Communication Sciences and Disorders Commons^™

Neural Correlates Of Infant Face Processing And Later Emerging Autism Symptoms In Fragile X Syndrome, Maggie W. Guy, John E. Richards, Abigail L. Hogan Ph.D., Jane E. Roberts

Faculty Publications

Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is the leading known genetic cause of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) with 60–74% of males with FXS meeting diagnostic criteria for ASD. Infants with FXS have demonstrated atypical neural responses during face processing that are unique from both typically developing, low-risk infants and infants at high familial risk for ASD (i.e., infants siblings of children with ASD). In the current study, event-related potential (ERP) responses during face processing measured at 12 months of age were examined in relation to ASD symptoms measured at ~48 months of age in participants with FXS, as well as siblings of …

Language Variation In The Writing Of African American Students: 6 Factors Predicting Reading Achievement, Lisa Fitton Ph.D., Lakeisha Johnson, Carla Wood, Christopher Schatschneider, Sara A. Hart

Faculty Publications

Purpose

This study aims to examine the predictive relation between measures obtained from African American students' written narrative language samples and reading achievement, as measured by standardized academic assessments.

Method

Written language samples were elicited from 207 African American students in Grades 1–8. The samples were examined for morphosyntactic variations from standardized written Generalized American English (GAE). These variations were categorized as either (a) specific to African American English (AAE) or (b) neutral across AAE and standardized written GAE (i.e., considered ungrammatical both in AAE and in standardized written GAE). Structural equation modeling was employed to then examine the predictive …

The Fmr1 Premutation Phenotype And Mother-Youth Synchrony In Fragile X Syndrome, Carly Moser, Laura Mattie, Leonard Abbeduto, Jessica Klusek

Faculty Publications

A subset of mothers who carry the FMR1 premutation may express a unique phenotype. The relationship between the FMR1 phenotype and mother-child interaction in families with fragile X-associated disorders has not been well characterized, despite the importance of high-quality mother-child interaction for child development. This study examined the association between the FMR1 phenotype and the quality of interactions between mothers and their adolescent/young adult sons with fragile X syndrome. Mother-youth synchrony was coded from a dyadic interaction. Maternal anxiety and depression symptoms, executive function deficits, and pragmatic language difficulties were evaluated. Results indicated that pragmatic language was associated with mother-youth …

Assessing Oral Language When Screening Multilingual Children For Learning Disabilities In Reading, J. Marc Goodrich, Lisa A. Fitton Ph.D., Jessica Chan, C. Jamie Davis

Faculty Publications

Multilingual children represent a rapidly growing population of students in U.S. schools. However, identification of language and learning disabilities for students from different linguistic backgrounds is complex, leading to frequent misidentification of multilingual learners for special education. This article provides guidance on how special education teachers, speech-language pathologists, and other practitioners (e.g., school psychologists) can utilize each other’s expertise to accurately assess language and literacy skills of multilingual learners. Five key lessons learned from research on identification of language disorders are presented, along with discussion of why these are important when screening multilingual children for learning disabilities in reading. Specifically, …

Spoken Word Learning In Children With Developmental Language Disorder Or Dyslexia, Suzanne M. Adlof, Lauren S. Baron, Bethany A. Bell, Joanna Scoggins

Faculty Publications

Purpose Word learning difficulties have been documented in multiple studies involving children with dyslexia and developmental language disorder (DLD; see also specific language impairment). However, no previous studies have directly contrasted word learning in these two frequently co-occurring disorders. We examined word learning in second-grade students with DLD-only and dyslexia-only as compared to each other, peers with both disorders (DLD + dyslexia), and peers with typical development. We hypothesized that children with dyslexia-only and DLD-only would show differences in word learning due to differences in their core language strengths and weaknesses. Method Children ( = 244) were taught eight novel …

Current Approaches To The Treatment Of Post-Stroke Aphasia, Julius Fridriksson Ph.D., Argye Elizabeth Hillis

Faculty Publications

Aphasia, impairment of language after stroke or other neurological insult, is a common and often devastating condition that affects nearly every social activity and interaction. Behavioral speech and language therapy is the mainstay of treatment, although other interventions have been introduced to augment the effects of the behavioral therapy. In this narrative review, we discuss advances in aphasia therapy in the last 5 years and focus primarily on properly powered, randomized, controlled trials of both behavioral therapies and interventions to augment therapy for post-stroke aphasia. These trials include evaluation of behavioral therapies and computer-delivered language therapies. We also discuss outcome …

