Communication Sciences and Disorders Commons^™

Communication Disorders And Mental Health: A Scoping Review, Haven B. Schultze

Honors Thesis

This scoping review examined current research investigating the relationship between communication disorders and mental health disorders. Depression and anxiety disorders were correlated with communication disorders, but this relationship is complex. Next, potential interventions and clinical implications are discussed. The literature suggests that Speech-Language Pathologists and mental health professionals are most effective when working collaboratively to meet the needs of the whole child.

A Survey Of Speech-Language Pathologists' Academic Preparation In Craniofacial Anomalies, Francesca Myerski

Honors Theses

Craniofacial anomalies occur in 1 of 750 newborns a year with the three main types being cleft lip, cleft palate, and cleft lip and/or cleft palate. There are six main factors that affect craniofacial anomalies that are focused on in this research, including genetics, environmental factors, medications, diet, health risks, and surgical procedures/surgeons. The research found that there is a lot of information on craniofacial anomalies and speech-language pathologists need to learn about as much as possible. The lack of knowledge and academic preparations speech-language pathologists have in craniofacial anomalies has decreased their awareness in the birth defect and has …

Indirectly And Directly Involved Students' Perspectives On Multi-Modal Communication Treatment In Persons With Aphasia, Emily Lewis

Honors Theses

Our study investigated the perspectives of students who were either directly or indirectly involved in the Multi-modal communication treatment (MCT) sessions for persons with aphasia. Two undergraduate and two graduate students were recruited from the University of Mississippi who participated in the MCT sessions. We collected their perspectives through semi-structured interviews and used thematic qualitative analysis to analyze our data. We reported themes from the indirectly involved students and the directly involved students and compared how the themes were similar and different between the indirectly and directly involved students. We discussed that both direct and indirect experience for clinical therapy …

Towards Precision Audiology: Perceptual Profiles & Their Relation To Ecologically Valid Communication Assessments, Dana Cherri

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Living in a sonic world, a person with hearing loss experiences difficulty in communicating with others. One of the reasons why some people with hearing loss do not wear hearing aids (HAs) is limited perceived benefit, which may result from HAs that are not fit using “best practices” or because the best practices fail to address individual difficulties experienced by the listener. The typical audiogram provides information regarding audibility as a function of frequency and is used to establish degree, type, and configuration of hearing loss, but does not measure the ability of an individual to process various components of …

The Effect Of Word-Learning Biases On Early Vocabulary Acquisition In Young Children On The Autism Spectrum, Claire C. Bourgeois

LSU Master's Theses

Background: Vocabulary composition and word-learning biases are closely interrelated in typical development. Such word-learning biases are influenced by perceptually and conceptually salient word features, including imageability, concreteness, iconicity, and attention to shape. Autistic children often have delayed language acquisition, but there is currently little research examining the underlying mechanisms autistic children use to acquire words. The current study aimed to examine the noun composition of autistic children across a range of vocabulary sizes by examining associations between expressive noun vocabulary size and imageability, iconicity, concreteness and evidence for the shape bias, and to examine whether these patterns differ from their …

The Effect Of Linguistic Context And Explicit Contrast On The Fast Mapping Of Verbs, Samantha L. Scripture

Doctoral Dissertations

In typical language acquisition, word learning is an induction problem. When word learners hear an unfamiliar word, they make assumptions about the possible referent and its meaning. For nouns, this is relatively easy as word learners can rely on perceptual and pragmatic cues. For verbs, these two cues are fleeting, and word learners require additional kinds of cues for their meaning to be acquired. Two cues that affect verb learning include linguistic context and contrastive information. The current study used a within group comparison to examine the effect of linguistic context (i.e., rich vs. sparse) and contrastive information (i.e., implicit …

A Survey Study Of Speech-Language Therapists’ Experiences With Teletherapy At The Onset Of The Covid-19 Crisis, Jason A. Rosas

