Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

A Longitudinal Study Of Disfluencies In The Speech Of Normal Preschool Children, Susan Marto Crowell

Dissertations and Theses

The process of differentially diagnosing a child who is experiencing temporary normal disfluency from one who is beginning to stutter could be made objective by the establishment of normative data on fluency development. To date, there are no standardized norms on the development of fluency in children. Current investigations have contributed greatly to expectations of certain types and amounts of disfluencies in preschool-age children. Most of the research, however, has focused on observing children at discrete age levels from 2- to 7-years-of-age. Only one longitudinal study to date has been reported. Additional longitudinal data of preschoolaged children would benefit the …

The Output Of Compression Hearing Aids With A Transient Input Signal, Michael Andrew Berg

Dissertations and Theses

The output characteristics of five compression hearing aids in response to a transient signal were examined to determine if, the input-output function (i.e. output levels of the hearing aid as a function of input level) for a transient signal could be made to approximate that of a continuous signal, by activating the compression circuit with a second signal (activator). Input-output functions for three input compression and two output compression hearing aids were obtained in order to determine if: 1. the automatic gain control (AGC) was activated by the second signal and the transient signal output approximates that of a continuous …

Communication And Socialization Profiles In Toddlers With Expressive Language Delay, Shawn Spangle-Looney

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to compare expressive communication, receptive communication, and socialization achievement in 18- to 34-month-old ELD toddlers to the same skills in normally-speaking children. The questions this study sought to answer were, how do the three skill areas in ELD toddlers compare with the same skills in normal toddlers?, will ELD subjects evidence specific profiles of deficits involving not only expressive but receptive and social skills as well? and, within the ELD subjects will two subgroups emerge, one group having poor expressive skills only, and a second group having deficits in addition to expression.

A Comparison Of Three Methods For Measuring The Attenuation Provided By Insert-Type Hearing-Protective Devices, Lois Jeanne Gaier

Dissertations and Theses

To effectively implement an occupational hearing conservation program, employers must know the amount of attenuation (noise reduction) provided by the hearing protective devices used by their employees. Currently standardized test methods, performed under laboratory conditions, cannot be easily implemented in industrial settings, and previously proposed field methods have depended upon the use of special headphones which are not typically available in the workplace. These problems have led many occupational hearing conservationists to use standard audiometric headphones to evaluate the attenuation provided to employees using insert-type hearing-protective devices. There has, however, been little research into the validity of using standard audiometric …

A Study Of The Capability Of The Computerized Visi-Pitch When Investigating Prosodic Features Of Motherese, Denise Leslie Clemens

Dissertations and Theses

With commercial availability of non-real and real-time spectrum analyzers, the speech-language pathologist has the means to objectively extract and measure pitch taken from speech samples. Though both types of spectrum analyzers provide the clinician with viable methods of measuring fundamental frequency and frequency range values, pitch extraction using real time allows for greater efficiency in acoustic measurements. The Kay Elemetrics Visi-Pitch is one such real-time spectrum analyzer that is less expensive and more accessible than other real time speech science hardware. The purpose of this study was to investigate the capability of a computerized Visi-Pitch to reflect elevation of fundamental …

An Investigation Of The Effect Of Using Varying Stimuli To Assess Normal Children's Comprehension Of Five Locative Prepositions, Kathleen Gray Versteeg

Dissertations and Theses

The questions posed in this study were: Are there significant differences among various tasks for eliciting five locative prepositions, and, if so, do tasks vary in their effectiveness according to the age of the children?

Sixty children, ten within each of six age groups, aged eighteen to forty-eight months, participated in the study. All the children had normal language and hearing abilities. An investigator-developed assessment, the Test for Comprehension of Five Locative Prepositions, was administered to each child by the investigator. The Test for Comprehension of Five Locative Prepositions involved picture contexts and object contexts of varying sizes, and required …

The Differential Role Of The Ssi With Normal Preschool Children, Caroline Joy Semler

Dissertations and Theses

The onset of stuttering usually occurs between two and six years which is the same time most children exhibit normal disfluencies often making it difficult to differentiate between normally disfluent children and incipient stutterers. Clinicians need information on the types and frequencies of disfluencies exhibited by normal preschool children in order to determine if a child is more likely to be an incipient stutterer or normally disfluent child. Some clinicians feel uncomfortable relying on past literature since there is a limited amount of information available and the studies have shown a considerable amount of variability in the types and frequencies …