Maternal Pragmatic Language Difficulties In The Fmr1 Premutation And The Broad Autism Phenotype: Associations With Individual And Family Outcomes, Jessica Klusek, Angela John Thurman, Leonard Abbeduto

Faculty Publications

Broader phenotypes associated with genetic liability, including mild difficulties with pragmatic language skills, have been documented in mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and mothers of children with fragile X syndrome (FXS). This study investigated the relationship between pragmatic difficulties and indicators of maternal well-being and family functioning. Pragmatic difficulty was associated with loneliness in mothers of children with ASD or FXS, and with depression, decreased life satisfaction, and poorer family relationship quality but only in mothers of children with FXS. Results suggest that subtle maternal pragmatic language difficulties are a risk factor that that may contribute to …

Response Inhibition Deficits In Women With The Fmr1 Premutation Are Associated With Age And Fall Risk, Carly Moser, Lyndsay Schmitt, Joseph Schmidt, Amanda Fairchild, Jessica Klusek

Faculty Publications

One in 113-178 females worldwide carry a premutation allele on the FMR1 gene. The FMR1 premutation is linked to neurocognitive and neuromotor impairments, although the phenotype is not fully understood, particularly with respect to age effects. This study sought to define oculomotor response inhibition skills in women with the FMR1 premutation and their association with age and fall risk. We employed an antisaccade eye-tracking paradigm to index oculomotor inhibition skills in 35 women with the FMR1 premutation and 28 control women. The FMR1 premutation group exhibited longer antisaccade latency and reduced accuracy relative to controls, indicating deficient response inhibition skills. …

The Development Of A Measure Of Orthographic Processing In The Arabic Language: A Psychometric Evaluation, Sana Tibi, Lisa Fitton, Autumn L. Mcilraith

Faculty Publications

Although Arabic is an official language in 27 countries, standardized measures to assess Arabic literacy are scarce. The purpose of this research was to examine the item functioning of an assessment of Arabic orthographic knowledge. Sixty novel items were piloted with 201 third grade Arabic-speaking students. Participants were asked to identify the correctly spelled word from a pair of two words. Although the assessment was designed to be unidimensional, competing models were tested to determine whether item performance was attributable to multidimensionality. No multidimensional structure fit the data significantly better than the unidimensional model. The 60 original items were evaluated …

Reading And Math Achievement In Children With Dyslexia, Developmental Language Disorder, Or Typical Development: Achievement Gaps Persist From Second Through Fourth Grades, Dawna Duff, Alison Eisel Hendricks, Lisa Fitton, Suzanne M. Adlof

Faculty Publications

We examined how children (n=448) who met research criteria for separate vs. co-occurring DLD and dyslexia performed on school-based measures of academic functioning in reading and math between second and fourth grades. Growth curve models were used to examine the overall form of growth and differences between groups. Children with DLD and/or dyslexia in second grade showed early and persistent deficits on school-administered measures of reading and math. In second grade, children with typical development (TD) scored significantly higher than all other groups, children with DLD+dyslexia scored significantly lower than all other groups, and children with dyslexia-only and DLD-only did …

Repeated Word Production Is Inconsistent In Both Aphasia And Apraxia Of Speech, Tyson G. Harmon, Katarina L. Haley, Kevin T. Cunningham, Adam Jacks, Jessica D. Richardson, Peter E. Turkeltaub

Faculty Publications

Purpose: There is persistent uncertainty about whether sound error consistency is a valid criterion for differentiating between apraxia of speech (AOS) and aphasia with phonemic paraphasia. The purpose of this study was to determine whether speakers with a profile of aphasia and AOS differ in error consistency from speakers with aphasia who do not have AOS. By accounting for differences in overall severity and using a sample size well over three times that of the largest study on the topic to date, our ambition was to resolve the existing controversy.

Method: We analyzed speech samples from 171 speakers …

Spoken Discourse Assessment And Analysis In Aphasia: An International Survey Of Current Practices, Tyson G. Harmon, Brielle C. Stark, Manaswita Dutta, Laura L. Murray, Davida Fromm, Lucy Bryant

Faculty Publications

Purpose

Spoken discourse analysis is commonly employed in the assessment and treatment of people living with aphasia, yet there is no standardization in assessment, analysis, or reporting procedures, thereby precluding comparison/meta-analyses of data and hindering replication of findings. An important first step is to identify current practices in collecting and analyzing spoken discourse in aphasia. Thus, this study surveyed current practices, with the goal of working toward standardizing spoken discourse assessment first in research settings with subsequent implementation into clinical settings.