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The present study aimed to understand how delivering pediatric treatment services via ‘teletherapy’ affected speech-language therapists (SLTs) during the initial outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis in 2020. SLTs reported on their experiences with the change from in-person to remote service delivery via two national surveys distributed at the start of the pandemic between April 2020 and July 2020. To explain SLTs’ survey responses, this dissertation introduced the Professional Adaptation Model (PA Model). The PA Model facilitated evaluation of the SLTs’ professional environment and the psychological constructs of their professional identity believed to influence the transition to speech-language teletherapy. Specifically, …

The Effects Of The Effortful Swallow Maneuver On Hyolaryngeal Movement And Tongue-To-Palate Pressure, Mariana Mendes Bahia

Dissertations - ALL

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the effortful swallow maneuver under two different instructions on tongue-to-palate pressure and hyolaryngeal displacement in healthy adults. Studying typical kinematic parameters and pressure generation in healthy individuals is critical for differentiating normal from pathological patterns and for determining swallowing parameters that can be targeted to optimize and individualize treatment plans for people with swallowing disorders. The primary objectives in this study were: (1) to determine the physiological effects of two different types of effortful swallows on anterior and posterior tongue pressure generation, hyoid displacement, and hyoid-larynx approximation in …

A Delphi Study Of The Skills Necessary For A Speech-Language Pathologist Or Occupational Therapist To Be Successful In A Leadership Position, Jessica Miller

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this Delphi study was to identify the skills necessary for a speech-language pathologist or occupational therapist to be successful in a leadership position using an expert panel. In addition, the purpose was to rate the identified skills based on importance and lastly to determine the activities experts recommend to acquire the top-rated skills. Methodology: This study used a three-round Delphi method to collect data from expert leaders in speech-language pathology and occupational therapy. In Round 1, the expert panel was asked to identify the skills necessary to transition from a speech-language pathologist or occupational therapist to …

User Preferences For Hearing Aid Features: Outcomes, Concepts, And Test Construction, Hasan Saleh

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Modern hearing aids can vary in both digital signal processing (DSP) and non-signal processing (non-DSP) features. The complexity and availability of these features can differ at opposite ends of the technology spectrum, potentially influencing aided benefit and preference. Furthermore, the amount of feature choices in modern hearing aids has led to increasing complexity in the selection process.

The first aim of this dissertation was to investigate the aided benefit and preference differences between premium and entry-level hearing aids, and to investigate the drivers of any preference differences. No significant differences were found between the entry-level and premium hearing aids in …

Feasibility And Preliminary Outcomes Of A 6-Week Mindful Walking Program To Maintain And Improve Cognition In Adults At Risk For Alzheimer’S Disease Or Other Related Dementias, Caroline Mannion Wood

Theses and Dissertations

The present study examined the impact of a 6-week Mindful Walking intervention. Participants completed 30 minute walking sessions twice a week for 6 weeks. Ten older adults attended 100% of the supervised walking sessions. Pre-post comparison of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment and examination of subtests of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment did not reveal a significant change in mean scores (p.05, one-tailed). The number of steps accumulated as a result of Mindful Walking and other activities measured with the ActivPAL and change in MoCA total scores did not reach significance. Generally, the Mindful Walking program was well-liked (4 on a scale …

Measuring Orthographic Influences On Phonological Processing In Beginning Readers: An Eyetracking Study, Emily Grace Fisher

Theses and Dissertations

Purpose – Both orthographic and phonemic awareness are essential to reading. However, the role of orthographic knowledge in phonemic awareness has not been thoroughly investigated in beginning readers until recently. The purpose of this study was to examine if orthographic knowledge influenced phonological processing in beginning readers and to establish a proof of concept for the use of eyetracking measures to examine these skills in young children.

Method – 22 participants, aged 6-7 years, completed norm-referenced assessments of language and reading ability as well as experimental measures of orthographic and phonological awareness while their eye movements were monitored.

