Communication Sciences and Disorders Commons^™

The Status Of Neonatal Hearing Screening In Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review, David Engelman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Late identification of hearing loss can lead to speech and language delays, as well as social and academic difficulties. Neonatal hearing screening has reduced the age of identification of hearing loss in many developed countries. However, the practice is limited or non-existent in much of the developing world, such as sub-Saharan Africa. This systematic review used currently available literature to determine the status of neonatal hearing screening programs in sub-Saharan Africa and to develop a model program for the region. Results suggested a lack of neonatal hearing screening services in sub-Saharan Africa, stressing the need for more pilot hearing screening …

Current Steering And Electrode Spanning With Partial Tripolar Stimulation Mode In Cochlear Implants, Ching-Chih Wu

Open Access Dissertations

Cochlear implants (CIs) partially restore hearing sensation to profoundly deaf people by electrically stimulating the surviving auditory neurons. However, CI users perform poorly in challenging listening tasks such as speech recognition in noise and Cochlear implants (CIs) partially restore hearing sensation to profoundly deaf people by electrically stimulating the surviving auditory neurons. However, CI users perform poorly in challenging listening tasks such as speech recognition in noise and music perception, possibly due to the small number of implanted electrodes and the large current spread of electric stimulation. Although current spread may be reduced using partial tripolar (pTP) stimulation mode, the …

September 10, 2014, Communication Disorders & Sciences

Faculty Meeting Minutes & Agendas

Meeting minutes of the September 10, 2014 Faculty Committee meeting.

Autonomic Nervous System Activity Of Preschool-Age Children Who Stutter., Victoria Tumanova, Robin M. Jones, Anthony P. Buhr, Edward G. Conture, Tedra A. Walden, Stephen W. Porges

Communication Sciences and Disorders - All Scholarship

Purpose—The purpose of this study was to investigate potential differences in autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity to emotional stimuli between preschool-age children who do (CWS) and do not stutter (CWNS).

Methods—Participants were 20 preschool-age CWS (15 male) and 21 preschool-age CWNS (11 male). Participants were exposed to two emotion-inducing video clips (negative and positive) with neutral clips used to establish pre-and post-arousal baselines, and followed by age-appropriate speaking tasks. Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) – often used as an index of parasympathetic activity – and skin conductance level (SCL) – often used as an index of sympathetic activity – were measured …

Across-Speaker Articulatory Normalization For Speaker-Independent Silent Speech Recognition, Jun Wang, Ashok Samal, Jordan Green

School of Computing: Conference and Workshop Papers

Silent speech interfaces (SSIs), which recognize speech from articulatory information (i.e., without using audio information), have the potential to enable persons with laryngectomy or a neurological disease to produce synthesized speech with a natural sounding voice using their tongue and lips. Current approaches to SSIs have largely relied on speaker-dependent recognition models to minimize the negative effects of talker variation on recognition accuracy. Speaker-independent approaches are needed to reduce the large amount of training data required from each user; only limited articulatory samples are often available for persons with moderate to severe speech impairments, due to the logistic difficulty of …

Consonant Context Effects On Vowel Sensorimotor Adaptation, Jeffrey J. Berry, John Jaeger Iv, Melissa Wiedenhoeft, Brittany A. Bernal, Michael T. Johnson

Speech Pathology and Audiology Faculty Research and Publications

Speech sensorimotor adaptation is the short-term learning of modified articulator movements evoked through sensory-feedback perturbations. A common experimental method manipulates acoustic parameters, such as formant frequencies, using real time resynthesis of the participant's speech to perturb auditory feedback. While some studies have examined phrases comprised of vowels, diphthongs, and semivowels, the bulk of research on auditory feedback-driven sensorimotor adaptation has focused on vowels in neutral contexts (/hVd/). The current study investigates coarticulatory influences of adjacent consonants on sensorimotor adaptation. The purpose is to evaluate differences in the adaptation effects for vowels in consonant environments that vary by place and manner …

Palate-Referenced Articulatory Features For Acoustic-To-Articulator Inversion, An Ji, Michael T. Johnson, Jeffrey J. Berry