Method

A mixed-methods (quantitative and qualitative) survey was publicized to researchers and clinicians around the globe who have collected …

Kinematic And Acoustic Changes To Vowels And Diphthongs In Bite Block Speech, Christopher Dromey, Michelle Richins, Tanner Low

Faculty Publications

Purpose: We examined the effect of bite block insertion (BBI) on lingual movements and formant frequencies in corner vowel and diphthong production in a sentence context. Method: Twenty young adults produced the corner vowels (/u/, /ɑ/, /æ/, /i/) and the diphthong /ɑɪ/ in sentence contexts before and after BBI. An electromagnetic articulograph measured the movements of the tongue back, middle, and front. Results: There were significant decreases in the acoustic vowel articulation index and vowel space area following BBI. The kinematic vowel articulation index decreased significantly for the back and middle of the tongue but not for the front. There …

A Longitudinal Study Of Interprofessional Education In Graduate Students From Rehabilitation Sciences, Sarah Elkington, Connie Summers, Celia Pechak, Patricia Lara, Francesca Hernandez

Faculty Publications

• Date Presented Accepted for AOTA INSPIRE 2021 but unable to be presented due to online event limitations. A longitudinal study evaluated the effects of interprofessional education (IPE) experiences on 71 rehabilitation science graduate students' perceptions of interprofessional collaboration (IPC). Physical therapy, OT, and speech-language pathology students rated their perceptions of IPC and their knowledge of other disciplines' roles across their first year of graduate school. IPE experiences are an important aspect of professional preparation. Primary Author and Speaker: Sarah Elkington Contributing Authors: Connie Summers, Celia Pechak, Patricia Lara, and Francesca Hernandez

The Effect Of Amplification On Cortical Synchrony In Children With Auditory Neuropathy Spectrum Disorder, Garrett Cardon, Anu Sharma

Faculty Publications

Objective: The benefit of hearing aids as a clinical intervention strategy for children with Auditory Neuropathy Spectrum Disorder (ANSD) remains controversial. The goal of this study was to determine whether amplification through hearing aid use increased cortical phase synchrony in children with ANSD. Design: Using inter-trial coherence (ITC) of the EEG signal as a measure of cortical phase-locking, we examined differences in cortical phase synchrony in children with ANSD using both cross-sectional and longitudinal designs. Study Sample: Participants in the cross-sectional and longitudinal portions of the study included 58 and 16 children with clinical diagnoses of ANSD, respectively. Results: Results …

A Perceptual Study Of Cross-Language Influence On Vocal Fry Use In Women Exposed To Two Languages, Todd A. Gibson, Connie Summers

Faculty Publications

Cross-linguistic influence has been observed across all domains of language. However, nothing is known about the role of cross-linguistic influence in bilingual speakers’ use of vocal fry. Several recent studies have identified an upsurge in the use of vocal fry among female speakers of American English. We sought to identify cross-linguistic influence in vocal fry use by women living in the US and exposed to both English and Spanish. Participants were categorized as functionally monolingual in English (n = 25), functionally monolingual in Spanish (n =23) and relatively balanced bilingual (n = 10) based on responses to language experience questionnaires. …

Promoting Reading Achievement In Children With Developmental Language Disorders: What Can We Learn From Research On Specific Language Impairment And Dyslexia?, Suzanne M. Adlof

Faculty Publications

Purpose Specific language impairment (SLI; see also developmental language disorder) and dyslexia are separate, yet frequently co-occurring disorders that confer risks to reading comprehension and academic achievement. Until recently, most studies of one disorder had little consideration of the other, and each disorder was addressed by different practitioners. However, understanding how the two disorders relate to each other is important for advancing theories about each disorder and improving reading comprehension and academic achievement. The purpose of this clinical focus article is to integrate research on SLI and dyslexia as well as advocate for the consideration of comorbidities in future research …

Zika Virus Infection Causes Widespread Damage To The Inner Ear, Kathleen T. Yee, Biswas Neupane, Fengwei Bai, Douglas E. Vetter

Faculty Publications

Zika virus (ZIKV) has been recently recognized as a causative agent of newborn microcephaly, as well as other neurological consequences. A less well recognized comorbidity of prenatal ZIKV infection is hearing loss, but cases of hearing impairment following adult ZIKV infection have also been recognized. Diminished hearing following prenatal ZIKV infection in a mouse model has been reported, but no cellular consequences were observed. We examined the effects of ZIKV infection on inner ear cellular integrity and expression levels of various proteins important for cochlear function in type I interferon receptor null (Ifnar1^−/−) mice following infection at …

