Communication Sciences and Disorders Commons^™

A 21st Century Communication Sciences And Disorders Program, Judith Montgomery, Janet L. Dodd, Sallyann Giess, Kamica Barnes

Communication Sciences and Disorders Faculty Articles and Research

The focus of graduate programs in communication sciences and disorders has changed greatly in the last decade to reflect changes in society in general. Newly formed graduate programs must account for these societal changes as they prepare students for practice in the 21st century. This article will discuss what is expected of new graduates, how teaching philosophies influence course content, and how a new graduate program in communication sciences and disorders came to be.

Thinking Outside Of The Assessment Box: Assessing Social Communicative Functioning In Students With Asd, Janet L. Dodd

Communication Sciences and Disorders Faculty Articles and Research

The assessment of a student suspected of an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnosis requires the integration of information collected by a variety of professionals across various domains of functioning. One of the core deficits of students with ASD is a deficit related to social communicative competence (SCC). SCC requires the integration of language, social cognition, and higher order executive functions (Coggins, Olswang, Carmichael Olsson, & Timler, 2003) This article will propose an assessment model of social communicative functioning that was developed based on the SCC framework of Coggins and colleagues as a component of the Comprehensive Multidisciplinary Assessment Protocols for …

Age Effect On The Gaze Stabilization Test, Julie A. Honaker

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

Impairments of the vestibular-ocular reflex (VOR) lead to a decline in visual acuity during head movements. Dynamic visual acuity (DVA) testing is a sensitive assessment tool for detecting VOR impairments. DVA evaluates accuracy of visual acuity during fixed velocity head movements. In contrast, the Gaze Stabilization test (GST) is a new functional evaluation of the VOR that identifies a person’s maximum head velocity (in degrees per second) a person can maintain with stable vision of a target (i.e. optotype). The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of age on the GST in participants without vestibular disease. The …

Vowel Recognition From Continuous Articulatory Movements For Speaker-Dependent Applications, Jun Wang, Jordan R. Green, Ashok Samal, Tom D. Carrell

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

A novel approach was developed to recognize vowels from continuous tongue and lip movements. Vowels were classified based on movement patterns (rather than on derived articulatory features, e.g., lip opening) using a machine learning approach. Recognition accuracy on a single-speaker dataset was 94.02% with a very short latency. Recognition accuracy was better for high vowels than for low vowels. This finding parallels previous empirical findings on tongue movements during vowels. The recognition algorithm was then used to drive an articulation-to-acoustics synthesizer. The synthesizer recognizes vowels from continuous input stream of tongue and lip movements and plays the corresponding sound samples …

Modified Head Shake Computerized Dynamic Posturography, Julie A. Honaker, Connie M. Converse, Neil T. Shepard

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

PURPOSE: Recent research on head shake posturography has demonstrated a modest increase in sensitivity to identifying peripheral vestibular system asymmetry when horizontal head movements were added to portions of the standard Sensory Organization Test (SOT) battery. However, limitations with respect to the head shake protocol were outlined, and usable data for assessing performance could not be established. The purpose of this study was to test a change in protocol for use of head shake SOT to address the noted limitations.
METHOD: Forty participants ranging in age from 20 to 79 years with no history of dizziness completed Conditions 2 and …

Chronic Subjective Dizziness (Csd) Vs. Conversion Disorder: Discussion Of Clinical Findings And Rehabilitation., Julie A. Honaker, Jane M. Gilbert, Jeffrey P. Staab

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

PURPOSE: Audiologists frequently encounter patients who complain of chronic dizziness or imbalance, in the absence of active vestibular or neurological deficits. Knowledge about conditions that cause this clinical presentation will allow audiologists to make important contributions to accurate diagnosis and effective management of these patients. This article reviews two such conditions, chronic subjective dizziness (CSD) and conversion disorder. METHOD: A case of CSD and another of conversion disorder are presented with a literature review of their clinical presentations, key diagnostic features, and treatment strategies. The role of the audiologist in assessing patients with these conditions and facilitating appropriate treatment referrals …

Talk To Me: Issues In Acquiring Spoken Language For Young Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders, Rhea Paul

Communication Disorders Faculty Publications

Speech-language pathologists play a critical role in the treatment of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) because communication deficits are a primary component of both the diagnostic criteria and the focus of educational services for children with these conditions. Children with ASD almost always are delayed in speech acquisition (Tager-Flusberg, Paul, & Lord, 2005), as well as in other areas of communication. Lack of speech is often the most obvious symptom and greatest cause for concern of parents of toddlers who are eventually diagnosed with ASD, even though closer observation usually reveals additional problems.