Speech Pathology and Audiology Faculty Research and Publications

The selection of effective articulatory features is an important component of tasks such as acoustic-to-articulator inversion and articulatory synthesis. Although it is common to use direct articulatory sensor measurements as feature variables, this approach fails to incorporate important physiological information such as palate height and shape and thus is not as representative of vocal tract cross section as desired. We introduce a set of articulator feature variables that are palate referenced and normalized with respect to the articulatory working space in order to improve the quality of the vocal tract representation. These features include normalized horizontal positions plus the normalized …

Quantifying Voice Change After Hydration Treatment In Primary Sjögren’S Syndrome Using The Cepstral Spectral Index Of Dysphonia (Csid), Alison Miner

Theses and Dissertations

Primary Sjögren's Syndrome (SS) is an autoimmune disease that causes dehydration of the eyes, mouth, and throat. Individuals with Primary SS are at risk for voice problems associated with vocal fold dehydration. Topical hydration treatments show promise in reducing the negative effects of vocal fold dehydration on voice production. However, no studies have examined the preventive effects of topical hydration treatments on voice production in individuals at risk for vocal fold dehydration. The purpose of this study was to quantify the effects of a topical vocal fold hydration treatment on voice production in individuals with Primary SS using the Cepstral …

Production Of Complex/Compounds Sentences In The Spontaneous Speech Of Typically Developing Children And Children With Williams Syndrome, Maureen Boyle

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

Literature claims individuals with Williams syndrome (WS), a rare congenital genetic mental retardation syndrome, easily engage in conversation and demonstrate unique and advanced linguistic skills compared to typically developing peers (TDP). These claims are supported by limited empirical evidence, however. One method of judging advanced linguistic skills is to compare the production of complex/compound sentences of children with WS and their TDP. The purpose of the study was to determine whether children with WS use more complex/compound sentences than children who are typically developing. Twelve subjects participated in the study. Six subjects with WS (SWS), mean age 15, and 6 …

The Use Of Paralinguistics In Spontaneous Speech Of Children With Williams Syndrome And Typically Development Children, Kelly Ritter, Evan Panitzke, Emily Kruse

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

This project investigated selected aspects of paralinguistics in spontaneous speech of speakers with Williams syndrome. Speakers with Williams syndrome “are noted for their well developed vocabulary, relatively complex and syntactically correct sentences, and their ability to spin a good tale. In contrast, their reasoning usually remains at a pre-operational or preschool level, and they typically have difficulty grasping cause-effect relations” (Semel & Rosner, 2003, p. 5). This research focused on an area of communication called paralinguistics which involved the use of nonspeech sounds for communication. Specifically, we looked at the frequency of laughing and sound effects produced during conversation. Ten …

Effects Of Language Predictability And Speech Rate On Speech Entrainment Performance In Healthy Individuals, Honey Isabel Hubbard

Theses and Dissertations

Speech entrainment, a paradigm in which a participant shadows the speech of an audiovisual model in real time, has been show to benefit individuals with non-fluent aphasia. A study examining the effects of language predictability and speech rate was conducted to understand factors that influence speech entrainment performance.

A recent study by Fridriksson and colleagues (2012) demonstrated that training with speech entrainment significantly increased the number of words participants with non-fluent aphasia were able to produce. Perhaps even more remarkably, these effects showed generalization. As a result, speech entrainment could be used to rehabilitate speech impairment in stroke. However, there …

Accuracy Of /T/ Productions In Children With Cochlear Implants As Compared To Normal-Hearing, Articulation Age-Matched Peers, Terry Gier

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Children who receive cochlear implants (CIs) demonstrate considerable variability in speech sound production. Investigations focused on speech sound development in children with CIs have shown initial accelerated growth, followed by a plateau where consonant order of acquisition generally mirrors that of NH children, but is slower (Blamey, Barry, & Pascale, 2001; Serry & Blamey, 1999; Spencer & Guo, 2013). A notable exception to this pattern, /t/, has been shown to be acquired later-than normal in several investigations (Blamey et al., 2001; Chin, 2003; Ertmer, True Kloiber, Jongmin, Connell Kirleis, & Bradford, 2012). The primary purpose of this investigation was to …