Results – …

Investigating The Impact Of Nonlinguistic Cognitive Reserve On Naming Pre- And Post-Treatment, Lillian Jarold

Theses and Dissertations

Background: The relationship between linguistic and nonlinguistic cognition in persons with aphasia is complex and often debated in the literature. Furthermore, the impact of nonlinguistic cognition on aphasia treatment outcomes is unclear. The present study sought 1) to examine the relationship between WAIS scores and performance on a test of naming and 2) to examine the relationship between WAIS scores and change scores on a test of naming between baseline and post-treatment in persons with chronic aphasia.

Method: This retrospective study utilized data from participants (N=102) who were recruited for a multi-center cross-over trial (POLAR: Predicting Outcomes of Language Rehabilitation). …

The Effects Of Spoken Self-Disclosure Scripts On Nonaphasic Listeners' Perceptions Of People With Aphasia, Colleen B. Ward

Masters Theses

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of spoken self-disclosure scripts on nonaphasic listeners’ perceptions of people with aphasia (PWA). Self-disclosure is a tool that PWA can utilize in the event that they want a conversation partner to know of their communication disorder. However, limited research has been conducted on the effects of aphasia self-disclosure or whether it affects perceptions of PWA from neurotypical communication partners. If self-disclosure is determined to make a positive impact on a communicative interaction, it could be grounds for encouraging PWA who are interested to develop a self-disclosure script or use …

The Efficacy Of A Telepractice Service Delivery Model For Providing Speech And Language Services To Children With Asd, Myranda L. Marotta

Masters Theses

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic required the use of remote technologies for society and the workforce to function under quarantine conditions. The literature on telepractice services for individuals with ASD has proliferated during the past decade, especially during the past two years. Still, many publications on the topic lack scientific merit. This study utilized a quasi-experimental, single-subject, multiple-group, time-series design to investigate whether telepractice SLP services are at least as effective as the traditional, face-to-face delivery model.

Twenty-one students with autism spectrum disorder were included in this study. Additionally, 22 speech-language pathology graduate students and four SLP school professionals …

Cvemp Frequency Tuning In Adults Aged 60 And Above: A Systematic Review, Kiersten P. Dudman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Objective: This systematic review aims to evaluate if there is a significant difference in the frequency specificity of cVEMP amplitude responses in the older adult population, and if so how clinical protocols should reflect age related changes in the vestibular system to properly assess for vestibular pathology.

Methods: A comprehensive search was conducted using various databases through the Mina Rees Library of the City University of New York’s Graduate Center. This search identified articles relevant to this systematic review. Inclusion criteria encompassed quantified studies that utilized various frequency tone bursts to elicit VEMP responses among several age groups.

Results: Three …

A Diagnostic Pocket Guide For Audiologists: Outer, Middle, And Inner Ear Disorders And Chronic Diseases, Ashley Andino

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Given the Scope of Practice for Audiologists as outlined by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), the diverse occupational settings audiologists belong to, and the varied multidisciplinary collaboration necessary, audiologists are tasked with needing, at minimum, a baseline understanding of a wide range of disorders. This includes not only otological diseases, but multisystem disorders that affect the auditory system. While an abundance of diagnostic audiological information on various disorders and their impacts are available, there exists a gap in the availability of condensed and accessible diagnostic information for everyday use. The goal of the resulting diagnostic pocket guide is to provide …

Monolingual Versus Bilingual Use Of Context To Facilitate Speech Recognition In Background Noise: A Systematic Review, Rachel Abucasis

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Introduction: Previous literature has shown that bilingual listeners face more challenges than monolinguals during speech recognition in adverse listening conditions. As noisy environments degrade the acoustic stimuli and leave the listener with a partial or ambiguous signal to pair to a lexical representation, it is not possible to do so with the acoustic and phonological features alone. Bilinguals consistently use a significant amount of their cognitive resources during the early stages of speech processing, partially due to their need to navigate between the two languages. With exhaustion of most of their cognitive resources, there is limited capacity available to use …

