Communication Sciences and Disorders Commons^™

Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Speech-Language Pathologists’ Perceptions Of Infants With Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome, Lauren Fabrize

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the characteristics, assessment, and treatment of infants with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) as perceived by Speech-Language Pathologists (SLP) and whether it differed from those of other Neonatal Intensive Care Unit populations.

Methods: A secure web-based questionnaire with 62 questions collected information on NAS, caseloads, treatment environment, and demographics. Twenty-six respondents initiated the survey; 42% completed most or all questions. Response analyses included descriptive and nonparametric inferential statistics.

Results: Infants with NAS were on the caseloads of 73% of respondents. The majority (79%) only saw infants with NAS and feeding problems. Primary …

Inspiratory Muscle Recruitment During Swallow And A Comparison Across Airway Behaviors., Allison V. English

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

During swallow, a negative esophageal pressure is present that, along positive pressure from the tongue, which works to move the bolus through the pharynx into the esophagus. This negative esophageal pressure is thought to be produced via recruitment of chest wall inspiratory muscles (diaphragm and parasternal). This current study aimed to examine respiratory muscle recruitment across behaviors which have known inspiratory muscle activity (eupnea, augmented breath and cough) and compare to swallow. It was hypothesized that there would be no significant difference in amplitude and muscle recruitment over 75 ms between swallow and eupnea, but cough and augmented breath would …

Investigating Predictive Relationships Between Speech-Language Pathology Graduate Students' Sense Of Classroom Community, Perceived Learning, And Perceived Anxiety., Emily B. Schantz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Mental health is an all-encompassing term that focuses on a person’s ability to achieve work-life balance inclusive of positive mental health and mental ill-health. Current trends suggest an overall increase in mental ill-health for undergraduate and graduate students. McMillan and Chavis’ sense of community theory provided the theoretical framework for this study. This study aimed to examine whether speech-language pathology graduate students’ sense of classroom community and perceived learning predict anxiety levels while controlling for demographic variables. Three-hundred-sixteen master’s level speech-language pathology students completed an online survey containing the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire, Perceived Learning Scale, and Classroom Community Scale. …

Alterations In Rhythmic Licking Behaviors Following Fibrosis In The Rat Mylohyoid Muscle., Brittany Fletcher

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Muscle injury is a common side effect of radiation treatment for head and neck cancer. To increase understanding of muscle injury related dysfunction, we investigated the effects of oral swallowing function after cryoinjury to mylohyoid muscle in rats. The hypothesis is that injury to the mylohyoid delays the temporal licking pattern, resulting in aberrant drinking behaviors. Six rats received bilateral mylohyoid injuries by applying a 3mm cryoprobe. Licking behavior was measured by electrophysiological recordings of rhythmic tongue movements in a ten-minute drinking session taken pre-and post-injury (one-and two-weeks). Lick frequency and total licks per cluster decreased significantly one-and two-weeks post-injury …

Readability Of Patient-Reported Outcome Measures For Persons With Aphasia, Sara Gray

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The relationship between positive health outcomes in persons with aphasia (PWA) and personcentered care is highlighted by personally relevant information obtained directly from the PWA. Such is often facilitated via patient reported outcome measures (PROMs). In order to provide accurate responses to PROMs, PWAs must to read, comprehend, formulate and generate answers to a variety of questions. PROMs designed for other clinical populations assessed/treated by speech-language pathologists have been found to be largely unreadable. Despite the significant role of PROMs in assessment and management of aphasia, no study to date has examined the readability of these measures. Four readability formulae …

Implementation Of The Roles And Responsibilities Of Speech Language Pathologists In The Schools, Tamar Nir

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine how the roles and responsibilities of speech-language pathologists (SLPs) in schools are being implemented, whether speech-language pathologists in schools feel comfortable with their roles, and whether they are willing to engage in professional learning activities to hone knowledge and skills in role areas in order to inform pre-service and in-service learning This study utilized an online survey to collect responses. The survey included questions related to the rate of implementation, comfort level, and desire for further professional learning with regards to the roles and responsibilities prescribed by American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA) …

