Communication Sciences and Disorders Commons^™

Spontaneous Recovery In Children With Expressive Language Delay, Jaimie Sierakowski

Honors Theses

By age 2, most children have an expressive vocabulary of approximately 200 words and begin to combine these words into meaningful phrases. However, some children acquire expressive language skills more slowly than others while displaying no signs of cognitive, receptive, or sensory delays. These children who experience an expressive language delay are often characterized in the literature as late talkers. Research shows that many of these children have delays early in childhood, but eventually catch up to their typically-developing peers, with no need for language intervention. Others, however, continue to experience expressive delays and. have an increased risk of developing …

A Strategic Plan For Engaging Undergraduate Speech Pathology And Audiology Students In The Research Enterprise, Stephen M. Tasko

Academic Leadership Academy

The goal of this project is to develop a strategic plan for the Speech Pathology and Audiology Research Experience, which is a program designed to increase undergraduate student engagement in research activities. The emphasis on undergraduate students is based on the view that the sooner research opportunities are introduced and ‘demystified’, the sooner students envision this as a viable professional option.

The Picture Exchange Communication System: Digital Photographs Versus Picture Symbols, Carmen Jonaitis

Dissertations

The Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) is an augmentative and alternative system (AAC) used to improve and increase communication for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and other developmental disorders. Research addressing the efficacy of this system is increasing; however, there is limited information published that evaluates the picture type used for PECS instruction. A single-subject alternating treatments design was used to examine the role of iconicity, or how closely a symbol resembles its referent, in the acquisition of picture discrimination in the third phase of PECS. The purpose of this study was to compare how well children were able …

Memory And Language: Evidence Of Relationships From Three Studies Of School-Age Children, Michele A. Anderson

Dissertations

The purpose of this three-paper dissertation was to explore the relationship between performance on verbal memory and language assessment tasks in school-age children. Study one used data from whole-class administration of three language assessment tasks to 2nd, 4th, 6th, and 9th graders (N= 187). Studies two and three used data from individualized administration of language assessment and verbal memory tasks to comparable samples of children between the ages of 6 and 18 years with typical language (TL) and language impairment (LI) (n = 37 per group).

The first study addressed practical and theoretical questions regarding memory and language demands of …

Evaluation Of Verbal Behavior In Older Adults, Amy Gross

Dissertations

Older adults make up a large and increasing portion of the population (U.S. apply those assessments to the evaluation of verbal behavior in older adults with and without dementia. The research addressed two questions. First, in what way do verbal behavior problems differ between older adults with and without dementia? Second, does language deteriorate in a pattern compatible with Skinner's analysis of functionally independent verbal operants? Thirty-one participants were categorized into Control (n=15) and Dementia (n=16) Groups based on their score on the Dementia Rating Scale-2. Verbal behavior assessments were administered to participants on two occasions, separated by one week. …

Reading, Writing, And Repetition: Performance On Nonword Measures Bystudents With And Without Language-Learning Disabilities, Patricia J. Tattersall

Dissertations

The central purpose of this three-paper dissertation was to explore the ability of school-age children with and without language-learning disabilities (LLD) to apply sound/word level structure knowledge when performing speaking, spelling, and reading tasks. Data came from a larger investigation that used stratified sampling to create two ability groups—children with typical language (TL) and with LLD—comparable in terms of age (range 6 through 18 years), sex, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status.

The central purpose of this three-paper dissertation was to explore the ability of school-age children with and without language-learning disabilities (LLD) to apply sound/word level structure knowledge when performing speaking, …

The Effect Of Early Cochlear Implantation On Oral Language: A Review Of The Literature, Nicole Supplee

Honors Theses

Current research suggests that implantation of cochlear implants before 2 years of age significantly impacts oral language development, specifically in increased rate of oral language development. In addition, children who have been implanted early (between 12 months and two years) have been shown to obtain age-appropriate language skills, whereas children who have been implanted later (after 2 years of age), or not implanted at all, do not. Because of the documented benefits of early implantation, researchers have recently pushed to lower the current minimum age of implantation to below 12 months of age. Although research suggests improvements in language development …

Relative Timing Of Speech Motor Events At Utterance Invitation In Persons Who Do And Do Not Stutter, Bryan Thomas Brown