Audiologists' Perspectives On Noise Induced Hearing Loss, Rachael L. Cleary

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Excessive noise has long been established in the literature as a prevalent workplace hazard. The high prevalence of occupational noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) has led to high economic costs and has produced many physical and mental health effects on workers exposed to occupational noise. Standards set by OSHA are implemented in the workplace in order to protect employees. Despite these regulations set by OSHA, millions of workers in the United States are still exposed to excessive occupational noise, with limited use of hearing protection. The high prevalence of occupational NIHL and low use of hearing protective devices (HPDs) brings into …

Cochlear Implant Evaluations Of Spanish-Speaking Adults, Mariana Mejia Turnbull

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Background. As the Hispanic population in the U.S. continues to increase, audiologists need valid and reliable speech perception materials in Spanish to be able to offer evidence-based, high quality hearing health care to this population. The purpose of this study was to investigate current trends in CI evaluations of Spanish-speaking adults in clinics around the country, with a specific focus on sentence perception tests (Part 1). An additional goal was to analyze and compare the linguistical content of the Spanish sentence perception tests found to be the most commonly used among clinicians (Part 2).

Methods. A questionnaire was created and …

Intervention Approaches For Childhood Apraxia Of Speech: An Overview Of Prevailing Treatment Methods, Toni Lewis

University Honors Theses

This paper aims to describe the theory and methods of select intervention approaches for childhood apraxia of speech so readers may better understand current treatment techniques. Covered in this paper are Rapid Syllable Transitions (ReST), Dynamic Temporal and Tactile Cueing (DTTC), Prompts for Restructuring Oral Muscular Phonetic Targets (PROMPT), as well as supplemental techniques such as augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) and ultrasound biofeedback. Also covered briefly are instances of CAS treatment in languages other than English.

Dynamic Measures Of Referential Communication Reveal Hidden Pragmatic Strengths For Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Mariana Schreuders

Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current

The ability to communicate effectively and efficiently while maintaining mutual understanding is a fundamental aspect of human-to-human interaction. Studies have shown that individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) face challenges in areas of social communication skills, such as aspects of referential communication; or the ability to refer to things in such a way that a listener will know what the speaker is describing. The current study used data from a preexisting Barrier study to compare the referential communication abilities of school-aged children with ASD to those of neurotypical children (NT). Referential communication was observed during a barrier task, where participants …

Pre-Pulse Inhibition In Mutated Mice: Studying Compromised Microglial Cells To Discover New Genetic Connections To Autism, Bailey R. Kramarik

Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current

Microglial cells “play a pivotal role in refining neural networks during early critical periods” (Gabriele & Gray, 2020, p. 1). A disturbance in the functioning of these microglial cells contribute to specific characteristics of some neurodevelopmental disorders- including autism spectrum disorder. In this study, we used a mouse model to study disruptions in cell activity, as understanding the biological and genetic background of autism spectrum disorder could help us provide better treatment and therapy options to those diagnosed.

The mutated mice in this experiment have microglial cells with “compromised fractalkine signaling” (Gabriele & Gray, 2020, p. 4-5). We studied multimodal …

The Impact Of Distance Education On Therapy Services For Students With Asd: An Slp Perspective, Andrea Spragg

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

The coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused an abrupt change in the day-to-day lives of individuals across the world as adults were forced to work from home and children were forced into virtual school environments. For all students, this disruption in schedule and daily routine been hard, but especially those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (Mumbardo-Adam et al., 2021). For many students with ASD, school is a place in which they receive many essential services and social interactions, such as speech therapy, that they may not receive other places. The purpose of this survey research was to understand the …

