Communication Sciences and Disorders Commons^™

Emotional Engagement To Music Is Correlated With Enhanced Frisson Experience But Not Misophonia, Sarah Al-Shimary, Nicole Datastanyan, Shelbie Silvers, Sivan Barashy, Solena Mednicoff

Undergraduate Research Symposium Posters

There is evidence that individuals who are particularly sensitive or intolerant to sounds are also more engaged or fascinated with positive sounds such as music.

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 …

An Assessment Of 50 State Early Hearing Detection And Intervention Websites: Is Needed Information Being Provided For Parent Decision Making?, Nichole Westin, Donna Sorkin

Journal of Early Hearing Detection and Intervention

Growth of the Internet as an information resource has provided expanded opportunities for families to easily gather information on a range of topics, including health related topics. State Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) websites and other electronic data sources are an important opportunity to support families seeking information on options for their children who have been identified as deaf or hard of hearing. A review was undertaken between August and September 2021 of the 51 US EHDI (state and DC) websites and related information (such as links to others’ sites) to determine if information that is specifcally discussed in …

Application Of Intervention Mapping To Address Lost To Intervention In Early Hearing Detection And Intervention, Torri Ann Woodruff-Gautherin, Kathleen Cienkowski

Journal of Early Hearing Detection and Intervention

Abstract

Purpose: Detail the application of intervention mapping as a protocol for developing a novel way to address lost to intervention within the early hearing detection and intervention systems.

Design: Intervention mapping (IM) is an approach to behavior change that is typically utilized in public health initiatives. This six-step process walks health program developers, researchers, and policy makers through a rigorous research and community-based approach to understanding why a health concern or problem is present in a community. While using IM to address lost to intervention in Early Hearing Detection and Intervention programs, the focus is on why families, after …

Impact Of Social Determinants Of Health On Early Hearing Detection And Intervention Screening/Diagnosis Outcomes, Nannette Nicholson, Ellen A. Rhoades, Rachel E. Glade, Laura Smith-Olinde

Journal of Early Hearing Detection and Intervention

Purpose

We reviewed how Social Determinants of Health relate to health inequities and disparities for Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) programs. Then, we examine links between specific sociodemographic factors (maternal age, maternal education, ‘race’/ethnicity) and hearing screening and diagnostic audiology follow-up for newborns in the U.S. and its territories.

Methods

Maternal demographic, hearing screening and diagnostic data extracted from publicly available Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) records were reported to CDC by personnel responsible for EHDI programs. Data were subjected to statistical analysis using analysis of variance and multiple regression techniques.

Results

Results showed no significant differences …

Impact Of Language Sampling Context On Language Productivity And Complexity, Trina J. Tolentino

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Language sampling is a familiar tool in the speech-language pathologist’s (SLP’s) repertoire, used to assess a student’s language ability and inform treatment targets. The current literature has several studies comparing various dimensions of language sampling context, but with relatively small samples. The goal of this study was to identify what sampling contexts elicit the most productive and complex language, thereby contributing insight into what conditions may yield the most accurate representation of a child’s language skill, as well as the resulting intervention focus.

One-thousand thirty-seven kindergarten, first-, second-, and third-grade students (mean age [years; months] ≈ 7;5; range = 5;0-10;9), …

Understanding The Relationship Between Age-Related Hearing Loss And Alzheimer's Disease: A Narrative Review, Hadeel Y. Tarawneh, Dona M. P. Jayakody, Hamid R. Sohrabi, Ralph N. Martins, Wilhelmina H.A.M. Mulders

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Evidence suggests that hearing loss (HL), even at mild levels, increases the long-term risk of cognitive decline and incident dementia. Hearing loss is one of the modifiable risk factors for dementia, with approximately 4 million of the 50 million cases of dementia worldwide possibly attributed to untreated HL. This paper describes four possible mechanisms that have been suggested for the relationship between age-related hearing loss (ARHL) and Alzheimer's disease (AD), which is the most common form of dementia. The first mechanism suggests mitochondrial dysfunction and altered signal pathways due to aging as a possible link between ARHL and AD. The …

Auditory Stream Segregation Of Amplitude-Modulated Narrowband Noise In Cochlear Implant Users And Individuals With Normal Hearing, Alexandria F. Matz, Yingjiu Nie, Harley J. Wheeler

Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders - Faculty Scholarship

Voluntary stream segregation was investigated in cochlear implant (CI) users and normal-hearing (NH) listeners using a segregation-promoting objective approach which evaluated the role of spectral and amplitude-modulation (AM) rate separations on stream segregation and its build-up. Sequences of 9 or 3 pairs of A and B narrowband noise (NBN) bursts were presented which differed in either center frequency of the noise band, the AM-rate, or both. In some sequences (delayed sequences), the last B burst was delayed by 35 ms from their otherwise-steady temporal position. In the other sequences (no-delay sequences), the last B bursts were temporally advanced from 0 …

