Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Utilizing Special Interests: Developing A Storybook For A Minimally Speaking Autistic Child To Support Communication, Olivia Fordyce

Honors Projects

The purpose of my Honors Project is to develop a framework for designing a storybook that can be used as a communication tool with minimally speaking autistic children. The project answers two clinically relevant questions within the field of Speech-Language Pathology.

1. What do we know from prior literature about the use of storybooks to support communication in minimally speaking autistic children?
2. What factors are important to consider in designing a storybook for minimally speaking autistic children?

I conducted a literature review exploring adapted storybooks and autistic children’s special interests to answer the project questions. Informed by this knowledge, I have …

The Effectiveness Of Naturalistic Sign Language Training For Nonspeaking Individuals On The Autism Spectrum, Elizabeth Michael

Honors Projects

This study examined the impacts of sign language training on the communication of two adult brothers with level 3 autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A single-subject, multiple-baseline design was used. Sign language targets were selected based on a parent survey and the participants’ predicted motivation towards the target items. The baseline and intervention were conducted naturalistically in the home. Results indicated that the individual, environment, target signs, reinforcement, and motivation are all factors that play into sign language acquisition for nonspeaking individuals with ASD.

Animal Activities! : A Children's Book For Vocabulary Intervention, Chloey Dibartolo

Honors Projects

This Honors Project was created as a culmination of research conducted in the fields of Speech-Language Pathology and English. It is a written and illustrated children’s book intended to be used during shared book reading between an adult and a child of preschool age who presents with a language delay or language disorder. Cloze structures are used throughout the book to elicit strategically selected vocabulary words from the child and aid in their vocabulary development. Elements and techniques used in children’s literature were also implemented throughout this book. This book is overall designed a therapy tool that can be used …

Comparing Measures Of Phonological Development For Bilingual Speech Sample Analysis: A Descriptive Study, Julianna Ciccarelli

Honors Projects

The present study analyzed two common measures of phonology for use within a bilingual (Spanish-English) preschool population. The utilized measures include Percentage of Consonants Correct-Revised (PCC-R) and Phonological Mean Length of Utterance (pMLU) and were selected to avoid sources of bias, often found in standardized, norm-referenced assessments. The scores calculated from these measures were analyzed across language.

New Word Learning In Spanish/English Bilingual Children, Haley Wemple

Honors Projects

This study aims to examine how Spanish-speaking ELLs learn new words and their features within a storytelling context. Specifically, the aim is it learn how ELLs build their vocabularies by creating taxonomic (i.e. categorical) and thematic relations between novel and known words.

Outcome Measures And Demographic Representation Of Voice Studies Of Transgender People: A Scoping Review, Rachel Anthony

Honors Projects

The LGBTQ+ population, specifically transgender individuals, tend to be overlooked in many healthcare services. One significant healthcare service is gender-affirming voice services, which is performed by a Speech-Language Pathologist. The purpose of this study is to perform a scoping review of voice production studies in transgender individuals with a focus on outcome measures and demographic characteristics. Search terms were identified and then applied across three different databases. The results of these databases were cross-checked for duplicates. A criterion was established, and studies were screened by reading the title, and abstract. Relevant articles were uploaded to RefWorks and lastly scanned by …

The Effect Of Animated Resources For Learning American Sign Language, Bailey Towns

Honors Projects

American Sign Language (ASL) is a visual language expressed through movements of the hands as well as facial expressions and body language. While Deaf individuals are the primary users of the language, many hearing people learn ASL in order to communicate with Deaf people and promote inclusivity for the Deaf community. When learning ASL, one area of difficulty that they initially encounter is producing signs correctly. The present study addressed this concern by examining two methods for introducing ASL signs to novel learners. Animated ASL programs have been proposed to combat the problems created by static 2D presentations of signs. …

The Acoustic Effect Of Masks On Speech And Singing, Anna Birkemeier

Honors Projects

Objectives / Introduction:

Mask-wearing has become commonplace for the public during the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic. This has caused communication difficulties such as muffled speech, causing a lowered speech intelligibility and worse audibility. The purpose of this study was to determine the acoustic filtering effects of various masks.

Methods / Study Design:

The acoustic effects of a surgical mask, a Singer’s Mask, and an N95 mask were obtained. A single subject spoke (and repeated) the vowels /a,i,u/ and the consonants /s, ∫/, and sang the vowels on G4 and C5 with and without the masks, respectively. Spectra of the vowels and …

An Assessment Of Communication Between Speech-Language Pathologists And Intervention Specialists In Schools, Sarah Painter

Honors Projects

The American Speech-Language Hearing Association states that Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) should collaborate with other professionals, including Intervention Specialists (ISs). In recent decades, there has been a shift from pull-out therapy, where students are removed from the classroom for services, to push-in therapy, which takes place within the classroom. This shift has resulted in greater overlap in SLP-IS caseloads. However, there is little known about the collaborative practices of these professionals. This study aimed to close the gap by using surveys to address two main research questions.