Defining Spoken Language Benchmarks And Selecting Measures Of Expressive Language Development For Young Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders, Helen Tager-Flusberg, Sally Rogers, Judith Cooper, Rebecca Landa, Catherine Lord, Rhea Paul, Mabel Rice, Carol Stoel-Gammon, Amy Wetherby, Paul Yoder

Communication Disorders Faculty Publications

Purpose: The aims of this article are twofold: (a) to offer a set of recommended measures that can be used for evaluating the efficacy of interventions that target spoken language acquisition as part of treatment research studies or for use in applied settings and (b) to propose and define a common terminology for describing levels of spoken language ability in the expressive modality and to set benchmarks for determining a child's language level in order to establish a framework for comparing outcomes across intervention studies.
Method: The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders assembled a group of researchers …

Ua10/1 Cec: Clinical Exchange Corner, Mary Lloyd Moore, Laura Reynolds, Wku Suzanne Vitale Clinical Education Complex

CEC Publications

No abstract provided.

Fukuda Stepping Test: Sensitivity And Specificity, Julie A. Honaker, Neil T. Shepard

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

Background: A vestibulospinal test known as the Fukuda Stepping Test (FST) has been suggested to be a measure of asymmetrical labyrinthine function. However, an extensive review of the performance of this test to identify a peripheral vestibular lesion has not been reported.
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of the standard FST and a head shaking variation for identification of a peripheral vestibular system lesion.
Research Design: In this retrospective review, we compared performance on the FST with and without a head shaking component to Electronystagmography (ENG) caloric irrigation unilateral weakness results.
Study …

Graduate Bulletin, 2008-2010, Minnesota State University Moorhead

Graduate Bulletins (Catalogs)

No abstract provided.

Perceptions And Intervention Practices Of Speech-Language Pathologists Serving Students With Emotional/Behavioral Disorders, Laura A. Getty

Dissertations

A relationship between emotional/behavioral disorders (E/BD) and language deficits has been validated by researchers in special education (Cantwell & Baker, 1991; Beichman, Cantwell, Forness, Kavale, & Kaufmann, 1998; Cohen, Barwick, Horodezky, Vallance, & Im, 1998) as well as researchers in speech-language pathology (Hyter, 2003; Hyter, Rogers-Adkinson, Self, Simmons, Jantz, 2001; Ruhl, Hughes, & Camarata, 1992; Gallagher, 1999; Fujiki, Brinton, Morgan, & Hart, 1999). The exact prevalence rate between E/BD and language deficits was not definitive as it varies between 35% and 97% depending on the study reviewed (Benner, Nelson, & Epstein, 2002). While it has been documented that a relationship …

Teaching Children With Autism Imitation Skills As Means To Increase Communication, Chad J. Ryan

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

It has been well documented that many children with autism, especially nonverbal children, exhibit imitation deficits that impact their abilily lo develop effective communication skills. Applied Behavior Analysis has been shown to be an effective strategy for teaching many skills to children with autism und other disabilities. However, with regard to imitation training, there is limited research on effeclive strategics to develop these skills. This paper provides an analysis of the apparent imitation deficit for many children with autism. It includes what the specific imitation deficits are for children with autism and how these deficits are different compared to children …

Work Stress, Non-Work Stress And Mental Health Among School-Based Speech-Language Pathologists: Effects Of Social Support, Lena Gloria Caesar

Dissertations

This study utilized secondary data from the Work and Well-being of SLPs survey (Caesar, 2004) to examine possible sources (predictors) of work stress, job satisfaction, and psychological distress among 409 speech-language pathologists (SLPs) employed in public school settings in Michigan. This study also investigated the relationship of work-related and non-work-related stress to the mental health status of SLPs and sought to determine the mediating and/or moderating effects of varied types of social support on the mental health of respondents. Data analysis was done in three stages. First, each of the dependent and independent variables were described statistically. Secondly, correlation analyses …

So You Want To Be An Interpreter, Janice H. Humphrey

Course Materials

This study guide contains guided learning activities, study questions and supplemental video clips to enrich the learning journey of students in diverse learning environments.

Graduate Bulletin, 2006-2007 (2006), Minnesota State University Moorhead

Graduate Bulletins (Catalogs)

No abstract provided.

An Inquiry Based Instructional Planning Model That Accommodates Student Diversity, Cheryl M. Jorgensen

Institute on Disability

The students in today’s public school classrooms represent great diversity and the struggle of teachers to teach all their students well. This paper describes an inquiry based instructional planning model that reflects lessons from the literature on effective teaching for diverse classrooms. An example of a high school lesson exemplifies the model. The model includes a framework for planning supports for students with extraordinary learning challenges.

Factors Affecting School-Based Speech-Language Pathologists’ Use Of Language Assessment Practices With Bilingual Children, Lena Gloria Caesar

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to identify the assessment procedures and practices of school-based speech-language pathologists (SLPs) employed in the state of Michigan. A survey method was used to gather information from 409 SLPs regarding the assessment procedures used for assessing both their bilingual students, as well as their monolingual English-speaking students. The survey also gathered information regarding perceptions about language proficiency, professional training, and bilingual assessment products. In order to analyze factors related to their use of recommended practices, the study investigated the relationship between selected demographic, caseload, and work-setting variables, and the type of bilingual assessment methods …

Adaptive Behavior In Autism And Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified: Microanalysis Of Scores On The Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, Rhea Paul, Stephanie Miles, Domenic Cicchetti, Sara Sparrow, Ami Klin, Fred Volkmar, Megan Coflin, Shelley Booker

Communication Disorders Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study is to provide a microanalysis of differences in adaptive functioning seen between well-matched groups of school-aged children with autism and those diagnosed as having Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified, all of whom functioned in the mild to moderate range of intellectual impairment. Findings indicate that the major area of difference between children with autism and those with Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified, was expressive communication; specifically, the use of elaborations in syntax and morphology and in pragmatic use of language to convey and to seek information in discourse. Linear discriminant function analysis revealed that scores …

Graduate Bulletin, 2004-2006 (2004), Minnesota State University Moorhead

Graduate Bulletins (Catalogs)

No abstract provided.

