Different Error Patterns Of /L/ In Children And Speech-Language Pathologists' Perception And Treatment, Grace E. Lemoine

LSU Master's Theses

Children often simplify target speech sounds using phonological processes, or common developmental error patterns. However, some children produce less common error patterns that differ from common errors. In the current study, less common errors involving /l/ sounds were studied as the phoneme /l/ is a sound that is subject to frequent misarticulations in young children and perceptual confusion among listeners. The current study focused on less common errors because studies have suggested that atypical errors can indicate weak phonological representations and poor phonological awareness skills, which can have long-term effects on children’s literacy skills. Therefore, the aim of the current …

Language Beliefs And Practices Of Caregivers In The Deep South, Maria Maldonado

LSU Master's Theses

The 30 million word gap refers to the disparity in early language exposure between low socioeconomic status (SES) children and their higher SES peers; a gap that is thought to negatively impact children’s language development and future academic success. Although many early intervention approaches have proven effective in promoting language development among low SES children, they often fall short in terms of cultural responsiveness, which in turn affects caregiver buy-in. Culturally and linguistically diverse children disproportionately live in poverty, as such there is a need for research to inform more responsive interventions that take a strengths- based approach and build …

Exploring The Interactive, Linguistic, And Conceptual Dimensions Of Parent Input And Their Role In Children's Pragmatic Development, Nickolas T. Day

LSU Master's Theses

The development of children’s pragmatic language, which can be defined as conversational competence in social contexts, has been attributed to variation in the language they hear in their environment. When studying the impact language input has on pragmatic development, it is important for clinicians and linguists to measure both the quantity and quality of this language input. Measures of quality, however, are much more relevant when studying the development of pragmatic language, as discussed in Zhang (2020) and Hirsh-Pasek et al. (2015). Rowe and Snow (2016) discussed three dimensions of language quality: interactive, linguistic and conceptual. There is a current …

Identifying Key Language Research Priorities In Autistic Children According To Parents, Taylor Hale

LSU Master's Theses

The lack of involvement of the autistic community and its stakeholders in autism research has led to a call to action. At present, autism researchers have limited knowledge about stakeholders’ priorities for research. The current study aimed to bridge the disconnect between the extant autism research and the recent neurodiversity movement by surveying key stakeholders – parents of autistic children – on their perspectives on autism research that focuses on language. Twenty-six parents of autistic children completed an online survey on their views on autism language research with an option to participate in a follow-up interview. Six parents participated in …

The Effect Of Word-Learning Biases On Early Vocabulary Acquisition In Young Children On The Autism Spectrum, Claire C. Bourgeois

LSU Master's Theses

Background: Vocabulary composition and word-learning biases are closely interrelated in typical development. Such word-learning biases are influenced by perceptually and conceptually salient word features, including imageability, concreteness, iconicity, and attention to shape. Autistic children often have delayed language acquisition, but there is currently little research examining the underlying mechanisms autistic children use to acquire words. The current study aimed to examine the noun composition of autistic children across a range of vocabulary sizes by examining associations between expressive noun vocabulary size and imageability, iconicity, concreteness and evidence for the shape bias, and to examine whether these patterns differ from their …

Implicit Bias In Speech-Language Pathology Students, Skyller Castello

LSU Master's Theses

Implicit racial biases have been documented across a variety of allied health professions. A systematic review conducted by FitzGerald and Hurst (2017) of implicit bias in healthcare professionals found that 20 out of 25 studies examined displayed bias against BIPOC in diagnosis, treatment recommendations, and other aspects of the medical care they received. A literature review completed by Hall et al. (2015) found similar results, stating that 9 of the 15 studies examined identified bias against Black clients. One allied healthcare profession, speech-language pathology, interacts with a diverse clientele in a clinical environment and yet have been excluded from much …

Characteristics And Causal Factors For The Receptive-Expressive Gap In Typically Developed Spanish-English Adult Bilinguals, Rachael Janelle Javaherian