Masters Theses

Speech production is a highly complex speech motor activity that presumably requires a high degree of coordination between articulatory, respiratory and phonatory subsystems. Stuttering may be caused by breakdowns in speech motor coordination. The current study attempted to evaluate timing relationship between these systems at speech initiation in the perceptually fluent speech of people who do and do not stutter. To study this, tongue blade speed histories, respiratory transitions from inspiratory to expiratory gestures, and acoustic events at the initiation of perceptually fluent speech in persons who stutter and normally fluent speakers were analyzed in relative time. To identify the …

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 …

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 …

Adolescents’ Perceptions Of Their Roles In Decision-Making In The Oral Cleft Clinic, Rebecca Ann Hague

Masters Theses

Background: The literature suggests adolescents have the cognitive abilities equivalent to an adult for health related decisions. Adolescents should participate in treatment planning at a level equivalent to their cognitive abilities and the extent they desire. Little is known regarding adolescents' perceived and desired level of involvement in decision making in an oral cleft clinic.

Purpose: To describe adolescents' perceptions of their roles and desired level of involvement in decision-making in an oral cleft clinic.

Methods: Four adolescents completed a questionnaire and participated in focus groups.

Results: Participants reported that they perceive they are involved in decision-making processes, are knowledgeable …

Perceptions Of Adolescents: Preferences Of Adolescents For Parental Presence And The Effect On Information Disclosure, Bethany Barrus

Masters Theses

Adolescents born with a cleft lip or palate are in a unique position because they have received a lifetime of interdisciplinary team care where decisions are frequently made by parents, yet they are transitioning into a stage of life in which they will make their own health related decisions. Because of the complexity of their health needs, the preferred method of care is interdisciplinary team care (Nackashi, Dedlow, Dixon-Wood, 1997; Kummer, 2001). Little research has been conducted regarding the perceptions of adolescents with oral cleft about their care and issues of confidentiality in the context of team care. This study …

Perceptions Of Speech-Language Pathologists, Abby M. Spicko

Honors Theses

According to the American Speech-Language Hearing Association, speech-language pathologists practice in a wide variety of work settings including schools, hospitals, clinics, private homes, nursing homes, and more (ASHA, 2007). As a result of the diverse environments in which speech language pathologists are employed, they work in collaboration with people from many other professions, including teachers, psychologists, doctors, nurses, social works. and occupational and physical therapists. It is important to understand the relationships between the speech language pathologist and their co-workers and others' attitudes toward the profession. This paper examines how those working with speech language pathologists across various work settings, …

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 …

Acoustic, Kinematic, And Auditory Perceptual Characteristics Of Clear Speech, Kristin L. Greilick

Masters Theses

This study characterized the speech motor transformations that underlie speech clarity changes in a group of 49 healthy young speakers. Clarity judgments based on auditory perception of the speech samples were determined by a panel of 30 undergraduate and graduate students. This study specifically aimed to characterize (1) the auditory-perceptual judgments of clarity, (2) the acoustic measures of clear and causal speech, (3) the temporal and spatial features of articulatory movements of clear and casual speech, and (4) test the hypothesis that auditory perceptual scaling of clarity (perceptual salience) would be associated with kinematic indicators of physical effort.

Results suggested …

Measuring Spelling Growth Over Time In Elementary Writing Samples, Pamela M. Ansell

Masters Theses

Developmental spelling stage theories have been proposed and disputed for 30 years. The current study used Gentry's (1982) model to assign category ratings to narrative writing samples produced by 32 students over two years to observe developmental growth over time. In addition, quantitative measures were obtained from the samples, including an index of control (Laminack & Wood, 1996) and a percentage correct. Analyses were also used to test the effectiveness of using a writing lab approach (Nelson, Bahr & Van Meter, 2004) on spelling development. During the last half of second grade, all 32 students received intervention guided by the …

Dialect Density And Discourse Maturity Of African American Elementary Students, Brandi Lynette Newkirk