Development Of Psychoacoustic Screening Tests For Hearing Assessments, Minh Vu Duong

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The evaluation of suprathreshold listening abilities in audiological assessment is often minimized despite the valuable insight it produces about auditory discrimination skills. These capabilities can be assessed from psychoacoustic tests. However, measuring these abilities requires a significant amount of time. Therefore, screening tests were developed for frequency discrimination, gap detection, and amplitude modulation tests to identify individuals for whom these skills are most likely to be useful. The purpose of this project was to determine the ability of this screening tool to predict good performers and determine who is likely to have reduced skills and require full threshold assessment. Thirty …

Understanding Virtual Care Uptake In The Context Of Clinical Audiology: An Implementation Evaluation Using The Normalization Process Theory, Shruthi Sundararaman

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

This study aimed to measure the systematic and theory-based implementation of virtual audiology care specific to innovative hearing aid follow-up appointments delivered by audiologists during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Myeloarchitectonic Maps Of Cat Auditory Cortex, Austin Robertson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The cerebral cortex contains myriad cortical areas that differ in structure, function, and connectivity. Current methods of delineating cortical structures and their subregions are insufficient for in vivo applications, either being highly invasive or requiring a detailed knowledge of a region’s tuning properties. To address this, we seek to establish a structural biomarker capable of delineating the cortex that possesses a non-invasive correlate. We explore myelin as a potential candidate by evaluating its efficacy in parcellating the feline auditory cortex through the generation of depthwise myelin density profiles for each of the 13 auditory cortical subregions. Our analyses revealed significant …

The Intersectionality Of Stuttering And Aging, Mary Elizabeth Herring

University Honors Theses

The purpose of this study is to explore relationships between stuttering and aging so that speech-language pathologists can be informed about the intersectionality of these identities.

Three adult men who stutter, all over the age of 65, were interviewed in semi-structured interviews. Interview transcripts were analyzed with in-vivo coding to find codes and themes between participants. From the interviews, 20 categories were identified. These categories were then funneled into four overarching themes: 1) Personal factors impacted by stuttering, 2) Stuttering perspectives across the lifespan, 3) Stuttering therapy experiences, and 4) Covert stuttering.

This study shows that attitudes, perspectives, and experiences …

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 …

Telepractice-Based Assessment Of Children Who Are Deaf/Hard-Of-Hearing: Focus On Family-Centered Practice, Kristina M. Blaiser, Lauri Nelson, K. Todd Houston

Journal of Early Hearing Detection and Intervention

Ongoing assessment and progress monitoring is considered best practice to serve children who are Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing (DHH) yet logistics related to provider shortages, distances between families, and illness make regular assessment difficult if not impossible. In the last ten years, telepractice has become a more commonly used service delivery model for serving children who are DHH and their families, however, many providers lack the training needed to adequately assess this population (Behl & Kahn, 2015). With explicit planning of the assessments and tools needed on both sides of the camera, providers can create a shared framework to collect the information needed …

Non-Nutritive Suck Burst Pattern Stability In Extremely Premature Infants, Alejandra Marquez

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The development of non-nutritive suck (NNS) burst dynamics in preterm infants reflects the integrity of the brain and is used clinically to assess feeding readiness and orofacial motor development (Mizuno and Ueda, 2005). The application of NNS analytics in the present report represents one outcome measurement set that is part of an ongoing clinical trial involving extremely preterm infants (EPI’s,[GA]) randomized to receive either pulsed orocutaneous stimulation therapeutics or a sham (blind pacifier), in conjunction with salivary sampling twice weekly to map gene expression of key proteins involved in neural development and molecular sensing of feeding related pathways in the …

A Systematic Review Of Research On Augmentative And Alternative Communication Brain-Computer Interface Systems For Individuals With Disabilities., Betts Peters, Brandon Eddy, Deirdre Galvin-Mclaughlin, Gail Betz, Barry Oken, Melanie Fried-Oken

Speech and Hearing Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Augmentative and alternative communication brain-computer interface (AAC-BCI) systems are intended to offer communication access to people with severe speech and physical impairment (SSPI) without requiring volitional movement. As the field moves toward clinical implementation of AAC-BCI systems, research involving participants with SSPI is essential. Research has demonstrated variability in AAC-BCI system performance across users, and mixed results for comparisons of performance for users with and without disabilities. The aims of this systematic review were to (1) describe study, system, and participant characteristics reported in BCI research, (2) summarize the communication task performance of participants with disabilities using AAC-BCI systems, and …

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 …

Evaluation Of Swallowing Related Measures In Different Head And Neck Postures In Healthy Young And Older Adults, Mabell Vargas

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study evaluated swallowing related measures (oral transit time and number of swallows, tongue force and lip force) and different head and neck postures in a group of healthy young adults and older adults. Participants consisted of 19 healthy young and 17 healthy old. They were asked to ingest 2 different liquid consistency to measure the time they take to swallow and the number of swallows. The maximum tongue and lip force was measured with the IOPI device for 3 seconds and repeated 3 times.