1) What is the focus, modality, and frequency of collaboration between SLPs and ISs? …

An Analysis Of Informational Content In A Descriptive Narrative Task Completed By People With Aphasia, Anna Marie Sulminski, Brent Archer, Jay Jones

Honors Projects

Speech and language are important tools used for communication. Communication techniques such as narrative story telling skills can be used to build relationships. People with aphasia may lack these effective communication skills. This study provides a close-up interpretation of people with aphasia telling the story of Cinderella. Two different approaches were used to analyze the elements of the participant’s stories. By using these approaches during speech therapy, Speech-Language Pathologists can help people with aphasia to build a more concise and thorough story.

Phonological Awareness In Deaf/Hard Of Hearing Children, Cindy Stetler

Honors Projects

Children who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) in America may learn American Sign Language (ASL) or English as their first language and may early-on or eventually be bilingual in ASL and English. In school, however, they will need to learn how to read English since ASL does not have a written system. An aspect of reading that can be particularly difficult for children who are DHH is phonological awareness (PA). Something that seems to be missing from the literature is looking at the relation between sign PA, spoken PA, and reading literacy in ASL and English. This will …

Vocal Fry: Acoustics, Airflow, And Egg Analysis Of Various Types, Kiersten Mccormick, Dr. Ronald Scherer, Katherine Proctor

Honors Projects

Objective: Current studies on vocal fry at BGSU involve categorizing various types of vocal fry production (Proctor et al., 2019 ASHA conference). The objective of the current study was to characterize vocal fry types using acoustic, airflow, and electroglottographic measures. Such characterization should shed light on the physiological production of vocal fry and potential clinical understanding and intervention.

Methods/design: Three men and three women, 18-22 years old, read the Rainbow passage as well as spoke conversationally and spontaneously in a sound treated booth. The participants spoke using a microphone and an EGG system (Kay Model 6103), as well …

Word Error And Word Frequency Correlation In Broca’S Aphasia, Breawna Heal

Honors Projects

Aphasia is a language disorder that is caused to the brain (Shames, Wiig, Secord, 1998) This damage may be caused by a stroke, traumatic brain injury, lesions to the brain, or degenerative neurological diseases(Shames, Wiig, Secord, 1998). Depending on the location of the brain damage, a person with aphasia will present with different communication impairments. People with fluent aphasia produce speech that may feature many grammatical errors or incorrectly produced words but their speech retains a typical speaking rhythm. People with fluent aphasia’s speech is much slower and more halting, and there tends to be frequent and lengthy pauses between …

Voices In Treble: Self-Reported Vocal Health Of Student Singers, Jane Dreier

Honors Projects

The investigator examined reports of vocal health among singers in two different choral groups on a university campus, a population consisting of both music majors and non-music majors. These student singers consented to filling out a 36-question survey that asked about their overall vocal health and daily habits that might affect that health. A section of this survey involved rating answers from 0-4, while the other section required write-in answers. Results indicate that there is no significant difference in self-reported vocal health between music majors and non-music majors, although there were minor differences between these populations regarding daily habits, such …

A Healthy Subject’S Perspective Undergoing Dysphagia Diets, Carmen J. Meyer

Honors Projects

Because there are only a small number of publications that have examined dysphagia from the perspective of people living with this disorder, the primary purpose of this project is to help expand the clinical knowledge base by systematically recording and analyzing the experiences of a healthy subject placed on modified consistency diets. The first component of this project addresses research pertaining to swallowing disorders, diet levels on which clients with swallowing disorders are placed, medical conditions associated with dysphagia, the process that clinicians follow when making decisions about modified diets, and the emotional effects of being placed on a modified …

Aided Communication For Adults With Developmental Disabilities, Lindsay Bolding

Honors Projects

This honors project is a series of templates that will serve as a guide for residential facilities for individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities. What is the most effective way to facilitate communication in residential facilities for adults with developmental disabilities? While working at this type of facility during my time at Bowling Green State University, I have witnessed a need for implementation of new communication routes in the homes. While skill building such as communication is stressed in the homes, plans for staff to fulfill these skills can be lacking. The templates I have created can be used …

Teacher Candidates: Vocal Health, Sarah Pilkington

Honors Projects

Classroom teachers are at high risk for developing voice problems and may experience positive benefits from vocal health education. Less is known about the experiences of student teachers. The objective of the study was to determine if vocal hygiene education affects the student teachers’ vocal knowledge, vocal habits, voice quality, and their self-perception of their voice. Eight female education students, who were student teaching the semester of the study, were randomized into either the Experimental Group (who received vocal health information before their student teaching semester) or the Control Group. Both groups were assessed using a battery of qualitative and …

