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The Effect Of Multitalker Background Noise On Speech Intelligibility In Parkinson's Disease And Controls, Talia M. Leszcz

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study investigated the effect of multi-talker background noise on speech intelligibility in participants with hypophonia due to Parkinson’s disease (PD). Ten individuals with PD and 10 geriatric controls were tested on four speech intelligibility tasks at the single word, sentence, and conversation level in various conditions of background noise. Listeners assessed speech intelligibility using word identification or orthographic transcription procedures. Results revealed non-significant differences between groups when intelligibility was assessed in no background noise. PD speech intelligibility decreased significantly relative to controls in the presence of background noise. A phonetic error analysis revealed a distinct error profile for PD …

Exploring Intelligibility In Tracheoesophageal Speech: A Descriptive Analysis, Lindsay E. Sleeth

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Despite literature that suggests tracheoesophageal (TE) voice restoration to have the highest intelligibility of the three alaryngeal modes of speech, previous studies have shown that TE speech is less intelligible than “normal” speech. It is important to understand where problems related to intelligibility currently exist in order for members of the rehabilitation team to provide the best therapy/prostheses to each individual using TE speech as a mode of communication. This study evaluated the intelligibility of 15 male and female tracheoesophageal speakers. Eighteen normal-hearing, naive, young adult listeners assessed digital voice samples of 15 adult male and female TE speakers. Listeners …

Development And Evaluation Of An Audiological Outcome Measure Guideline For Use With Infants, Toddlers, And Preschool Children, Marlene P. Bagatto

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The goals of the current work were to: 1) identify caregiver report questionnaires for inclusion in an outcome evaluation guideline for infants, toddlers, and preschool children who wear hearing aids and 2) evaluate the chosen tools to determine their usefulness for the population of interest. A critical review of auditory-related subjective outcome evaluation tools for infants, toddlers, and preschool children is presented (Chapter 2). Good psychometric properties and clinical feasibility were considered important elements for the guideline (Andresen, 2000). Existing norms for the chosen questionnaires were validated with normal hearing children from Canadian English-speaking families (Chapters 3 and 5). Finally, …

An Integrated Knowledge Translation Experience: Use Of The Network Of Pediatric Audiologists Of Canada To Facilitate The Development Of The University Of Western Ontario Pediatric Audiological Monitoring Protocol (Uwo Pedamp V1.0)., Sheila T F Moodie

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The goals of this project were: (1) to determine the important factors that influence implementation of evidence-based practice by Canadian audiologists; and (2) to utilize the knowledge-to-action process (Graham et al., 2006) during the development of a guideline for outcome measures to evaluate the auditory development and performance of young children who wear hearing aids, to facilitate clinical uptake and identify barriers to implementation (Bagatto, Moodie & Scollie, 2010; Bagatto et al., 2011; Bagatto, Moodie, Seewald, Bartlett, & Scollie, 2011; Moodie, Bagatto et al., 2011; Moodie, Kothari et al., 2011).

Two projects (Chapters 3 and 4) included the participation of …