Communication Sciences and Disorders Commons^™

Cajun English: A Study Of Monophthongization, Leigh Ann Fontenot

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Phonological Awareness Training In A Preschool Classroom Of Typically Developing Children., Sara Phelps

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the present study was to assess the effectiveness of phonological awareness (PA) training with typically developing preschool children in a classroom setting. The PA training incorporated a range of PA skills and the training outcomes were assessed along a broad spectrum of PA abilities, pre-literacy skills, and general language abilities.

This study consisted of 21 children (11 Experimental, 10 Control). The classroom PA training program was conducted with the Experimental class in one large group for 5 weeks with 20 minute sessions conducted three times a week. A variety of fun, play-based PA activities were used with …

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 …

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 …

Articulation Testing In Hindi Speech, Vinita J. Rajah

Honors Theses

The profession or speech-language pathology deals with one of the most basic functions or humanity--communication. Speech-language pathologists are trained to provide remedial services to children and adults with communication disorders in a wide variety of work settings.

Communication disorders can be broadly divided into five categories: voice disorders, fluency disorders, dysphagia, language disorders, and articulation disorders.

Before a speech-language pathologist begins speech therapy. it is necessary to perform an evaluation. Evaluation refers to the processes used to determine a diagnosis. There arc two main reasons [or performing evaluation tasks. First. we need to evaluate to arrive at a good understanding …

Alternative Language Sample Analyses For The Assessment Of Low-Income African American Children, Christy Gayle Wynn

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine the clinical utility of three language sample analyses when working with low-income, African American (AA) children. Eighteen normally developing and three at-risk AA three-year-old preschoolers participated in the study. Language samples were elicited from each child during a 15-20 minute play interaction. Three language sample analyses, contrastive analysis, average sentence length, and complex syntax use, were completed on each language sample. Also coded was each child’s use of nonmainstream African American English (AAE) patterns. Only the contrastive analysis generated reliable differences between the at-risk children and the normally developing children. Other group …

A Comparative Study Of Two Treatment Approaches For Improving Middle School Students' Reading Comprehension, Vessa Annette Cartmill

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine the efficacy of having material read to and discussed with learning disabled students (i.e., a compensatory approach termed Accommodated Reading in this study) compared to teaching the literate language of text structures to students (i.e., a language intervention approach termed Communicative Reading Strategies). Participants were two 5th grade students and three 6th grade students, classified as learning disabled according to criteria of the State of Louisiana. Students took part in the study 3 times per week, 40 minutes per day for 5 ½ weeks during their regular speech-language therapy time. After each …

The Effects Of Expansion On Objective And Subjective Benefit In Hearing-Impaired Listeners, Ashley B. Hill

LSU Master's Theses

The present research involves two studies. Twenty hearing-impaired participants were divided into two groups depending on their audiometric data and binaurally fit with the Starkey Endeavour 3211 hearing instruments. Experiment I was designed to determine if the use of expansion technology affected objective and subjective benefit in hearing-impaired listeners. Probe microphone measures were obtained at 40, 50, and 60 dB SPL and with the speaker deactivated to ensure that the expansion feature was functioning. Listener performance was measured in quite using the Connected Speech Test (CST) and in noise using the Hearing in Noise Test (HINT) at 40, 50, and …

High Frequency Pure Tone Audiometry And High Frequency Distortion Product Otoacoustic Emissions: A Correlational Analysis, Kimberly J. Lavoie

Dissertations and Theses

Previous studies show that pure tone thresholds are strongly correlated with distortion product otoacoustic emission amplitudes when evaluating the frequency range from 1 to 8 kHz (Avan & Bonfils, 1993). Little is known about correlations between these two measures at higher frequencies from 9-16 kHz. This study compared pure tone thresholds and distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs) in this high frequency range for 29 normal hearing subjects ages 18-30. Pure tone thresholds were obtained at 250-16 kHz and distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAE) 2,211-17,675 were measured in the same ears. DPOAE amplitudes were measured using a constant F1/F2 ratio of …

The Effect Of High Frequency Amplification On Subjective And Objective Benefit With Digital Hearing Instruments, Erica Lynn Fleck

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of the present study was to determine whether amplifying beyond 3 kHz was beneficial to the user, whether the benefit was dependent on degree of loss, and whether subjective data reflected the benefit. Seventeen hearing impaired subjects were binaurally fitted with digital hearing instruments. Qualified subjects were divided into two groups, A and B. Group A had a pure tone average (3,4, and 6 kHz), of 55 dBHL or better. Group B had a pure tone average (3,4, and 6 kHz) greater than 55 dBHL but not exceeding 75 dBHL. Each subject was fit with two conditions (upward …

Automated Grammatical Tagging Of Language Samples From Children With And Without Language Impairment, Deborah Millet

Theses and Dissertations

Grammatical classification ("tagging") of words in language samples is a component of syntactic analysis for both clinical and research purposes. Previous studies have shown that probability-based software can be used to tag samples from adults and typically-developing children with high (about 95%) accuracy. The present study found that similar accuracy can be obtained in tagging samples from school-aged children with and without language impairment if the software uses tri-gram rather than bi-gram probabilities and large corpora are used to obtain probability information to train the tagging software.

Individual Phonological Awareness Training For Speech/Language Impaired First Graders, Sarah Weaver

Masters Theses

The purpose of the present study is to determine the effects of individual phonological awareness and phonics training emphasizing auditory, motoric, and alphabetic properties of phonemes with 3 children who did not make substantial gains following classroom phonological awareness intervention. Subjects were enrolled in the first grade and exhibited speech and/or language impairments. The individual phonological awareness program contained 3 parts: (1) phonological awareness, (2) phoneme-grapheme correspondence, and (3) decoding and spelling and employed a single subject multiple probe baseline across behaviors design. Results indicated that individual treatment was successful for teaching phonological awareness, phoneme-grapheme correspondence, and decoding and spelling. …