Perspectives On Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Executive Functions, Working Memory, And Language Disabilities, Carol Westby, Silvana Watson

Communication Disorders & Special Education Faculty Publications

The conceptualization of the nature of attention deficit hyper-activity disorder (ADHD) has changed in the last decade. ADHD is now viewed as a neurologically based condition with primary deficits in executive functions and working memory (WM). Students with ADHD have deficits in discourse organization, inferring, and monitoring that are related to their executive function and WM deficits. A large number of students with ADHD also have comorbid reading and language disabilities that exist in addition to the deficits directly associated with the ADHD. Comprehensive evaluation of students with ADHD is essential to address their specific learning needs

Putting Humpty Dumpty Together Again: What's Right With Betsy, Elaine R. Silliman, Louise C. Wilkinson, Robin L. Danzak

Communication Disorders Faculty Publications

Betsy is a telling case of the struggles and victories of a youngster who has grappled with a language learning disability for most of her 17 years. Her story is a fitting way to conclude this volume because she represents how a child with motivation and resilience can confront the educational and interpersonal obstacles she has experienced. Her story, which predates the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and the 1997 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, is a metaphor for the ongoing debates in theory and practice about the meanings of a learning disability versus a …

Special Education Teachers' And Speech Therapists' Knowledge Of Autism Spectrum Disorder., Carol Hendrix Whaley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to survey special education teachers and speech therapists in eleven school districts in Northeast Tennessee regarding their knowledge level (etiology and educational programming) of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The primary focus of the study was to identify effective programs and methods used by special educators in this region, comparing them to the latest techniques and teaching methods prescribed by recent research. In addition, identified weaknesses were used to recommend future training and staff development to enable educators to provide the best possible programs for children with autism.

Five hundred fifty-two surveys were disseminated to …

Creating A Community Of Learners Among College Faculty Through The Use Of Reflective Practice, Cheryl M. Jorgensen, Joseph J. Onosko, Cate Weir

Institute on Disability

No abstract provided.

An Instructional Manual For Implementation Of Voice Recognition (Vr) In Written Communication, Lori Odagiri

All Graduate Projects

This project investigated the use of voice recognition for written communication. The literature review revealed a lack of research in using voice recognition with individuals with disabilities. An instructional manual consisting of a step-by-step process to guide students through the general training process and teaching students the additional features of the program to promote independent use of Dragon Naturally Speaking Version 5 for written communication. Field tests were completed with 3 students, two with physical disabilities and one with a learning disability.

Graduate Bulletin, 2002-2004 (2002), Minnesota State University Moorhead

Graduate Bulletins (Catalogs)

No abstract provided.

The Music Channel: Integrating The Harp Into The Communication Process Of Children With Autism, Lori A. Kissinger

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present study was undertaken to determine if the harp could be used as a communication channel for children with autism. The two research questions guiding this study were: (1) Will a child with autism utilize the harp to try to communicate a message? And (2) if the harp is utilized by a child with autism as a communication channel, can the receiver decode the intended message? Two qualitative case studies using constant comparison analysis were conducted over a six-day observation period. Five predominant responses emerged: (1) initial reaction to the instrument, (2) bonding with the instrument, (3) socialization through …

Resilience In Couples With Hearing Impaired Children, Nirmala Devi Naidu R. Rajah

Student Works (2000-2009)

My encounter with a parent who was facing problems in coping with her sensorineural deaf child, prompted me to write about resilience in couples with hearing impaired children. The research questions are: I) Do the couples employ resiliency mechanisms that are effective in dealing with the problem of having a hearing impaired child? 2) What kind of resiliency mechanisms do the couples employ when they encounter the problem of having a hearing impaired child? 3) Does the couples· character indicate that they have the resiliency to deal with stress or adversity together'? The method of this research is conducted using …

Helping Hearing-Impaired Pupils Attain Reading Skills Through Cued Speech : A Case Study, Mee Fong Liew

Student Works (2000-2009)

The main problem with hearing-impaired children with profound hearing losses is severe retardation in their acquisition of the primary language. Due to their hearing losses, they face problems in reading and writing and their academic achievements is often low as compared to their peers. However, they would also like to acquire a competence in language learning just like their hearing counterparts. They need to possess good literacy skills for academic success. The level of success attainable varies widely in their ability to use spoken language which enable them to read and write. Therefore, it is of prime concern to both …

Graduate Bulletin, 2000-2002 (2000), Minnesota State University Moorhead

Graduate Bulletins (Catalogs)

No abstract provided.