Communication Sciences and Disorders Commons^™

The Impact Of Baby Sign On Motor Development In Typically Developing Infants And Toddlers, Melissa Garcia

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

"Baby Sign is an augmentative communication approach that teaches babies keyword signing that they can use to communicate before they talk." (Sneddon 2003). Baby sign has become popular among parents of infants as a means to communicate before the child can verbally express wants and needs. Programs and classes are now becoming available in many areas of the country to help teach parents basic signs to use with their children. This study aimed to assess the impact of baby

sign on motor development in typically developing infants. The study found that the impact of baby sign language on motor development …

A Comparison Of Performance On The Wii Basic Balance Test Between Concussed And Non-Concussed Collegiate Students, Vanessa Eileen Fernandez-Vivar

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The Wii Board Basic Balance Test has served as a useful tool for assessing balance in concussion management. In the event that an athlete is concussed, baseline data will be useful when managing a concussion. In cases where baseline data is not available, having normative data is useful to refer to in order to make appropriate return-to-play decisions. To date, normative data on the Wii Board Basic Balance Test is not available. Purpose: This study will compare the performance of concussed and nonconcussed individuals on the Wii Basic Balance Test. Method: A between subject design between the two groups of …

Event Related Potential Changes In A Two-Stimulus Auditory Oddball Task In Concussed College Athletes: A Linguistic Component, Paola G. Sanchez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

"Return to Play" decisions are done based on cognitive-communicative testing and clinical assessments; concussed athletes may benefit from electrophysiological testing for a more accurate representation of their recovery. The purpose of this study is to investigate the electrophysiological performance post-concussion analyzing the attentional differences using the traditional "oddball" paradigm with a CV linguistic component. Participants for this study were 6 male college athletes with a history of concussion and 10 participants with no history of concussion (controls). Athletes were evaluated using event-related potentials (ERPs) that were recorded during a consonant-vowel (CV) auditory oddball task. Both the P300a and P300b components …

Effects Of Augmentative And Alternative Device On Echolalia In Autism, Cynthia Valenzuela

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study was a systematic replication of Mueller and Forbes (n.d.), which evaluated the effects of a high-tech and low-tech augmentative alternative communication (AAC) device on reducing echolalia in a verbal child with autism during conversational speech. The participant for this study was a verbal eleven-year male, who was diagnosed with autism prior to the study. A single subject alternating treatment research design was used to evaluate the effect of a high-tech speech generating AAC device (Proloquo2go) on echolalia. The participant was seen periodically twice a week for two months and periodically for one month. A functional analysis(Prizant & Rydell, …

Brain Maturation In The Adolescent Athlete And It's Implication On Concussion Management, Jacqueline Picone

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

As the adolescent brain develops, any event that interrupts the process, such as a concussion, may result in long-term academic and social effects (Dennis & Levin, 2004). To date, there is no specific assessment or protocol published that consider the cognitive and development of the adolescent brain when managing concussion (Patel, et al., 2005). Purpose: to investigate whether there is a statistically significant difference between the composite scores and sub-test scores in the subtests on the ImPACT battery: Word Memory, Design Memory, X's and O's, Symbol Match, Color Match, and Three Letters, of high school male athletes between the ages …

Comparison Of Performance Between Elderly Individuals And Collegiate Athletes On The Immediate Post-Assessment And Cognitive Test, Kevin Van Den Bogaard

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Preventing falls in the elderly population requires a collaborative effort that includes medical treatment, rehabilitation, and environmental modification. Medical assessment of the elderly after a fall is designed to treat the potential conditions associated with the fall, such as broken limbs and trauma to the head resulting in a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Currently, there is no standardized test or protocol accepted across health care facilities to track the cognitive-communicative recovery of elderly patients. A group of elderly individuals deemed healthy and capable of independent living were administered the baseline Immediate Post Assessment and Cognitive Test (ImPACT). This study …

Assessing Cortical Electrophysiologic And Behavioral Activity In Individuals With Aphasia And Participants With No Brain Damage Responding To Spoken Sentence Length Messages, Patricia Lara

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In this study, six individuals with aphasia and twelve participants with no brain damage responded to spoken sentence length messages using a modified version of the Revised Token Test (McNeil & Prescott, 1978) while cortical activation was recorded using event related potentials (ERP). ERP is a non-invasive imaging procedure that measures cortical activation reflected in the electrical activity that is produced at the level of the cortex in response to internal or external stimulus.