Adapting A Picture Description Task For Grammatical Analysis In English–Spanish Bilingual Preschool Children, Vanesa Smith, Isabel Cano, Lisa Lozada, Connie Summers

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to assess the use of an adapted picture description task described by Eisenberg and Guo to explore the morphosyntactic error patterns of English–Spanish preschool simultaneous bilingual learners. Language samples were collected from 28 bilingual preschool children aged 3 to 5 years. Language samples were elicited in both English and Spanish using a series of pictures and elicitation questions/prompts. Twenty-one participants produced a language sample in only one language (16 in English and 5 in Spanish) and seven participants produced language samples in both languages. Language samples were analyzed for grammaticality and error types. There …

The Relation Between Linguistic Awareness Skills And Spelling In Adults: A Comparison Among Scoring Procedures, Victoria S. Henbest, Lisa A. Fitton Ph.D., Krystal L. Werfel, Kenn Apel

Faculty Publications

Purpose: Spelling is a skill that relies on an individual’s linguistic awareness, the ability to overtly manipulate language. The ability to accurately spell is important for academic and career success into adulthood. The spelling skills of adults have received some attention in the literature, but there is limited information regarding which approach for analyzing adults’ spelling is optimal for guiding instruction or intervention for those who struggle. Thus, we aimed to examine the concurrent validity of four different scoring methods for measuring adults’ spellings (a dichotomous scoring method and three continuous methods) and to determine whether adults’ linguistic awareness skills …

Everyday Communication Challenges In Aphasia: Descriptions Of Experiences And Coping Strategies, Tyson G. Harmon

Faculty Publications

Background: Everyday communication often occurs in situations that pose high attentional and social demands. People with aphasia have reported perceiving greater challenge communicating in these situations, but more specific information about these challenges could help clinicians and researchers work toward more meaningful intervention outcomes and increased life participation.

Aims: To explore the everyday communication experiences of people with aphasia based on their own perspectives and to identify how they report coping with everyday communication challenges.

Method: Twenty-one participants with mild or moderate aphasia completed semi-structured interviews that immediately followed the experimental arm of a larger project. Interview questions solicited descriptions …

Speech Exemplar And Evaluation Database (Seed) For Clinical Training In Articulatory Phonetics And Speech Science, Marisha Speights Atkins, Dallin J. Bailey, Suzanne E. Boyce

Faculty Publications

One challenge faced by teachers of phonetics, speech science, and clinical speech disorders courses is providing meaningful instruction that closes the theory to practice gap. One barrier to providing this type of deep learning experience is the lack of publicly available examples of speech recordings that illustrate comparisons between typical and disordered speech production across a broad range of disorder populations. Data of this type exist, but are typically collected for specific research projects under narrowly written IRB protocols that do not allow for release of even de-identified speech recordings to other investigators or teachers. As a partial corrective to …

Inhibition Deficits Are Modulated By Age And Cgg Repeat Length In Carriers Of The Fmr1 Premutation Allele Who Are Mothers Of Children With Fragile X Syndrome, Jessica Klusek, Jinkuk Hong, Audra Sterling, Elizabeth Berry-Kravis, Marsha R. Mailick

Faculty Publications

Individuals who carry a premutation (PM) allele on the FMR1 gene may experience executive limitations associated with their genetic status, including inhibition deficits. However, poor understanding of individualized risk factors has limited clinical management of this group, particularly in mothers who carry the PM allele who have children with fragile X syndrome (FXS). The present study examined CGG repeat length and age as factors that may account for variable expressivity of inhibition deficits. Participants were 134 carriers of the PM allele who were mothers of children with FXS. Inhibition skills were measured using both self-report and direct behavioral assessments. Increased …

Acquisition And Development Of Verb/Predicate Chaining In Hebrew, Ruth Aronson Berman, Lyle Lustigman

Faculty Publications

The study considers development and use of verb/predicate chaining constructions by Hebrew speakers from early childhood to adolescence, based on analysis of authentic conversational and narrative corpora. Three types of constructions are analyzed, ordered hierarchically by degree of cohesivity and obligatoriness of chaining: (1) monoclausal complex predicates (the “extended predicates” of traditional Hebrew grammars); (2) coreferential interclausal predicate chaining; and (3) discursively motivated topic chaining. Relevant typological features of Modern Hebrew are reviewed as accounting for the absence of canonical clause chaining in the language (the paucity of non-finite constructions in everyday usage, absence of an uninflected basic form of …

Age-Related Changes In Speech And Voice: Spectral And Cepstral Measures, Christopher Dromey, Sammi Taylor, Shawn L. Nissen, Kristine Tanner, Dennis Eggett, Kim Corbin-Lewis

Faculty Publications

Purpose

This study examined differences in selected acoustic measures of speech and voice according to age and sex and across families.