Recall Reading Intervention For Children In Preschool And Kindergarten With Moderate To Severe Language Delays, Rebekah Christine Bosley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Dialogic reading is a reading intervention method in which the adult prompts the child with questions and expansions. Previous research has documented that it has been effective in promoting engagement, increasing response rates, developing vocabulary knowledge, and increasing overall answer accuracy in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) (Fleury, Miramontez, Hudson, & Schwartz, 2014; Fleury & Schwartz, 2016; Whalon, Martinez, Shannon, Butcher, & Hanline, 2015). The current study investigates whether children with moderate to severe language delays with or without Autism could increase their verbal and nonverbal responses and joint attention through the RECALL (Reading to Engage Children with Autism …

Macrolinguistic Analysis Of Discourse Production In People With Aphasia, Individuals With Mild Cognitive Impairment, And Survivors Of Traumatic Brain Injury, Stephanie Eaton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the macrolinguistic features of three genres (single picture description, sequential picture description, and story retell) of discourse samples collected from participants with acquired communication disorders (including two speakers with aphasia, two with mild cognitive impairment, and two with traumatic brain injury) and unimpaired controls (n=6). Comparisons were made to investigate group and genre differences. Standardized assessment scores of cognitive and linguistic evaluations were collected and correlated to features of macrolinguistic discourse analysis. Participants with acquired communication disorders performed best on the story retell discourse task compared to single picture description and sequential picture description. Significant measures for …

Partnering With Paraprofessionals: Expanding Preschool Children's Responses Through Dialogic Reading, Juliana Hirn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Shared interactive reading is an evidence-based practice where professionals can collaborate to promote literacy and language skills in young children. Providing children with developmental disabilities (DD) the opportunity to gain language and preliteracy skills in early intervention is critical for their development as they are at a higher risk for falling behind in academics compared to their age-matched peers. This study evaluated the effectiveness of dialogic reading (DR) for children with DD. DR has been shown to be an effective strategy to teach typically developing preschool-aged children vocabulary, language, and literacy skills, however research in children with DD is limited. …

The Effect Of The Movie Time Social Learning Method On The Emotional Inferencing Skills In An Adult With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Jenna Reade

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have difficulty finding employment and maintaining social relationships. Professional and personal interactions require individuals to make inferences, or read between the lines. Inferencing is a challenge for individuals with ASD because it requires complex information processing. More specifically, it involves the integration of cognitive and linguistic information. There is a lack of research using complex stimuli to treat inferencing. An A-B-A-B design with one adult with ASD was used to examine the effectiveness of a movie-based method, Movie Time Social Learning(Vagin, 2012), on improving the emotional inferencing skills of one young adult with …

A New Surgical Approach For O-C2 Fusion, Solving The Problem Of Dysphagia., M. Kathryn Mcclure

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The fusion of the second cervical vertebrae to the occipital bone (O-C2 fusion) for head stabilization can result in postoperative dysphagia and dyspnea, negatively impacting the patient’s quality of life. Currently, the O-C2 angle is used for head placement, which may not place the head neutrally. We hypothesize that aligning the external auditory meatus with midline of the C2 will reduce oropharyngeal stenosis, reducing dysphagia. One male patient with poor swallow quality of life who required a revision of a previous O-C2 surgery was evaluated via videofluoroscopy and completed the standard swallow quality of life questionnaire (SWAL-QOL) before and after …

Swallow And Breathing Coordination Following Suprahyoid Muscle Injury., Bradley Kimbel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Swallowing motility disorders (dysphagia) are a major complication following radiation treatment for head and neck cancer, affecting ~50% of those treated. One reason for this is that radiation causes muscle damage, provoking sensorimotor pathologies. Previous work has suggested that injury may cause discoordination between breathing and swallowing behaviors. We sought to determine if muscle injury provokes changes in this behavior. We hypothesized that acute suprahyoid muscle damage would alter cross-behavior excitability, causing destabilization of the respiratory-swallow pattern. Swallowing was evoked in anesthetized spontaneously breathing cats via injection of a 3cc bolus of water into the oropharyngeal cavity. A suprahyoid injury …