Participants were presented with a visual display that provided eight different token arrangements per trial that were displayed on the computer screen. Spoken messages that increased …

Phonological Memory Associations Of Language Impairment In Bilingual Children, Marcela Susa

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Knowledge-based assessments of language impairments have been found to contain bias for assessing performance in bilingual children from diverse cultural backgrounds. As an alternative, measures related to performance of phonological working memory are becoming more popular for bilingual children. The purpose of the current study was to investigate how bilingual children with language impairment (BILI) would perform on nonword repetition and sentence repetition when compared to typically developing peers (BITD). Also, the current study investigated the extent to which the nonword repetition task and sentence repetition task were associated with each other in bilingual (English-Spanish) children. Results demonstrated that typically …

The Impact Of Literacy Through Movement In A 3rd Grade Hispanic Classroom, Daniel Peregrino

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This case study examines the effects of a kinesthetic literacy-training program on the complexity of narrative production and performance on the Garfield Motivation to Read Survey in a group of four 3rd grade elementary students. The 3rd grade teacher attended a Literacy Through Movement workshop to learn a range of movement-based literacy activities and methods for the classroom. The LITMO program was then implemented as part of a language arts poetry module for 3 weeks in her classroom. Changes in four students' performance on the Garfield Survey and narrative samples were measured before and after the LITMO intervention. Results suggest …

/Intɛli/ A Bilingual Computer Software Treatment Program For Apraxia Of Speech, Esnire Abigail Gomez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Apraxia of Speech (AOS) is a motor speech disorder characterized as difficulty planning and producing precise and refined movements of the articulators for intelligible speech (CASANA). Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the success of /Inteli/, an experimental computer program that incorporates melodic intonation therapy (MIT), modified eight step continuum, visual and auditory cues, and voice recordings for instant feedback to increase speech intelligibility. Method: A single subject multiple-baseline design was used to examine the effects of /Inteli/ on the speech intelligibility of a child diagnosed with severe AOS. Treatment was applied to 30 multisyllabic words in …

Unreported Concussion In High School Football Players, Princess Arcelia Puga

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Recent research in sport-related concussions has begun to reveal more about the specific hazards of high school football. However, the national reports of incidence/prevalence of concussions in this population appear to be inaccurate, because only emergency department (ED) visits are accounted for in reporting the number of concussions sustained in football. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether there is a statistically significant difference between the frequencies of concussion reports by athletic trainers (ATC) versus hospital records on concussion in high school football players in El Paso, Texas. Method: A questionnaire was delivered to athletic trainers through …

Speech-Language Pathologists' Reports Of Interprofessional Collaboration And Exposure During Graduate School, Carly Ruth Robalin

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Although the importance and benefits of interprofessional education (IPE) and interprofessional collaboration (IPC) in healthcare have been well demonstrated, the majority of graduate programs in speech-language pathology (SLP) only offer discipline-specific coursework and related experiences. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore SLPs' perceptions of their graduate programs' success at preparing them to be interprofessional team-members in the medical work setting. Method: Medically-based SLPs in five Texas cities responded to a survey addressing IPE and IPC. Responses were collected regarding: 1. Interprofessional exposure to physical therapy (PT) and occupational therapy (OT) during graduate school, 2. IPE opportunities …

Perception And Identification Of Voice Disorders: A Comparison Study Between Hispanic And Non-Hispanics, Jacqueline Nicole Lopez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The extent of public education in the Hispanic population regarding voice disorders has been unidentified thus far, motivating the current study to assess knowledge and perception of functional and organic voice disorders among Hispanic individuals in the El Paso region. The project involved an experimental research design to investigate whether demographic variables influenced the accuracy of knowledge of voice disorders in the general population residing in the Greater El Paso Region. Results indicate that the majority of the participants perceive articulation, fluency, and voice disorders as interchangeable and are unaware of the role of medical and rehabilitation professionals in the …

A Survey Of Variables Influencing Speech-Language Pathologists' Use Of Evidence-Based Practice In Clinical Settings, Ailbhe Tressan Cormack

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Although the need for evidence-based practice (EBP) in speech-language pathology has been well attested, multiple barriers hamper its implementation. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare variables influencing the use of EBP by practicing speech-language pathologists (SLPs). Method: Eighty-five SLPs based out of different primary work settings in El Paso, Texas responded to a survey addressing: 1. attitudes and perceived barriers toward EBP, 2. exposure to EBP, research methodology and statistics in graduate courses, 3. time in practice, 4. practice setting(s), 5. amount and nature of support for EBP in work settings, and 6. use of research literature …

Vocabulary Acquisition Of Bilingual Students Through The Implementation Of Dialogic Shared Storybook Reading Techniques, Samantha Kamille Ariaz

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Children who are learning English as a second language and whose caregivers speak only Spanish were chosen to participate in the study. Parents were trained using Dialogic Shared Storybook Reading (DSSR) techniques (Whitehurst, 1988). The study was a single subject multiple baseline design across behaviors. Reading conditions were counterbalanced to control for acquisition of new vocabulary. There were a total of five participants, three children and two mothers (n=5). The participants were separated into two families. Each family was exposed to three reading book conditions while the parents implemented the specified techniques: 1. Shared reading with an electronic, bilingual Spanish/ …

Health Prognisis Of Electronics Via Power Profiling, Jonathan Amilcar Cervantes

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The objective of this research is to investigate a new approach for the early detection of latent defects in electronic devices in the field. Reliability is assessed through the non-traditional approach of recording and evaluating the power profile of electronic devices within a deterministic state of operation. Traditionally, measuring the quiescent current (Iddq) of a device has been employed in manufacturing tests to detect defective parts prior to deployment to the field. However, the monitoring of the deterministic power signature (i.e. boot up or during a self-test routine) has never been exploited to monitor the health of a device in …