Disfluencies In Normal Three-Year-Old And Five-Year-Old Male Children, Pamela Paguia Christianson

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to compare the frequency of specific disfluencies in 3 year old and 5 year old normal male children in terms of part-word repetitions, word repetitions, phrase repetitions, interjections, revision-incomplete phrases, disrhythmic phonations and tense pauses. The disfluencies were observed while each child spontaneously interacted with an investigator in a clinical room. Two questions were addressed:

1. Do three-year-old male children exhibit a higher overall frequency of disfluencies than five-year-old male children?
2. Do three-year-old male children exhibit a greater frequency of certain disfluencies than five-year old male children?

A Comparison Of The Expressive Speech Of Profoundly Hearing-Impaired Children : "Hearing Aids On" Versus "Hearing Aids Off", James Allen Henry

Dissertations and Theses

This investigation was conducted to determine whether the removal of hearing aids from these children for eighteen hours (+ 1/2 hour and including sleep time) would result in reduced speech intelligibility as perceived by a panel of listening judges who were unfamiliar with the speech of the deaf.

Data On The Ppvt-R For Black Kindergarteners, Christy Gail Stocks

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to obtain data from the PPVT-R scores of low and middle SES black kindergartners in the Portland area to determine if there is a difference between their scores and the scores reported in the PPVT-R. The primary question to be answered was do the scores of black kindergartners in Portland vary significantly dependent upon SES? The secondary questions this study sought to answer were: what are the means, standard deviations, and ranges of scores for black kindergartners in Portland and what are the means, standard deviations, and ranges for each two-month age group of …

Discontinuities In Normal 30 To 36 Month Old And 54 To 60 Month Old Female Children, Shelley Louise Arnold-Cockburn

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to compare the frequency of occurrence of specific discontinuities in 30 to 36 month old normal female children to normal 54 to 60 month old female children. Specifically, the discontinuities were categorized as follows: part word repetitions, whole word repetitions, and false starts. The discontinuities were observed while the child spontaneously interacted with an investigator in a clinical room.

The following questions were addressed:

1. Do 30 to 36 month old normal female children differ in their total frequency of specific discontinuities when compared to normal 54 to 60 month old female children?
2. Do 30 …

Repetitions In The Speech Of Normal Two Year Old Males, Stephanie Herrick

Dissertations and Theses

Development of fluency has always been an important focus of stuttering research. However, to date there are no standardized norms on the development of fluency. Reliable and valid information regarding the normal development of fluency is necessary in order to deferentially diagnose normal disfluency from incipient stuttering. Establishment of norms for part-word repetitions is especially important since this type of disfluency has traditionally been considered an indicator of early stuttering. The present study sought to contribute to the investigation of the development of fluency by examining the frequency of occurrence of repetitions in 30- to 36-month-old males.

A Comparison Of Behavioral Problems Between Speech And/Or Language Impaired Children And Normal Children, Jeannie S. Botelho

Dissertations and Theses

The questions posed in this study were: 1) Is there a significant difference in the prevalence of behavioral problems between speech and/or language impaired children and normal children as reported by parents and teachers? and 2) Is there a significant difference in the types of behavioral problems between speech and/or language impaired children and normal children, as reported by parents and teachers?

The Effects Of Two Management Techniques On The Generalization Of A Syntax Structure, Karin Jeanne Goodling

Dissertations and Theses

The effectiveness of any language training program is determined by generalization of the clinically trained behaviors to spontaneous speech. Traditional language programs which employ operant procedures to establish the behavior in the clinic and reinforcement from family, teachers and peers in a variety of settings to obtain generalization, have been successful in establishing the use of grammatical rules in the clinic setting, but reportedly have failed to promote generalization. Recent literature in the areas of semantics and pragmatics has produced a trend toward teaching language in natural contexts. The purpose of this study was to investigate: 1) whether a group …

The Performance Of Reading Disabled 3rd To 6th Graders On The Token Test For Children, Jane J. Kihara

Dissertations and Theses

Many different versions of the original Token Test (De Renzi and Vignolo, 1962) have been available to speech language pathologists as a language assessment tool with various populations. The most recently adapted version of the Token Test is the Token Test for Children developed by DiSimoni (1978) as a measure to detect subtle receptive language abilities in children.