Autism Spectrum Disorder : Investigating Predictive Diagnostic Relationships In Children Three Years-Of-Age And Younger., Kaitlin Juergensen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a heterogeneous neurodevelopmental disorder whose symptoms may involve deficits across three domains: communication, socialization, and atypical behaviors or interests. With a high prevalence across populations and a tendency to impact males more so than females, early and accurate diagnosis appears critical. The most current literature on ASD provides a myriad of difficulties associated with diagnosis under the age of three years. The purpose of this study was to determine if a predictive relationship exists between a child’s individual developmental domain standard deviation (SD) subscale scores (motor, language, cognitive, social-emotional, and adaptive skills) on the Bayley …

Vocal Health: Awareness And Perceptions In Undergraduate Vocal Music And Theatre Majors, Heather Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Objective: The purpose of this study was to identify the perceptions of students majoring in vocal music and theatre regarding the instruction they receive in their undergraduate curricula on voice health education.

Methods: A survey was adapted from a previous study, Beeman (2016), with permission by the author. The survey was disseminated to undergraduate vocal music and theatre majors across the United States via SurveyMonkey®, an online survey tool.

Results: Students perceived receiving knowledge on vocal health from their voice teachers, however they reported low levels of vocal hygiene compliance. Additionally, students recognized the connection between the singing and speaking …

Life Partner Perceptions Of The Emotional Impact Of Stuttering, Athanasia Svenning

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The aim of the present study is to investigate the extent to which life partners understand the emotional impact stuttering has on their loved one who stutters. This was accomplished by administering the Speech Situation Checklist - Emotional Reaction (SSC-ER), a subtest of the Behavior Assessment Battery (BAB; Vanryckeghem & Brutten, 2018) via Qualtrics, an online survey software, to the participants who stutter and a modified version of the SSC-ER to their life partner. No significant differences and a positive correlation were observed between groups (people who stutter (PWS) and their life partner (LP) as it relates to total score …

Fourth Grade Teachers' Implementation Of An Explicit Vocabulary Teaching Technique With Students Who Are Socioeconomically Disadvantaged, Joanna Spielvogel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The study investigated the impact of fourth grade general education teacher implementation of the Vocabulary Scenario Technique – General Education 16 (VST-GE16) protocol on the vocabulary knowledge gains of students from low socioeconomic status (SES) circumstances. For children living in poverty, vocabulary knowledge deficits begin in toddlerhood and persist throughout their lives. Early deficits in vocabulary knowledge translate to performance gaps in vocabulary knowledge, literacy, and academic success between students from higher and lower SES homes. The development of explicit instructional protocols to be used by general education teachers is critical to the amelioration of these intransigent gaps. The study …

Crosslinguistic Analysis Of Stuttering And Typical Disfluencies In Polish-English Bilingual Adults Who Stutter, Aleksandra Krawczyk

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research study examines the types and frequencies of stuttering, typical disfluencies, and speech rate in Polish-English bilingual adults who stutter across a variety of speaking situations. As Polish and English are phonetically and morpho-syntactically disparate languages, they provide grounds for evaluating the cross-linguistic correlates that may contribute to dysfluency in bilingual individuals who stutter in hopes of contributing to more effective assessment, diagnostic determination, and clinical practice. Participants were all native Polish speakers who spoke English at an intermediate or higher level, were diagnosed with a developmental stutter, and were at least 18 years old. Given that the participants …

Applied Software Tools For Supporting Children With Intellectual Disabilities, Ahmad Abualsamid

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

We explored the level of technology utilization in supporting children with cognitive disabilities at schools, speech clinics, and with assistive communication at home. Anecdotal evidence, literature research, and our own survey of special needs educators in Central Florida reveal that use of technology is minimal in classrooms for students with special needs even when scientific research has shown the effectiveness of video modeling in teaching children with special needs new skills and behaviors. Research also shows that speech and language therapists utilize a manual approach to elicit and analyze language samples from children with special needs. While technology is utilized …

An Exploratory Analysis Of A Five Minute Speech Sample Of Mothers Of Children With Selective Mutism, Lisa Kovac