Method

Participants included 169 individuals, 79 men and 90 women, from 18 families, ranging in age from 17 to 87 years. Participants reported no history of articulation disorders, stroke or active neurologic disease, or severe-to-profound hearing loss. They read aloud two passages to facilitate examination of the following speech and voice acoustic parameters: fricative spectral moments (center of gravity, standard deviation, skewness, and kurtosis), the proportion of time spent speaking, mean speaking fundamental frequency, semitone standard deviation (STSD), and …

Prosodic Elements For Content Delivery In Broadcast Journalism: A Quantitative Study Of Vocal Pitch, Shawn L. Nissen, Quint B. Randle, Jared L. Johnson, Jenny Lynes

Faculty Publications

Individuals verbally express meaning not only through speech sounds and words but also prosodically through the pitch, loudness, and tempo of their voice. Through a quantitative analysis, this exploratory study examined the prosodic elements of mean pitch, pitch variability, and pitch range in a sample of 450 voice-overs and throws from 90 male and female broadcast reporters and anchors from larger markets across the United States. Findings indicate that compared to typical speakers in the general population, male broadcasters actually speak with an elevated mean pitch, more pitch variability, and use more range. However, female broadcasters were found to speak …

Cortical Neurophysiologic Correlates Of Auditory Threshold In Adults And Children With Normal Hearing And Auditory Neuropathy Spectrum Disorder, Garrett Cardon, Anu Sharma

Faculty Publications

Purpose: Auditory threshold estimation using the auditory brainstem response or auditory steady state response is limited in some populations (e.g., individuals with auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder [ANSD] or those who have difficulty remaining still during testing and cannot tolerate general anesthetic). However, cortical auditory evoked potentials (CAEPs) can be recorded in many such patients and have been employed in threshold approximation. Thus, we studied CAEP estimates of auditory thresholds in participants with normal hearing, sensorineural hearing loss, and ANSD. Method: We recorded CAEPs at varying intensity levels to speech (i.e., /ba/) and tones (i.e., 1 kHz) to estimate auditory thresholds …

Automated Phonetic Transcription Grading Tool (Aptgt), Marisha Speights Atkins, Dallin J. Bailey, Cheryl D. Seals, Guorui Li, Robertson Bassy, Yang Cao, Sicheng Li, Bennett Abigail

Faculty Publications

The Automated Phonetic Transcription Grading Tool (APTgt) is an online Learning Management System (LMS) that facilitates the comparison of phonetic transcriptions for instruction and clinical training purposes. It uses an embedded IPA graphical keyboard for transcription input. A custom edit distance algorithm aligns transcriptions in an intuitive way and then calculates differences quantitatively. This allows for objective scoring of transcriptions of even severely impaired productions, which may be difficult to score via traditional comparison methods. APTgt also includes support for comparing narrow phonetic transcriptions with diacritics. Contact the Technologies for Speech Language Pathology Research Lab at [email protected] for registration information.

Supporting Confidence And Participation For People With Aphasia Through Student Interaction: A Descriptive Study On The Effects Of An Interdisciplinary Campus Program, Tyson G. Harmon, Mei-Ling Lin, Gabrille Scronce, Adam Jacks

Faculty Publications

PURPOSE: Decreased social participation is one consequence of aphasia that can lead to poor psychological health and reduced quality of life. Involving people with aphasia in advocacy efforts may be one solution for increasing their social participation. The present study investigated the benefits of a campus program for three people with mild aphasia who were involved in educating allied health students about aphasia and training them to communicate with those who have aphasia. METHODS: Three participants with aphasia shared their stories and interacted with interdisciplinary students in two seminar sessions aimed at educating students about aphasia and helping them learn …

If We Don’T Look, We Won’T See: Measuring Language Development To Inform Literacy Instruction, Suzanne M. Adlof, Tiffany P. Hogan

Faculty Publications

Oral language abilities enable children to learn to read, and they predict future academic achievement and life outcomes. However, children with language impairment frequently go unidentified because schools do not systematically measure oral language development. Given that identification paves the way for treatment, schools should increase attention to oral language development, particularly within response to intervention (RTI) frameworks, which aim to prevent learning disabilities by identifying and intervening at early stages. Formal schooling should address language comprehension (in addition to word reading) to ensure an adequate foundation for future reading comprehension. In support, we overview the developmental relations between oral …