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Exploring Communication Apprehension And Its Relationship To Communication Attitude And Socio-Communicative Functioning In Children With Velopharyngeal Insufficiency, Agnieszka Dzioba

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Myriad findings on children with velopharyngeal insufficiency (VPI) indicate the potential for this population of children to experience feelings of apprehension specific to communication and the potential for other psychological and social difficulties. The purpose of the present investigation was to explore the construct of communication apprehension (CA) and its potential relationship to social and communicative functioning in a diverse group of children with VPI. Potential linkages between CA and multiple socio-communicative constructs including attitude, speech satisfaction, speech and language skill, social competence, and speech severity were explored in a cohort of children with and without VPI, followed by an …

Characterizing Spoken Discourse In Individuals With Parkinson Disease Without Dementia, Angela C. Roberts

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Background: The effects of disease (PD) on cognition, word retrieval, syntax, and speech/voice processes may interact to manifest uniquely in spoken language tasks. A handful of studies have explored spoken discourse production in PD and, while not ubiquitously, have reported a number of impairments including: reduced words per minute, reduced grammatical complexity, reduced informativeness, and increased verbal disruption. Methodological differences have impeded cross-study comparisons. As such, the profile of spoken language impairments in PD remains ambiguous.

Method: A cross-genre, multi-level discourse analysis, prospective, cross-sectional between groups study design was conducted with 19 PD participants (M_age = 70.74, M …

Role Of The Cochlea And Efferent System In Children With Auditory Processing Disorder, Sriram Boothalingam

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Auditory processing disorder (APD) is characterized by difficulty listening in noisy environments despite normal hearing thresholds. APD was previously thought to be restricted to deficits in the central auditory system. The current work sought to investigate brainstem and peripheral mechanisms that may contribute to difficulties in speech understanding in noise in children with suspected APD (sAPD). Three mechanisms in particular were investigated: cochlear tuning, efferent function, and spatial hearing. Cochlear tuning was measured using stimulus frequency otoacoustic emission (SFOAE) group delay. Results indicate that children suspected with APD have atypically sharp cochlear tuning, and reduced medial olivocochlear (MOC) functioning. Sharper-than-typical …

Evaluation Of Auditory Evoked Potentials As A Hearing Aid Outcome Measure, Vijayalakshmi Easwar

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis aimed to explore the applicability of Cortical Auditory Evoked Potentials (CAEPs) and Envelope Following Responses (EFRs) as objective aided outcome measures for use in infants wearing hearing aids. The goals for CAEP-related projects were to evaluate the effect of speech stimulus source on CAEPs, non-linear hearing aid processing on tone-evoked CAEPs, and the effect of inter-stimulus intervals on non-linear hearing aid processing of phonemes. Results illustrated larger amplitude CAEPs with shorter latencies for speech stimuli from word-medial positions than word-initial positions, and no significant effect of the tone burst onset overshoot due to non-linear hearing aid processing. Inter-stimulus …

The Effect Of Botulinum Toxin Type A On Speech Intelligibility In Oromandibular Dystonia, Beatriz Ysabel Domingo

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Speech intelligibility of 10 individuals with OMD was measured before and after receiving BoNT-A injections. Intelligibility was assessed using the PIT (single-word intelligibility), SIT (sentence intelligibility), and a conversational speech task. Five listeners rated the speech intelligibility of these three intelligibility tasks via orthographic transcription and visual analogue scaling (VAS) techniques. BoNT-A was not associated with significant differences in speech intelligibility. Further analysis revealed a significant difference on the PIT VAS intelligibility ratings based on order of presentation, suggesting that listeners rated the first half of words on the PIT (words 1-29) as more intelligible than the second half of …

Reflective Practice And Professional Knowledge: A Grounded Theory Study Of Speech-Language Pathologists Working In Head And Neck Cancer Rehabilitation, Marie-Eve Caty

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Reflective practice is defined in this dissertation as a process of thinking 'about' and 'through' one's doings, such that practitioners become more skillful, and aware of the nature and impact of their performance within their professional practices. Because it is presumed to enable healthcare delivery practices that are more sensitive to patient needs and more in-line with evidence- based practices, RP is frequently noted as an essential attribute of competent clinical practice. Yet, little is known about the processes by which RP contributes to the professional learning of health-care practitioners in general, and Speech- Language Pathologists (SLPs) in particular.

This …