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Selective mutism (SM), an anxiety disorder wherein children have difficulty speaking or communicating when they are uncomfortable, is relevant for the early childhood population as symptoms often manifest upon school entry (Steinhausen & Juzi, 1996) and early treatment leads to better treatment prognosis (Oerbeck, Stein, Wentzel-Larsen, Langsrud & Kristensen, 2014). Bergman, Gonzalez, Piacentini and Keller, (2013) utilized an integrative behavioral treatment for children (ages 4-8) with SM and reported a 75% treatment responder status after 24 weeks of therapy. Their mothers are the focus of this study. This exploratory study examined the content of Five Minute Speech Samples at baseline …

Spontaneous Vocal Matching In Mothers And Their Hearing Impaired Infants With Cochlear Implants : A Quantitative Analysis., Lydia Doggett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Vocal matching, the ability to imitate phonetic properties of speech, was examined in spontaneous interactions of sixteen dyads of mothers and their hearing-impaired (HI) infants with cochlear implants and age-matched normal-hearing (NH) infants. Mother-infant dyads came to three sessions at three, six, and 12 months post-implantation. Vocal matching was defined as an instance of perceptual and acoustic similarity of vowels and consonants between adjacent maternal and infant utterances. Vocal matching occurred in 25% to 50% of infant and in 17% to 64% of mother vocalizations across dyads. Both mothers and infants in the HI group produced fewer matches as compared …

Neural Coding Of Natural And Synthetic Speech., Allison Brown

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present study examined whether natural and synthetic speech are differentially encoded in the auditory cortex. Auditory event-related potential (ERP) waveforms were elicited by natural and synthetic fricative-vowel stimuli (/sɑ/ and /ʃɑ/) in a passive listening paradigm in adult listeners with normal hearing. ERP response components were compared across conditions. The results indicated that peak latencies to natural speech were significantly earlier than those to synthetic speech. Natural speech also produced significant electrode hemisphere site effects, whereas synthetic speech activated left, midline, and right electrode hemisphere sites equally. Overall, the results suggest that cortical processing of natural and synthetic speech …

Prevalence Of Communication Disorders In Children With Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome On School Speech-Language Pathology Caseloads: A National Survey, Brittany V. Ratliff

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

There is concern about the recently increasing number of infants born with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS), yet little is known about its long-term neurodevelopmental effects. School-based speech-language pathologists (SLPs) are in a unique position to comment on potential long-term consequences of NAS because their caseloads include children with a variety of communication disorders and comorbidities. School-based SLPs across the United States (N = 258) responded to a survey about the presence of children with NAS on their caseloads and their perceptions of the children’s communication disorders and comorbidities. Results revealed that children with NAS currently are being treated by …

The Ability To Critically Evaluate Research Literature In Speech-Language Pathology, David Gregorio

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research in Speech-Language Pathology provides the basis for understanding how and to what degree therapeutic techniques and interventions affect the health and quality of life of individuals with communication disorders. Across numerous fields of healthcare, research serves just as important a function and is used to guide the practices of professionals across the public health sector. Several disciplines, including chiropracty, nursing, and physical therapy, rely on the implementation of Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) to ensure that the process of rehabilitation and the techniques employed therein are carried out though the synthesis of best clinical judgment, empirical evidence, and patient values. The …

Effects Of Collaboration Between Speech-Language Pathologists And Third-Grade Teachers On Student Vocabulary Outcomes, Mary Mitchell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A persistent literacy crisis continues to be reflected in international (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD], 2013), national (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2015), and local literacy outcome data. Educators, including speech-language pathologists (SLPs), are called upon to collaborate to support students who struggle with academic language/literacy. However, few studies have operationally defined collaboration and investigated the effects of collaboration on student achievement. As a result, there is insufficient guidance for educators about ways to design, implement, and assess the effectiveness of collaboration models, defined in terms of their effects on student outcomes. There were two main objectives …

Effects Of Symbol Type On Naming And Identification Of Graphic Symbols By Typically Developing Three, Four, Five And Six-Year Olds Children., Pamela Resnick