Reliability Of Two Alternative Methods For The Standard Mid-Thigh Isometric Pull, Duane A. Williams, Courtney D. Hall, Patsy Cantor, Jennifer Williams, N. Brown, Ryan Dulling, Ogechi Egbujor

ETSU Faculty Works

The purpose of this study was to determine the reliability of two new alternative portable methods for measuring maximal isometric force measures while performing the standard mid-thigh pull. One method, the bar grip method, required the use of the trunk and upper extremity muscles, while the second method, the pelvic belt method, did not. Both methods demonstrated good test-retest reliability via randomized repeated measures over 24-36 hours. Interestingly, the pelvic belt method generally demonstrated average maximal forces up to 65% higher than the bar method. There was a good relationship between both methods. These new alternative methods could provide strength …

Comparing Speech Movements In Different Types Of Noise, Sarah Jane Scott

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the impact of several noise conditions on speech articulator movements during a sentence repetition task. Sixty participants in three age groups ranging from 20 to 70 repeated a sentence under five noise conditions. Lower lip movements during production of a target sentence were used to compute the spatiotemporal index (STI). It was hypothesized that STI would be lower (indicating greater stability) in the silent baseline condition. There were changes in speech production under several of the noise conditions. The duration for the 1-talker condition was significantly shorter when compared to the silent condition, which could be due …

Spelling Of Derivationally Complex Words: The Role Of Phonological, Orthographic, And Morphological Features, Sofia Benson-Goldberg

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Spelling ability is not static; rather, as children age, learning how to encode morphophonologically complex words in conventional ways is motivated by the increasingly complex demands imposed by academic experiences with morphologically complex words. Success requires ongoing integration of phonological (P), orthographic (O) and morphological (M) knowledge. However, current research on the development and assessment of spelling has not sufficiently accounted for the way word features and participant characteristics interact with students' POM knowledge in the spelling of derived words. This study used a linear mixed effects regression approach to provide new insights about how both word characteristics and students' …

The Spanish Language Proficiency Of Sequential Bilingual Children And The Spanish-English Language Proficiency Scale, Jessica Maribel Tavizón

Theses and Dissertations

The challenge facing children learning language bilingually has led to efforts to improve the assessment and treatment of language learning difficulties. One of these efforts is the development and validation of the Spanish-English Language Proficiency Scale (SELPS). Previous research has been performed to validate the scale for English language proficiency but not for Spanish language proficiency. Twenty-four sequential bilingual children produced spontaneous narrative language samples that were rated using the SELPS and coded for language sample variables using the Systemic Analysis of Language Transcripts software. Several language sample variables, most notably the Subordination Index, the number of omitted bound morphemes, …

Story Generation Ability In Four Children With Language Impairment, Monica Leroy Chamberlain

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis project focused on the complexity of story generations produced by four children with language impairment across treatment sessions. Specifically, the participants' utterances were analyzed to determine if the children produced simple story elements and/or more complex cause/effect story elements. The children's utterances were also analyzed to identify emotion words in order to consider the children's awareness of the emotions experienced by characters in the stories. All participants approached the story generation task by describing characters and actions based on pictures from the book. Two participants did not express any causal relationships and two participants expressed some awareness of …

A Model Of Grammatical Category Acquisition In The Spanish Language Using Adaptation And Selection, Camille Lorraine Judd

Theses and Dissertations

Most typically developing children have achieved a knowledge of the grammatical categories of the words in their native language by school age. To model this achievement, researchers have developed a variety of explicit, testable models or algorithms which have had partial but promising success in extracting the grammatical word categories from the transcriptions of caregiver input to children. Additional insight into children's learning of the grammatical categories of words might be obtained from an application of evolutionary computing algorithms, which simulate principles of evolutionary biology such as variation, adaptive change, self-regulation, and inheritance. Thus far, however, this approach has only …

A Model Of Children's Acquisition Of Grammatical Word Categories Using An Adaptation And Selection Algorithm, Teresa Young

Theses and Dissertations

Most children who follow a typical developmental timeline learn the grammatical categories of words in their native language by the time they enter school. Researchers have worked to provide a number of explicit, testable models or algorithms in an attempt to model this language development. These models or algorithms have met with some varying success in terms of determining grammatical word categories from the transcripts of adult input to children. A new model of grammatical category acquisition involving an application of evolutionary computing algorithms may provide further understanding in this area. This model implements aspects of evolutionary biology, such as …