A Survey Of Cochlear Implant Clinical Protocols In India, Ariana Morris

Dissertations, 2020-current

The most recent data published in December 2019 records that approximately 736,900 registered cochlear implantation devices have been received since their approval in the 1980s. While 183,100 of these devices belong to U.S. Citizens, the large majority of cochlear implant recipients live in other countries (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2016). While a lack of standardized practices exists in relation to audiologic care and management of cochlear implant devices and patients, Browning et al. (2020) attempts to assess and analyze common practices amongst audiologists practicing within the United States of America. This survey uses a modified questionnaire based …

The Relationship Between Quality Of Life Outcomes And Social Hearing For Cochlear Implant Recipients Using The Nciq And Pipsl, Bonnie A. Purtill

Dissertations, 2020-current

Unmanaged hearing loss can have profound cognitive, social, and emotional impacts on a person’s life. Cochlear implants improve functional skills such as auditory detection and speech discrimination, and have also been shown to improve quality of life. Health related quality of life (HRQoL) measures are a great tool to assess mental, physical, and social changes after cochlear implantation. While previous research has established improvement in HRQoL after cochlear implantation, there remains a lack of research evaluating long-term effects of cochlear implants for post-lingually and bilaterally deafened adults. Using a disease specific HRQoL questionnaire—Nijmegen Cochlear Implant Questionnaire (NCIQ) and a social …

Measuring Referential Communication Dynamically In Older Children With Asd, Caitlin Lee

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Research finds individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are relatively ineffective and/or inefficient at referential communication. However, this research typically uses static metrics of efficacy (how accurately messages were relayed) and efficiency (overall word count), rather than dynamic ones (e.g., Does the speaker alter subsequent descriptions when the listener previously misunderstood them?). The aim of this research is to use dynamic measures of efficacy and efficiency to examine how speakers with and without ASD adjust their message to meet listener needs across time. Fifteen older children with (n = 8) and without (n = 7) ASD were included. …

Like, It’S Important: The Frequency And Use Of Like In Autism Spectrum Disorder, Rebekah Jones

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Background & Aims: Discourse markers, such as well or like serve a variety of functions to support conversational reciprocity: filling pauses, aiding word-finding, holding conversational turns, and providing information about pause length. Previous research shows that individuals with ASD use discourse markers less frequently than neurotypical (NT) peers; however, the discourse marker like has been left out of that research, despite its ubiquitous use by NT individuals, and despite the fact that like serves important pragmatic functions that are not encoded by any other discourse marker. Specifically, like signals to the listener that the content of upcoming speech is 1) …

Responses To Partner Comments And Acknowledgements In Students With And Without Autism, Kaitlyn Bresette

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Some children and adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) initiate and respond less frequently than neurotypicals (NT) during language sampling tasks. More information is needed regarding how partner behaviors, such as comments and acknowledgements and the sampling context, influence the types of responses provided by children with ASD. This research study examined responses to adult comments and acknowledgments in two language sampling tasks, a traditional Share and Tell sample and a Double Interview sample (Garcia-Winner, 2002).

Participants. Fifty-eight participants, between the ages of 10 and 17 years, were recruited across two labs. The sample consisted of 28 adolescents with ASD …

Amplitude-Modulated Cvemp (Amcvemps) Versus Transient Cvemp Response Properties: Possible Implications, Andrew Thorne

Dissertations, 2020-current

Cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (cVEMPs) elicited by steady-state amplitude-modulated (AM) tones yield different information than conventional cVEMPs elicited by transient tonebursts, such as signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and phase coherence (PC). This study systematically examined the effects of tonic EMG activation on AMcVEMP response properties versus conventional transient cVEMPs. Thirty five young, healthy adults (ages 19–23) with normal audiograms and no known vestibular lesions participated in this study. AMcVEMPs were elicited with bone-conducted tones with a carrier frequency of 500 Hz and an amplitude modulation frequency of 37 Hz, and transient cVEMPs were elicited by 4-0-4 Blackman-gated 500 Hz tonebursts …