEnery, 1991; White, & Behrens, 1993). Reduced hearing acuity during infancy and early childhood may interfere with the development of the child's speech and verbal language skills (NIH, 1993). Reduced auditory input can also have harmful effects on the child's social, emotional, cognitive, and academic development (NIH, 1993). Because hearing is crucial for the development of speech and verbal language skills, the developmental future of a child born with a significant hearing loss depends greatly on …

Portfolio Assessment As A Means Of Assessing Language Proficiency In Bilingual (Esl/Lep) Students, Christine Boynton

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Speech-language pathologists are faced with the increasing problem of providing appropriate and nonbiased language assessment of minority language speakers. Currently available measures of language proficiency fail to provide adequate information about a Limited English Proficient student's language to determine the specific abilities and educational needs that he/she has.

Therefore, this study was an investigation of the use of a portfolio assessment method as a means of determining the language proficiency of bilingual Limited English Proficient students. The following measurements and information were included in the portfolio: (1) home and literacy background information, (2) parent, teacher, and student attitude information, (3) …

Validation Of The Rapid Speech Transmission Index (Rasti) In A Classroom Environment, Jeffery Larsen

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Because the acoustics of a room have a substantial impact on speech intelligibility, researchers have tried over the years to develop the most effective way to evaluate the effects of the acoustic environment on speech intelligibility. Both subjective and objective measures of speech intelligibility have been devised. For the purposes of this study, subjective measures are those in which a speech recognition test is given to a group of subjects whose scores provide a direct indication of speech intelligibility at each position in the listening environment {Steeneken & Houtgast, 1980). Objective measures are those that determine the acoustic factors that …

Effects Of Otitis Media On Language Development In Native Populations: A Review Of The Literature, Monica Malmgren

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

From the time a fetus reaches about 20 weeks gestational age, its auditory system is functioning. Before we are ever born, we are exposed to sounds within our environment. With birth, we begin to interact with, experiment with, and learn to interpret the sounds around us. Before learning to speak, we are bombarded by the sounds of our language. An infant's head is known to perk up at the sound of a voice, a sudden noise, music... all the sounds of the environment, which is evidence that children are aware of the sounds around them before they are ever able …

A Study To Examine The Effectiveness Of The Electropalatograph In Elicitation And The Remediation Of A Lateral Lisp In An Adult Client, Nathan Butikofer

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

The electropalatograph is an exciting new instrument that is still being researched for clinical use in the remediation of various types of articulation disorders. The electropalatograph gives both client and clinician visual feedback of the client's articulatory productions. Specifically, it allows a client and a clinician to view on a screen exactly where the tongue is placed in relation to the hard and soft palate (McWilliams, 1990).

Comparative Analysis Of Syntactic Abilities Of Hard-Of-Hearing And Deaf Children, As Measured By The Screening Portion Of The Test Of Syntactic Abilities, Dawn Misenhimer

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

According to the authors of the Test of Syntactic Abilities (TSA), the most difficult task facing deaf and hard-of-hearing children in our educational system is the acquisition of English. The structure, or syntax, of the English language, is especially challenging for these children. The eventual result is that few deaf and hard-of-hearing students acquire even an adequate knowledge of standard English. This in turn affects all other aspects of education, including the learning of reading, writing and content subjects (Quigley, Steinkamp, Power & Jones, 1978). Most deaf and hard-of-hearing children do not even use English syntax to any great extent …

The Proposed Use Of An Anatomically Marked Presurgically Fitted Prostheses With Infants Who Have Unrepaired Cleft Palates, Amy Moser

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Approximately one out of every 750 children are born with some type of an oral cleft (McWilliams, Morris, & Shelton, 1984) Children with clefts of the palate in general have a higher incidence of articulation disorders than do children without clefts. Typical speech problems which tend to occur are hypernasality and multiple articulation errors, often consisting of atypical tongue placement in the mouth or nontypical articulation at sites in the larynx or pharynx. These speech problems can be severe and may require years of expensive, long-term professional treatment to remediate.

Bilingual Interpreter Paraprofessional Training Program In The Field Of Communicative Disorders, Susie Yoakum, Tyler Sorenson

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Because of the ever increasing number of non- (NEP) and Limited- (LEP) English Proficient persons in the United States, the Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) working in the public school setting is currently faced with the challenge of developing effective strategies for the assessment and identification of bilingual children with communicative disorders. One of the responsibilities of the SLP is to administer tests to children with suspected communicative disorders. However, it is difficult for a monolingual, English speaking SLP to effectively assess the speech and language of a non- or limited-English speaking child because of the language barrier that is present. In …

Comparison Of Laryngographic Waveforms Of An Adult And Child, Elaine Hicken

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

The ability to accurately identify and differentially diagnose voice disorders is an important concern for the speech-language pathologist. This need has resulted in the development of methods which focus on identifying "objective, reliable, valid procedures for assessing voice disorders" (Costello, 1985). Several methods that allow direct observation of the laryngeal mechanism are invasive and time consuming. A method that is noninvasive and that provides valuable information about the vocal fold movement pattern is needed for clinical use.