LSU Master's Theses

A receptive-expressive language gap occurs when a standardized receptive score is statistically greater than an expressive score in either a primary or a second language. In bilingual children, gap studies already exist for determining language impairment. In adults, there are few studies; nevertheless, one needs to distinguish between typical language patterns of bilingualism due to non-pathological loss of L1 skills versus problems resulting from accidents, disease, or age. To this end, the present study attempted to expand findings of studies by Gibson et al. (2012 and 2014) that focused on analysis of the gap and possible factors influencing its existence …

Characterizing Receptive Vocabulary Knowledge In Minimally Verbal Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Allison Menting

LSU Master's Theses

Background: Delayed or impaired language skills are common characteristics of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Currently, there is little research examining the receptive language profile in children with ASD, and even less is known about children with ASD who are minimally verbal. The current study aimed to characterize the receptive vocabulary profile of minimally verbal children with ASD and to examine whether this profile differs from their typically developing peers. Methods: Participants included 31 minimally verbal children with ASD, aged 60-118 months, who were reported to produce between 0-10 words, 124 typical developing toddlers, aged 9-14 months, who were …

Voice Therapy: Racial Disparities In Adherence And Clinically Significant Outcomes, Amber D. Burks

LSU Master's Theses

Voice therapy is evidence-based, behavioral intervention that can reduce functional and organic voice disorders. Despite its proven effectiveness, non-adherence to voice therapy is still an issue. Research shows that an estimated 65% of patients who initiate voice therapy drop out before reaching therapeutic goals. Voice therapy outcomes are largely dependent on patients’ adherence to treatment regimens, but there is limited information concerning factors that may be associated with voice therapy adherence and therapeutic outcomes for patients who successfully complete voice therapy.

The purpose of this study was to investigate which demographic factors could be associated with higher adherence rates to …

Brown's Stages Of Morphosyntactic Development Applied To The Typical Development Of Italian, Marie Laiche

LSU Master's Theses

Background: In A First Language (1973), Roger Brown called for an increase in crosslinguistic data and analysis of morphosyntax across languages as more research in this field is crucial for working out the overarching determinants of language acquisition order and for the ability to accurately compare child language acquisition across different languages. An increase in this research would benefit linguistic researchers and speech-language-pathologists offering services to or evaluating children speaking a different language or more than one language. The current study seeks to add to the field of crosslinguistic research by adapting Brown’s guidelines of English language acquisition to the …

Acoustic Changes During Passage Reading In Speakers With Parkinson's Disease, Kimberly C. Grubbs

LSU Master's Theses

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate speech changes in Parkinson’s disease (PD) while reading a passage, using both local (i.e., segment level) and global (i.e., utterance level) acoustic measures.

Methods: 20 speakers participated in the study (10 PD, 10 neurologically healthy controls). The speakers were asked to read The Caterpillar passage in a conversational mode. A total of five acoustic measures were included (local: vowel duration, Euclidean distance between corner vowels and schwa; global: articulation rate, F0/intensity range). These acoustic measures were compared between two sentences located in the two positions within the paragraph, initial and final. …

The Relationship Between The Development Of Communicative Functions In Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders, Isabelle Bankston

LSU Master's Theses

In regard to the assessment of language, it is difficult to determine exact communicative functions that are exhibited early in development that could indicate a prognostic value of verbal abilities and outcomes of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The Verbal Behavioral Milestones Assessment and Placement Program (VB-MAPP, Sundberg, 2008) is frequently used in Applied Behavior Analysis for standard assessment procedures to measure development over time. The current study was designed to use the VB-MAPP to determine a relationship between certain communicative functions (i.e., mand, tact, listener responding, echoic, and intraverbal) that may suggest a correlation in growth in each …

The Relationship Between Working Memory, Procedural Learning, And Declarative Memory In Children With Specific Language Impairment, Allison Grace Herring