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Speech-language pathologists and educators face unique challenges in assessing the language skills of children with complex communication needs due to the wide array of impairments with which these individuals present. For example, most receptive language assessment tools require that children either point to or label line drawings to determine whether or not they comprehend the depicted concepts; task demands such as these preclude administering such assessment tools with children who are unable to physically point to or verbally label presented stimuli. In light of these challenges, the use of eye tracking technologies has become particularly appealing since this alternate response …

Interprofessional Patient Simulation Training Compared To Online Training For Learning To Use In-Line Speaking Valves, Kristi A. Moore

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Restoring speech in persons who are tracheostomy and ventilator dependent, through the use of a Passy-Muir Speaking Valve (PMSV), requires specific training. Methods of training interprofessional team members to assess in-line PMSVs are unclear. This study used a pretest/ post-test design to compare effects of online training and online training plus simulation training on knowledge acquisition, skills performance, and comfort levels when working with persons who are tracheostomy and ventilator dependent. Twenty-six students studying either respiratory therapy (N=13) or speech-language pathology (N=13) were assigned to the control group or experimental group. Results revealed that online training proved beneficial for increasing …

Comparison Of In Vivo Simulation Training Compared To Video Simulation Training For Identifying Clinical Markers Of Distress When Feeding Preterm Infants, Emily M. Wagner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Preterm infants have multiple health complications due to their underdeveloped neurological systems. Bottle-feeding difficulties are one complication that leads to pulmonary illness secondary to aspiration. Preterm infants exhibit clinical markers when experiencing distress during bottle-feeding. Training caregivers to identify clinical markers reduces the risk for aspiration. Simulation training provides a safe learning environment without harming patients. Twenty-two speech-language pathology and pre-requisite students divided into two simulation groups, video-simulation (N=12) and in-vivo simulation (N=10), were trained to document clinical markers of distress exhibited by preterm infants and make clinical judgments about bottle-feeding. Students rated their levels of anxiety during simulation training. …

Training Clinical Judgment Skills For Interpreting Feeding Behavior In Preterm Infants: A Comparison Of Video And In Vivo Simulation, Jamesa R. Ewing

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Health and feeding outcomes for preterm infants depend upon healthcare providers’ ability to recognize non-verbal signs of distress during bottle-feeding. Methods of training future providers’ to interpret feeding behavior in preterm infants are unclear. This study used a pre-test/post-test design to compare the effects of in- vivo simulation and video-simulation training on students’ knowledge of feeding abnormalities, clinical judgment, and documentation accuracy. Fifty-two graduate level speech-language pathology students were assigned to the in-vivo (N= 27) or video-simulation (N= 25) group. Results revealed that both methods proved beneficial for increasing knowledge and clinical judgment skills. Participants trained using video-simulation training documented …

Productions Of Metalinguistic Awareness By Young Children With Sli And Typical Language, Lucy E. Long

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study seeks to: (1) determine if differences exist between children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) compared to age-matched (AM) and language- matched (LM) children with typical language development (TL) in rates and proportions of five types of metalinguistic productions and (2) test theories of metalinguistic production. Forty-five children, 24 with TL and 21 with SLI, paired for age or language level, formed two groups. Previously collected data from two studies of verb learning (Proctor-Williams & Fey, 2007; Proctor- Williams, unpublished) were analyzed for rates and types of metalinguistic productions. Results yielded no within or between group significant differences in …

Comprehension Of Science Text By African American Fifth And Sixth Grade Students: The Effects Of A Metalinguistic Approach, Karen Davis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Scientific literacy has been at the forefront of science education reform for the past 20 years, particularly for students from culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) backgrounds (Lee et. al., 2005; Pearson, Moje & Greenleaf, 2010). The ability to extract meaning from text is an important skill. Yet many students struggle with effectively comprehending what they read, particularly in content areas of science, math and history. According to the National Assessment Educational Progress (NAEP, 2013) report, adolescents are not acquiring advanced literacy skills needed to succeed in the workplace and academic setting. Literacy experts have called for the use of disciplinary …