Masters Theses

This was a report of an investigation of the effects of dialectal features in African American students' narratives on discourse ratings by trained judges. The question addressed in this research was whether dialectal features influence judges who are evaluating discourse. Graduate students in speech-language pathology (n = 18) learning to analyze discourse samples served as the judges. Two versions of narratives (n = 27) written by third- and fourth-grade African American students (the original version and the edited version) were used to determine if narratives that contain dialectal features would be rated lower. The judges were trained in narrative discourse …

Right Hemisphere Effects On Language Processing: Suppression Or Activation Deficit, Sarah A. Orjada

Masters Theses

This study was designed to add to the body of research that examines the possibility of semantic activation or suppression deficits as underlying right hemisphere communication disorders. Modified treatment techniques for activation and suppression deficits proposed by Myers (1999) were used as stimuli for the experimental tasks. A total of four RHD participants and four control participants matched in age, gender, and level of education were included in the study. The study aimed to answer the following questions. Do RHD or control participants have higher scores on the suppression tasks? Do RHD participants have longer reaction times? Do RHD or …

The Immediate Effects Of Vestibular Stimulation On The Language Performance Of A Child With Autism, Jennifer L. Sova

Masters Theses

There is a proposed link between sensory processing abilities and language performance in children with autism. Research evaluating such a relationship is limited. This study sought to evaluate the hypothesis that language expression is facilitated by the application of vestibular stimulation in a child with autism. The purpose of the present study was to implement language interaction techniques and measure the outcome of language performance in a 4-year-old child with autism and sensory integration dysfunction. The child was evaluated in regards to vestibular stimulation and its facilitative effect on language production for social communicative purposes. Direct observation was used to …

Evaluation Of The Pediatric Test Of Brain Injury, Heather K. Koole

Masters Theses

This study was designed to evaluate the Pediatric Test of Brain Injury (PTBI), as well as to examine information obtained from informal measures in assessing children and adolescents with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Three students with TBI and three grade- and gender- matched subjects participated in this study. All six students were administered the PTBI, and their performances were given raw scores, rated for level of difficulty in performing the tasks, and compared among and across the two groups. The students with TBI were interviewed by the graduate student researcher regarding self-perceptions of their strengths and weaknesses. In addition, their …

Pragmatic Behaviors And Competency Levels Of Typically Developing And High Risk African American Preschoolers, Jennifer Dodd

Masters Theses

The pragmatic behaviors and competency levels of typically developing (TD) and high risk (HR) African American preschool children were assessed through the use of the Pragmatic Coding System (PCS, Hyter & Dodd, 1999). Ten children were videotaped within two play settings (i.e., dramatic play and manipulative toy play) for a total of twenty minutes. Results indicated that TD and HR children used the same types of pragmatic behaviors in both play settings. Frequency differences, however, were found between the two groups. Typically developing children produced a significantly greater number of initiations, total responses, multi word responses, one word responses, no …

Effects Of Adult Modeling On Literacy Behaviors Of Head Start Preschoolers, Stephanie L. Kerbel

Masters Theses

This project explored the uses of literacy artifacts in the dramatic play of preschool children from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds who live in poverty in Kalamazoo County. The purpose of this 9-week study was to determine the impact of adult modeling on the frequency and quality of use of literacy artifacts during the dramatic play of at-risk preschoolers. Two Head Start classrooms received different types of intervention: (a) a literacy-enriched dramatic play area with adult modeling for 5 minutes at the start of each play period ( once per week); and (b) a literacy-enriched dramatic play area without adult …

Toys As Language Stimuli For Individuals With Alzheimer’S Disease, Cassandra M. Baer

Masters Theses

The study of the use of toys with institutionalized adults began in the field of gerontological nursing (Bailey, Gilbert, & Herweyer, 1992; Francis & Baly, 1986; Mayers & Griffin, 1990; Milton & MacPhail, 1985). Hopper, Bayles, and Tomoeda (1998) described the comforting qualities of plush animals for people with dementia and began to explore the effects of these toys on the language production of women with Alzheimer's Disease. Women were found to produce more information in fewer words when the toys were present.