LSU Master's Theses

Background: Children with specific language impairment (SLI) have recently been suggested to have subclinical deficits in executive function skills. The current study seeks to better understand these deficits by exploring the role of nonverbal working memory in word learning and statistical learning in this population. Method: Participants included typically developing children along with children with SLI ranging from ages 8-12 years old. Word learning was assessed using a fast-mapping task, statistical learning was measured using a word-segmentation task, and nonverbal working memory was measured using an N-back task. Results: A significant difference was found between children’s segmentation accuracy scores. …

Acoustic Characteristics Of Word-Final American English Liquids Produced By L2 Adult Speakers, Judith A. Espinal

LSU Master's Theses

In this study, the acoustic differences between native English speakers’ (L1) and native-Korean speakers’ (L2) production of American English liquids /ɹ/, /l/ and /ɹl/ were examined among 14 Korean speakers and 13 English speakers. Temporal measures included (1) relative timing of maximum constriction and (2) duration of vocalic nuclei. Spectral measures included (1) Euclidean distance between /ɹ/ and /l/ and (2) frequency difference between F2 and F3. The results indicated a significant interaction between speaker group and phonetic stimuli. That is, L2 speakers produced a similar degree of constriction across semivowels, whereas L1 speakers produced varying degrees of F2-F3 constrictions …

Research To Practice- Implementing Sign-Infused Intervention As A Novice Clinician, Loren Stoller

LSU Master's Theses

Speech-Language Pathologists often infuse manual signs into oral language interventions for children with various communication disorders. The current study was designed to learn more about sign-infused language intervention by examining one novice clinician’s use of signs during oral language intervention with a child diagnosed as a late talker. The researcher was the clinician, and while a novice interventionist, she was proficient in American Sign Language (ASL) and had five years of experience using ASL with others. The child was 26 months of age at the start of the study, and data collection included three pre-intervention sessions, 12 intervention sessions, and …

Picture Cued And Speech Production Cued Approaches For Speech Sound Learning, Michelyve C. Petit

LSU Master's Theses

This study examined the use of speech production cued cards, MorphoPhonic faces (MPF), and plain picture (PP) cards when seeking to remediate speech sound errors, specifically sounds / ɹ / and / s / in the word initial position. Fourteen children were provided articulation therapy at their public school using both stimulus types across four weeks. Each week, the total number of correct productions of target phoneme / s / and /ɹ/ were recorded and averaged. These results were used to graphically showcase trends in their performance with both stimulus types. The results demonstrated that MPF cards were advantageous for …

Item Comparison Of Two Language Assessments In Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Christina M. Hensgens

LSU Master's Theses

The language skills of children with ASD vary across the population and prove challenging to assess for many reasons. The current study was designed to compare two language assessments for children with ASD to gain understanding in determining the best method for assessment. The Preschool Language Scale-5 (PLS-5) is a standardized language assessment commonly used in the field of Speech-Language Pathology, while the Verbal Behavioral Milestones Assessment and Placement Program (VB-MAPP) is commonly used in Applied Behavior Analysis. Scores from children with ASD (N=17) on a total of 64 functionally equivalent items from both assessments were analyzed to determine the …

Acoustic Characteristics Of Vowels Produced By Young Children From The New Orleans Area, Rebecca E. Dorsa

LSU Master's Theses

Understanding dialects and their effects on speech and language is integral to the field of speech-language pathology, as dialectal differences could potentially be misdiagnosed as speech or language disorders if these factors are not well-considered. The number and organization of the vowel system of one regional dialect of American English differs from those of another regional dialects. Therefore, understanding the effect of dialect on vowel productions in children can aid in the accurate evaluation of children from various dialectal backgrounds. The aims of the proposed study were to 1) determine the age at which young children develop acoustic markers of …

Relationship Between Subject Pronoun And Verb Finite Marking In Aae-Speaking Children, Emily C. Sossaman

