Communication Sciences and Disorders Commons^™

A Portfolio Of Experiences In Communications Sciences And Disorders, Dakota Michael Sharp

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

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Quality Of Life Indices In Brain Injury: A Pilot Investigation, Lauren Kristine Maher

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

This IRB approved study explores the scope of acquired brain injury (ABI) as it affects an individual’s perceived quality of life and how measurement informs clinical decisions. Quality of life is an important consideration for persons with ABI, since research indicates acquired brain injury can lead to personality changes such as depression, anxiety, and aggression not previously exhibited (Greve et al., 2001). When treating persons with ABI, healthcare professionals must be able to reliably measure and track their client’s perceived quality of life. This pilot study included 35 clients receiving community-based intervention at Crossroads to Brain Injury Recovery, Inc. (Crossroads) …

The Effects Of Narrative Elicitation Task On The Verb Morphological Patterns Of Younger Adolescents With And Without Specific Language Impairment, Megan T. Taliaferro

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Specific language impairment (SLI) is one of the most commonly occurring communication disorders (Castrogiovanni (2008)). SLI is an impairment in the language of children, adolescents and adults who show no other impairment such as mental, emotional or physical problems. Individuals with SLI demonstrate normal intelligence as shown by nonverbal Intelligence Quotient (IQ) scores; however, their language skills appear to be worse than their normally achieving (NA) peers. There has been an issue in identifying individuals with SLI. One factor contributing to the identification issues of SLI is the lack of a clinical marker. Although no clinical marker currently …

Does Vestibular Sensory Stimulation, In The Form Of Slow, Linear Swinging, Change The Modes Of Communication Among Children With Autism?, Katherine A. Gallaher

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

The purpose of this study was to determine if children with autism receiving vestibular sensory stimulation (VSS) in the form of slow, linear swinging, had any change or progression in their modes of communication when compared to children with autism who received a free-play period (nVSS) during speech-language (SL) therapy. Over the course of therapy, each child’s response mode was recorded as a gesture, vocalization, gesture + vocalization, or an utterance, and each mode was a dependent variable (DV) in this study. Participants who received VSS treatment were expected to have a greater improvement on the progression of modes, such …

Pre-Pulse Inhibition Assessment Of Sound Localization In Mice, Kathryn C. Brooks

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

The purpose of my Honors Research Project was to assist Dr. Megan

Klingenberg in completing part of the research in her final dissertation project. Dr.

Klingenberg’s project was based off of a study done by Allen and Ison in 2010.

This study tested the auditory spatial acuity of mice using pre-pulse inhibition of

the startle reflex as the response for detecting the sound stimulus. The goal of

Dr. Klingenberg’s AuD project was “to explore the methodological, functional, and

genetic influences on sound localization using pre-pulse inhibition of the acoustic

startle response in mice”. Dr. Klingenberg’s project was broken into three …

Mouth Asymmetries During Infant Babbling: A Brain Lateralization Study, Cecilia Breazile

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Although babbling is both prevalent and important in the process of language development, it could be argued that we still do not understand the basic nature of babbling. To further our understanding of the nature of babbling we attempted to find evidence for brain lateralization typical of adult speech acts during early babbling. This study examined infant mouth asymmetries during babbling sequences in search of evidence that babbling is an inherently linguistic act as indicated by the lateralization of the brain. Previously recorded videos of 12 infants, all 9 months of age, were examined, 29 images were captured, and a …

Evidence-Based Practices In Selecting Standardized Assessments Of Child Language, Darielle Cooper

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

From the results of a survey given to 1,399 speech-language pathologists, 11 frequently used language assessment tools for preschool and school age children were selected to undergo a systematic review. The examiner’s manual of each assessment was examined to determine whether the test reported adequate psychometric properties and acceptable levels of diagnostic accuracy. Results indicated that all reviewed assessments met at least 60% of McCauley and Swisher’s (1984) psychometric criteria for evaluating norm-referenced tests. Six of the 11 assessments provided information on diagnostic accuracy in the examiner’s manual or in the literature. Four tests published acceptable levels of diagnostic accuracy, …