This study builds on the work of Hopper et al. (1998), comparing language productions of two men …

Assessing The Pragmatic Skills Of Adolescents With And Without Learning Disabilities On A Dramatization Task, Amy L. Juergens

Masters Theses

This study was designed to compare the pragmatic skills of adolescents with and without learning disabilities as measured by a dramatization task. Seventeen high school students with learning disabilities and 17 normal-achieving high school students participated in this study. Twenty scenes were presented verbally to the participants who were instructed to act out the part of a character in each scene, making up the dialogue to fit the scene. The responses were scored for their pragmatic appropriateness and linguistic quality. Task reliability and validity analyses indicated that the dramatization task was an effective measure of key aspects of pragmatic skills. …

Differences In The Self-Talk Of Students With Language Impairments When Completing Math Computation And Story Problems, Jennifer Shepard Crouse

Masters Theses

This study was designed to analyze the differences in the self-talk of students with language impairments when compared with students with normal language. Nine fifth grade students with language impairments and nine fifth grade students with normal language, identified by their teachers as average-achieving, participated in this study. Participants were instructed to use a think-aloud technique while completing sets of computational and math story problems. Resulting samples of self-talk were transcribed and coded.

Results indicated several significant differences in the self-talk of students with language impairments when compared with their normal language peers. In regard to quantitative aspects of self-talk, …

Training Nonconventional Autoclitic And Tact Relationships In Children, Ingolfur Bergsteinsson

Dissertations

To some extent, one understands a complex aspect of human language if one can produce that kind of language in children who have not already acquired it. Skinner’s (1957) concept of autoclitic secondary verbal behavior is the most complex of his various verbal units, and until recently has not been the subject of experimental analysis. Howard and Rice (1988) made the first attempt to generate an autoclitic repertoire in preschool children, and the present study is an attempt to corroborate and extend their findings. They worked with the autoclitic “like” which identifies the accompanying primary verbal behavior as a form …

Development In Drawings And Language Of Young Children With Hearing Impairments, Daniel Carey Nordenbrock

Masters Theses

The use of free choice drawings and contingent questions as prompts to enhance oral language development in young children with moderate to profound hearing losses was the focus of this descriptive and experimental study. The effects of contingent queries (scaffolding) on drawing and oral language were measured using a single subject experimental design in which a staggered baseline was followed by treatment replicated across two sets of students at two levels of language abilities. An extensive coding system for dependent drawing and language variables was developed and utilized for analysis.

The major findings of this study were that the use …

The Effects Of Interactive Songs On Syllable Production In A Child With Agenesis Of The Corpus Callosum, Kelly D. Beens

Masters Theses

Agenesis of the corpus callosum is a disorder which has been the focus of clinical research on various tasks involving interhemispheric transfer of information. However, therapeutic intervention for individuals with this disorder has not been located in the literature by this researcher. Speech-language therapy for a five-year-old male incorporating interaction with songs was employed to activate various portions of the congenitally separated cerebral hemispheres and to encourage information transfer through non-traditional ways to facilitate syllable production.

The child received speech-language therapy for 15, 30-minute sessions. He was prompted to participate physically (with actions or manipulation of props) and verbally in …

Language Abilities Of Male Adolescents In A Juvenile Detention Center, Krista J. Klein

Masters Theses

This study was designed to analyze the language abilities of male adolescents with delinquent behavior. It was based on the hypothesis that male adolescents with delinquent behavior would have lower language skills during expressive language tasks. Language skills of male adolescents in a juvenile detention center were examined by comparing 12 grammatical variables, four subtest scores, and one total score from the Screening Test for Adolescent Language (STAL; Prather, Ausdal-Breecher, Stafford & Wallace, 1980). Results indicated that the adolescents with delinquent behavior omitted significantly more words, but also produced significantly more secondary verbs in a narration task. Significantly lower results …

Language Skills Of Adolescents With Emotional Disorders, Diane T. Hardy

Masters Theses

The language abilities of adolescents with emotional impairments were examined to determine the differences that may occur between this population and that of a control group of similar age, race, and gender. Ten adolescents with emotional impairments and ten students in general education were examined using two procedures. The Screening Test of Adolescent Language (STAL) (Prather, Breecher, Stafford, & Wallace, 1980) includes four subtests: vocabulary, auditory memory span, language processing, and proverb explanation. A language sample was also gathered using a cartoon video narration task (Dollaghan, Campbell, & Tomlin, 1990) which examined for syntactic, semantic, and discourse variables.

Results indicated …