The purpose of this study was to determine ii a significant difference existed between reading disabled and normal readers on syntactic and memory abilities on the Token Test for Children and if a difference existed between reading disabled students in grades 3 …

Pre-Kindergarteners' Performance On The Btbc, Amelia Wittwer Ouellette

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to detect the amount of variability in performance among low, middle and high SES pre-kindergarteners on the entire Boehm Test of Basic Concepts. The study sought to answer the following questions. What is the distribution of BTBC scores among low, middle and high SES pre-kindergarteners? Do the scores of pre-kindergarten children vary significantly as to socioeconomic status?

A Comparative Study Of The Developmental Sentence Scoring Normative Data Obtained In Portland, Oregon, And The Midwest, For Children Between The Ages Of 5.0 And 5.11 Years, Eileen Mcnutt

Dissertations and Theses

The focus of this study was the Developmental Sentence Scoring (DSS), developed by Lee and Canter (1971) and Lee (1974). The DSS is used to analyze a corpus of 50 utterances according to eight grammatical categories. Once a DSS score is determined for an individual child, that child's performance can be compared to that of his/ her peers, using the normative data provided by Lee (1974), and reported by Koenigsknecht (1974). This normative data has been widely used both clinically, and in research projects with little regard for the validity of the norms when applied outside the Midwest, where it …

A Comparative Study Of The Northwestern Syntax Screening Test Data, Sharon Ann Moore

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to compare NSST data (Lee, 1969, 1971) with data obtained in Portland, Oregon for children 4.0-4.11 years of age. The questions this study sought to answer were: 1) Is there a significant difference between the expressive and receptive scores obtained by Lee, (1969, 1971) and the scores obtained in Portland, Oregon? 2) What are the means, standard deviations and percentiles of the NSST scores of a select group of four-year-old children in Portland, Oregon?

A Comparative Study Of The Teem And The Morphological Aspects Of The Blst And Told-P, Kathleen Marie Zuehlsdorff

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the construct validity of a new test, which purports to measure morphology, entitled Test for Examining Expressive Morphology (TEEM) (Shipley, Stone and Sue, 1983). Additional tests of expressive morphology, the Bankson Language Screening Test (BLST) (Bankson, 1977) and the Test of Language Development-Primary (TOLD-P) (Newcomer and Hammill, 1982) were utilized to determine the association of the TEEM with two highly-researched instruments.

A Comparative Study Of The Developmental Sentence Scoring Normative Data Obtained In Canby, Oregon, And The Midwest, For Children Between The Ages Of 6.0 And 6.11 Years, Stacy Ann Tilden-Browning

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of geographical differences on the Developmental Sentence Scoring normative data for children ages 6.0 to 6.11, by comparing the original DSS normative data with that obtained in Canby, Oregon. A collateral purpose was to develop norms for the geographical area of Canby, Oregon, using the DSS procedure. Forty children, ten within each of the four, three-month age subgroups between 6.0 and 6.11, were chosen. All of the children came from monolingual, middle-class families and had normal hearing, normal receptive vocabulary skills, and no known unusual social, developmental, or behavioral …

A Comparison Of Preschool Scores On The Ppvt-R And The Teld, Diana Schneider

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to compare PPVT-R age equivalents with language ages from the Test of Early Language Development - TELD 2 (Hresko, Reid, and Hammill, 1981) for a preschool population. This study sought to find the strength of association between the PPVT-R age equivalents and the TELD language ages. The subjects used in the study were 54 preschool children ranging in age from 3-6 through 4-7 years. Normal children were selected for the study based on their chronological age, sex, and socioeconomic status - SES.

A Comparison Of Motoric And Linguistic Features In Graphic Samples Of Fluent And Nonfluent Aphasic Persons Over Three Time Intervals, Babette Fisher

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to compare the graphic production of fluent and non-fluent aphasic groups in terms of motoric and linguistic characteristics at three intervals of recovery, and to analyze change over time after combining the fluent and non-fluent aphasic groups.