LSU Master's Theses

Children learning General American English (GAE) show a relationship between their case marking of subject pronouns and their marking of finite verbs, and this relationship has been found for children with specific language impairment (SLI) and typically developing controls (TD). The relationship between children’s case marking of subject pronouns and finite verb marking has not been examined in children who speak dialects of English that differ from GAE. The purpose of the current study was to examine this relationship in children learning African American English (AAE) as this dialect differs from GAE. The data came from an archival dataset of …

Use Of Video-Models To Teach Language Stimulation Techniques, Jason Killian

LSU Master's Theses

The current study was designed to assess the feasibility of creating videos depicting Enhanced Milieu Teaching (EMT) support strategies and presenting them to graduate students in a communication sciences and disorders program, and whether differences in accuracy existed between first- and second-year graduate students. EMT support strategies were chosen due to the previous successes found within the literature. Twelve videos were presented to ten graduate students. Each participant response was analyzed for accuracy and overall responses were compiled to create overall video clarity.

Results showed that the Communication Temptation EMT support strategy videos achieved the highest levels of clarity, while …

Early Speech Deterioration In Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: A Case Study Of Newscaster Donna Britt, Emily Watkins

LSU Master's Theses

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this study is to detect and track speech changes using acoustic and perceptual measures in an individual (a local newscaster) with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) using data from before her diagnosis, around the time of her diagnosis, and after her diagnosis.

Methods: Six time points, ranging from 37 months around her diagnosis, were analyzed from one speaker with ALS. Three acoustic parameters were measured: articulation rate, acoustic vowel space, and the slope of the second formant. Additionally, two experts with more than 10 years of experience perceptually analyzed the speech samples on 17 characteristics using …

The Impact Of Task-Specific Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (Tdcs) On Sustained Attention In A Healthy Population, Kasi Dawn Steele

LSU Master's Theses

ABSTRACT

Objective: To examine the impact of task-specific anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) administered over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (L-DLPFC) on sustained attention in healthy participants.

Methods: This study examined the effects of task-training and tDCS over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex on sustained attention. Participants (n=13) completed four sessions consisting of either true-stimulation (2 mA for 10 minutes) or sham-stimulation (2 mA for 30 sec) in counterbalanced order. Participants completed one session every 7 to 10 days and were randomly assigned to one of two task-specific conditions in counterbalanced order. All sessions consisted of a 10-minute Go/No-Go …

Articulatory Kinematics During Stop Closure In Speakers With Parkinson’S Disease, Austin Ross Thompson

LSU Master's Theses

Purpose: The goal of this exploratory study was (a) to investigate the differences in articulatory movements during the closure phase of bilabial stop consonants with respect to distance, displacement, and timing of motion between individuals with Parkinson’s Disease (PD) and healthy controls; and (b) to investigate changes in articulatory movements of speakers with PD when they voluntarily vary the degree of speech intelligibility.

Methods: Six participants, 4 PD and 2 healthy control (HC) speakers, participated in this study. The stimulus was a sentence containing several bilabial stop consonants (i.e., “Buy Bobby a puppy”). Movement data were collected using …

A Comparison Of Pass Rates Across Three Language Screeners For Spanish-English Bilingual Children, Mariajose Bosanko

LSU Master's Theses

There is limited research regarding the efficacy of the language screening process, especially for bilingual populations. The purpose of this study was to examine the pass rates of three language screeners when administered to Spanish-English bilingual and ELL children. A total of ten Spanish-English bilingual children enrolled in either Pre-K, kindergarten, or first grade completed each screener. The screeners were: the Preschool Language Scales Spanish Screening Test-Fifth Edition (PLSSST-5; Zimmerman et al., 2012a), the Bilingual English Spanish Oral Screener (BESOS; currently in development; Lugo-Neris et al., n.d.), and the Diagnostic Evaluation of Language Variation-Screening Test (DELV-S; Seymour et al., 2003). …

Pronoun Marking In African American English-Speaking Children With And Without Specific Language Impairment, Gayatri Ramamoorthy Brown

