Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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.

Comparison Of The Laryngeal Behavior Of A Young Stutterer Before And After Fluency Treatment, Trista Farmer

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Stuttering is one of the most complex of all speech and language disorders (Caruso, Conture, & Colton, 1988). Understanding of its etiology and treatment is vague, yet growing. Much research is needed in the area of disfluency to increase our knowledge of the disorder and to provide a clearer picture of how to improve therapeutic intervention. Routine evaluation of disfluency typically includes the assessment of stuttering frequency and rate. However, as stated by Ingham (1984), the minimum evaluation data collected (fluency and rate) should be supplemented by the assessment of a number of additional aspects of speech quality (Ingham, 1984, …