The Influence Of Situational Cues On A Standardized Speechreading Test, Maria Navarro Montserrat

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of the present study was to determine the influence of situational cues on a standardized speechreading test in order to assess an individual's natural speechreading ability. The widely used, standardized Utley Lipreading Test was selected to which photoslides of message-related situational cues were added. The Utley Lipreading Test consists of two relatively equivalent test lists, containing series of unrelated sentences.

Survey Of Oregon's Public School Hearing Conservation Programs, Jill M. Jordan-Trestik

Dissertations and Theses

A survey instrument was designed to yield information regarding hearing conservation activities. This instrument was then distributed to those individuals identified as the coordinators for the various district programs.

Some Effects Of Cochlear Implant Use On Loudness Modulation, Carol F. Ross

Dissertations and Theses

In this study, five deaf individuals with cochlear implants were presented with noise that was manipulated systematically, to test the hypothesis that deaf persons using cochlear prostheses will demonstrate intensity regulation of their vocal output that is more appropriate when their implants are turned on than when turned off. The intensity of their vocal output was measured to determine if they demonstrated a Lombard response, that is, a systematic increase in vocal intensity with increasing intensity of background noise. Results from the study were mixed. With implants on, three subjects made systematic increases in vocal intensity with increasing background noise, …

Developmental Sentence Scoring: A Comparative Study Conducted In Portland, Oregon, Kathryn Marie Mccluskey

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this investigation was to replicate the study conducted by Lee and Canter (1971) and Lee (1974a) to determine if a significant difference among the scores in the two studies existed due to geographical location, and to initiate the establishment of norms for the Portland, Oregon geographical area. Forty children, selected on the basis of chronological age (4.0 to 4.11 years), normal receptive vocabulary skills, normal hearing, and a monolingual background, participated as subjects. A language sample of fifty utterances was elicited from each child and analyzed according to the Developmental Sentence Scoring (DSS) procedure.

Normative Data For The Tennessee Test Of Rhythm And Intonation Patterns (T-Trip), Ray Drommond

Dissertations and Theses

Prosody is the flow of speech created by controlling elements such as pitch, rate, loudness, and stress (Tiffany and Carrell, 1977). Prosody is vital to intelligibility of speech and also communicates meaning. Despite the importance of prosody, however, few tests for the adequacy of prosodic ability in young children have been published (Koike and Asp, 1981a). To remedy this paucity of tools, Koike and Asp published the Tennessee Test of Rhythm and Intonation Patterns (T-TRIP). The clinical usefulness of the T-TRIP has been limited by a lack of normative data against which to compare individual children's performance.

The purpose of …

A Validation Study Of The Screening Test For Developmental Apraxia Of Speech, Deborah L. Thorsen

Dissertations and Theses

The term "developmental apraxia of speech" (DAS) has been a confusing one since Morley, Court and Miller (1954) first applied it to articulatory patterns of a specific group of children. Until recently, the differentiation of diagnostic features of DAS in children as compared to other articulatory disorders has been difficult. One evaluation tool, developed by Blakeley (1980), to assist in differential diagnosis of DAS is the Screening Test for Developmental Apraxia of Speech (STDAS). This study examined the validity of this tool by comparing its results with the evaluations by three Speech-Language Pathologists knowledgeable in the area of developmental and/or …

Survey Of Language Acquisition Techniques Provided By Parents Of Talented And Gifted Children, Sharon Engen

Dissertations and Theses

Most of the studies on language acquisition techniques provided by parents have been addressed to the training of parents for prevention of language disabilities and disorders (Latzke, 1975). Few investigations have involved language acquisition of the superior functioning child (Patterson, 1981). Hence, the purpose of this study was to survey language acquisition techniques provided by parents of talented and gifted children (TAG) who were enrolled in the Beaverton School District Number 48 TAG program. The first question dealt with what materials and/or equipment did the parents use in aiding their child's language development. The second question dealt with which particular …

Normative Data On The Auditory Memory Performance Of Three- And Four-Year Old Children As Measured By The Auditory Memory Test Package (Amtp), Patricia R. Davis

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to collect normative data on the auditory memory performance of three- and four-year old children as measured by the Auditory Memory Test Package (AMTP). Specifically, this investigation sought to answer one question: is the AMTP sensitive to age differences when administered to young children ages 3.0-4.11?