LSU Master's Theses

The present study was designed to describe and quantify patterns of pronoun use by African American English (AAE)-speaking children with specific language impairment (SLI) relative to their AAE-speaking typically developing (TD) peers. Pronouns were of interest because: they are produced frequently in everyday speech, they are often targeted when a child’s language abilities are evaluated by a speech-language pathologist, and limited pronoun data exists for AAE-speaking children. The data were language samples that had been elicited from 96 children (35 SLI, 61 TD) enrolled in kindergarten. The samples were searched for 11 different pronoun forms, and these were coded as …

Medication Use In Adults Who Stutter, Hailey Renee Guillot

LSU Master's Theses

Previous studies have associated stuttering with increased levels of self-stigma. Prior research has shown that high levels of self-stigma may relate to increased medication usage. Therefore, in the present study, the authors sought to determine an association between levels of self-stigma and medication usage among adults who stutter. Results suggest that although there is not a significant difference for lifetime medication use between AWS versus AWNS, the self-imposed stigma by AWS could predict the likelihood of medication use. Findings provide insight into additional pharmacological factors to consider during clinical intervention, and highlight the importance of stigmatized beliefs when addressing the …

Treating Attention Deficits In Individuals With Parkinson's Disease, Mora Johanna Mahoney

LSU Master's Theses

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the presence and degree of treatment effects found for direct attention training on three individuals with idiopathic Parkinson’s disease (PD) using the Attention Process Training, Third Edition (APT-III; Sohlberg & Mateer, 2010). APT-III was designed for use with individuals who have sustained a traumatic brain injury (TBI), and was selected for this study because of the similarities in cognitive deficits between those with TBI and those with PD. Methods: This study was designed as a phase 2, randomized baseline, A1-B-A2-A3 (baseline, treatment, post-treatment, and follow-up assessment), single-subject experimental design. The study …

Phonological Encoding Of Medial Vowels In Adults Who Stutter, Allison Elizabeth Jacobs

LSU Master's Theses

Previous data suggest the metrical properties of a word may influence the time course of phonological encoding, particularly in adults who stutter. The purpose of the present study is to examine phonological and metrical encoding skills in fluent and non-fluent adults, in particular the medial stress-bearing vowel. Investigators used a silent phoneme monitoring paradigm to assess reaction times for all phonemes within nonword CVCCVC stimuli. This paradigm required participants to manually identify target phonemes within a nonword to further isolate the level of phonological encoding from other processes. Eight participants were exposed to stimuli with initial-stress, and eight participants were …

Reliability Of Auditory-Perceptual Ratings Of Dysarthric Speech: Hypokinetic Dysarthria Secondary To Parkinson's Disease, Jessica Lynn Miller

LSU Master's Theses

Perceptual judgment has been the gold standard in clinical practice, especially regarding differential diagnosis and treatment of dysarthria. Thus, it is critical to establish the reliability of perceptual ratings of the speech characteristics associated with different types of dysarthria. Despite its importance, the reliability and sensitivity of perceptual ratings of speech disturbance have been somewhat questioned. The purpose of this study was to examine the interrater reliability of ratings of perceptual characteristics and the saliency of these characteristics as related to hypokinetic dysarthria. Due to the feasibility issue, the scope of the study was limited to hypokinetic dysarthria associated with …

Investigating The Effect Of Photographic Representations On Scores Of The Stroke And Aphasia Quality Of Life Scale-39 For People With Moderate To Severe Aphasia, Samantha Studrawa

LSU Master's Theses

Background: The Stroke and Aphasia Quality of Life-39 (SAQOL-39) is a valid and reliable measure of quality of life (QOL) for stroke survivors and people with mild-to-moderate aphasia However, it could not be validated for people with severe aphasia due to their language deficits. Research has shown that combining pictures with written text can support communication effectiveness of people with aphasia. Combining language modalities in this way is a form of alternative or augmentative communication (AAC). The use of AAC has been explored as a possibility to improve communication for people with severe aphasia (Dietz, McKelvey & Beukelman, 2006). Aim: …