The results of the study showed that the number of swallows is not significant regardless …

Implicit Learning In Preschool Children With And Without Developmental Language Disorder, Abigail E. Tolomei

University Honors Theses

The study below was designed to compare implicit learning in fifty-two preschool-aged children with and without developmental language disorder (DLD) to test the Procedural Deficit Hypothesis (PDH). The PDH claims that procedural memory, the basis of implicit learning, is the main impairment in DLD. Using a computer-based program to conduct sound-meaning-mapping tasks, we asked children to select one of two images according to the corresponding sound they heard. After all the participants were tested, an additional cue was found in the experiment that impacted the data. Instead of the children attuning to the sounds to depict the correct answer, the …

Transitioning From Face-To-Face To Telehealth Speech And Language Services Due To The Covid-19 Pandemic: Perceptions Of Persons With Aphasia And Their Ehelpers, Emma Logan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research study was to investigate the perceptions of the aphasia community, as well as their caregivers, that are provided speech and language services and how their services were affected due to transitions because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The recency and novelty of the pandemic warrants research of many areas related to health care, including that of speech language pathology.

An online survey was completed by nine persons with aphasia and three eHelpers. Participants were recruited through a university clinic and by informational fliers through social media. Participants with aphasia qualified by having experiences with speech and …

The Effects Of Language Proficiency On Narrative Macrostructure In Spanish-English Bilinguals, Jenny Magallon

Dissertations and Theses

Bilingual children of the same age may have different narrative skills depending on the quantity and quality of their experiences in the two languages. Thus, children's storytelling skills can vary depending on children's oral proficiency in each language. The present study examined the effects of oral proficiency on story structure in forty 5- to 7-year-old Spanish-English speaking children using Spanish and English samples from story retelling tasks. Language proficiency was measured as continuum of performance using the Spanish-English Language Proficiency Scale (SELPS; Smyk et al., 2013). To estimate the effects of Spanish and English proficiency on story structure, linear regressions …

The Effect Of Aac-Modeling Intervention (Aac-Mod) Within Dialogic Reading On Vocabulary Learning In Children With Down Syndrome, Emily A. Mchugh

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the effect of aided Alternative and Augmentative Communication-Modeling (AAC-MOD) intervention on the communication skills of preschool-age children with Down syndrome (DS) during dialogic book reading. The study investigated to what extent AAC-MOD is effective in increasing the acquisition of target vocabulary and expressive communication acts by children with DS who use few words functionally. Two children aged 3;10 and 5;4, with repertoires of less than 75 intelligible words were selected. A repeated acquisition experimental design was used to examine the effects of instruction on target vocabulary word learning and symbolic communication. …

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.

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 …

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 …

Augmentative And Alternative Communication Use, Service Delivery Experiences, And Communicative Participation For People With Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Betts Peters

Dissertations and Theses

People with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) often experience changes to their speech, and may use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices and techniques to maintain the ability to communicate. The use of AAC may facilitate the participation of people with ALS in various life situations involving communication. There is limited data in the literature about the AAC approaches currently used by people with ALS, the professional services they receive to support communication, or the effects of AAC on their communicative participation. This dissertation involved a nationwide online survey of people with ALS, and comprises three papers intended to add to …

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 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 …

Temporal Modulation Transfer Functions Of Amplitude-Modulated Cervical Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potentials In Young Adults, Kerri Lawlor

Dissertations, 2020-current

Cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (cVEMPs) are widely used to evaluate saccular function in clinical and research applications. Typically, transient tonebursts are used to elicit cVEMPs. In this study, we used bone-conducted amplitude-modulated (AM) tones to elicit AMcVEMPs. This new approach allows the examination of phase-locked vestibular responses across a range of modulation frequencies. Currently, cVEMP temporal modulation transfer functions (TMTFs) are not well defined. The purposes of the present study were 1) to characterize the AMcVEMP TMTF in young, healthy individuals, 2) to compare AMcVEMP TMTFs across different analysis approaches, and 3) to determine the upper frequency limit of …