Communicative Behaviors Elicited By Leisure Activities In Memory Care Units, Tarynn Clune

Honors Projects

A wide variety of leisure activities used in reminiscence care have been studied for their merits in terms of preventing cognitive decline, and increasing quality of life; however, little is known about what different types have to offer in terms of communicative opportunities. Communication with peers is imperative for quality of life, and is crucial for maintenance of relationships between the person with dementia (PWD) and their loved ones. As a result of this importance, an exploration of communication elicited by different activities facilitated in a unit was conducted. The communication explored in this study was solely vocal, and included …

Teacher Candidates: Vocal Health, Sarah J. Pilkington

Honors Projects

Classroom teachers are at high risk for developing voice problems and may experience positive benefits from vocal health education. Less is known about the experiences of student teachers. The objective of the study was to determine if vocal hygiene education affects the student teachers’ vocal knowledge, vocal habits, voice quality, and their self-perception of their voice. Eight female education students who were student teaching the semester of the study were randomized into either the Experimental Group (who received vocal health information before their student teaching semester) or the Control Group. Both groups were assessed using a battery of qualitative and …

Video Modeling For Social Communication In Adults With Asd, Haley Ann Altman

Honors Projects

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can experience significant difficulty and psychosocial toll as a result of their impairments in social communication. Specifically for adults, this can have a negative effect on relationships and vocational stability. However, there is a lack of effective intervention for adults with ASD to assist in learning these social conventions. Video modeling is an intervention that has potential to help these individuals learn to be successful in social problem-solving situations. A pilot feasibility study (Hewitt & Kelliher, n.d.) was conducted to investigate the intervention of video modeling for adults with ASD. Coding was then necessary …

Assessing Spanish-Speaking Children: A Comparison Of International Practices, Alexis Decker

Honors Projects

According to The National Center for Educational Statistics, 7.7% of all public K-12 students in the United States (US) speak Spanish in the home, representing 76.5% of all English- language learner (ELL) students (2013). Children exposed to two languages are referred to in the literature as ELLs, language minorities and/or bilingual children. As these children enter school, language disorders and differences may become apparent to the Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP). It is the responsibility of the SLP to determine whether a disorder exists or if what is being observed is simply an issue of language difference. As such, it is important …

Fundamental Frequency Characteristics Of Modal And Vocal Fry Registers, Heidi Brubaker, Jason Albertson Whitfield Ph.D., Jane Schoonmaker Rodgers D.M.A.

Honors Projects

This study examined the distribution of fundamental frequencies in the connected speech of 14 healthy young adults. Acoustic analysis of fundamental frequency was performed on previously collected speech samples of a phonetically balanced reading passage. For the first three sentences of the reading passage, fundamental frequency contours were extracted using PRAAT, a speech analysis software package. The accuracy of these contours were visually verified and manually corrected when needed. The distribution of the fundamental frequency histories for each sample were then analyzed using Gaussian Mixture Model analyses in MATLAB. For most speakers, four statistical modes were identified in the data …

Signs Of Friendship, Kaylee J. Kapalko, Ashley N. Brickner

Honors Projects

This children's book is about mainstreaming a deaf student into a public school composed of predominantly hearing children, and the eventual friendship between that student and a hearing student. The majority of deaf students are educated in hearing schools and experience high rates of social isolation as a result of the inability to communicate with their peers. In order to create this book, there was collaboration between a communication disorders major and a creative writing major in order to create a realistic portrayal yet creative learning tool for children at a young age. We chose to aim our book at …

Signs Of Friendship, Ashley N. Brickner, Kaylee J. Kapalko

Honors Projects

This children's book is about mainstreaming a deaf student into a public school composed of predominantly hearing children, and the eventual friendship between that student and a hearing student. The majority of deaf students are educated in hearing schools and experience high rates of social isolation as a result of the inability to communicate with their peers. In order to create this book, there was collaboration between a communication disorders major and a creative writing major in order to create a realistic portrayal yet creative learning tool for children at a young age. We chose to aim our book at …

Factors That Influence Undergraduate Communication Sciences And Disorders Students’ Clinical Preferences, Amanda Fry

Honors Projects

The purpose of the current study was to explore factors that influence undergraduate students’ clinical preferences. Specifically, the study examined the factors that may relate to undergraduate communication sciences students’ knowledge of, and interest in working with older adults. Undergraduate students in communication sciences programs from across Ohio were recruited for participation for an online survey. Data from 152 undergraduate students’ from 7 universities and colleges in Ohio were evaluated using descriptive statistics and Pearson Correlation Coefficients. Results indicate that participants had knowledge of older adults and the adult lifespan, but did not feel prepared to demonstrate this knowledge in …