Perceptual Compensation In Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorders, Elizabeth Anne Langston

Open Access Theses

Compensation for coarticulation is the extent in which an individual perceives the contextual variations of speech. When presented with an ambiguous consonant-vowel segment (e.g., a consonant halfway between /sa/ and /∫a/) research illustrates that a listener is likely to compensate for coarticulation with the following vowel. Therefore, a listener will be more likely to report an ambiguous speech sound as /s/ when it occurs before [u] than before [a]. Previous results have suggested that, within neurotypical individuals, the degree to which individuals compensate for coarticulation may be related to their Autism Quotient (AQ; Yu, 2010). However, this research did not …

Psychophysical Auditory Filter Estimates Reveal Sharper Cochlear Tuning In Musicians, Gavin Bidelman, Jonathan Schug, Skyler Jennings, Shaum Bhagat

Faculty Publications

Musicianship confers enhancements to hearing at nearly all levels of the auditory system from periphery to percept. Musicians' superior psychophysical abilities are particularly evident in spectral discrimination and noise-degraded listening tasks, achieving higher perceptual sensitivity than their nonmusician peers. Greater spectral acuity implies that musicianship may increase auditory filter selectivity. This hypothesis was directly tested by measuring both forward- and simultaneous-masked psychophysical tuning curves. Sharper filter tuning (i.e., higher Q10) was observed in musicians compared to nonmusicians. Findings suggest musicians' pervasive listening benefits may be facilitated, in part, by superior spectral processing/decomposition as early as the auditory periphery.

Preliminary Test Of A Real-Time, Interactive Silent Speech Interface Based On Electromagnetic Articulograph, Jun Wang, Ashok Samal, Jordan R. Green

School of Computing: Conference and Workshop Papers

A silent speech interface (SSI) maps articulatory movement data to speech output. Although still in experimental stages, silent speech interfaces hold significant potential for facilitating oral communication in persons after laryngectomy or with other severe voice impairments. Despite the recent efforts on silent speech recognition algorithm development using offline data analysis, online test of SSIs have rarely been conducted. In this paper, we present a preliminary, online test of a real-time, interactive SSI based on electromagnetic motion tracking. The SSI played back synthesized speech sounds in response to the user’s tongue and lip movements. Three English talkers participated in this …

The Efficacy Of Social Communication Intervention On Teacher Report Of Sociability For Children With Language Impairment, Julianne Grover Smith Guerra

Theses and Dissertations

Recent research indicates that many children with Language Impairment (LI) have difficulty with social communication skills. This study assessed the impact of a social communication intervention on teacher perceptions of social withdrawal in children who received the treatment. The intervention targeted emotion understanding using the presentation of children's stories, facial picture cards, and journaling. Teacher perception was measured using the three withdrawal subscales of the Teacher Behavior Rating Scale (TBRS): Solitary-Active withdrawal, Solitary-Passive withdrawal, and Reticence. Following treatment all five participants received lower ratings of withdrawn behavior on some of the subscales. Only one participant received a rating indicting increased …

Children's Adaptation To Electropalatography: Evidence From Acoustic Analysis Of /T/ And /K/, Kara Brianne Knapp

Theses and Dissertations

Electropalatography (EPG) is a computer-based device that uses a fitted pseudopalate (similar to an orthodontic retainer) with embedded electrodes to track tongue-to-palate contact during speech for the purposes of providing treatment for a variety of communication disorders. This study evaluated six elementary school-aged children's ability to adapt their speech to the presence of the pseudopalate in their mouth. The participants' adaptation for the consonants /t/ and /k/ was examined over eight time intervals throughout a two and half hour time period. Adaptation was evaluated by measuring the duration, spectral mean, spectral variance, and relative intensity of the target sounds. The …

A Model Of Grammatical Category Acquisition Using Adaptation And Selection, Sarah Zitting Cluff

Theses and Dissertations

By the later preschool years, most children have a knowledge of the grammatical categories of their native language and are capable of expanding this knowledge to novel words. To model this accomplishment, researchers have created a variety of explicit, testable models or algorithms. These have had partial but promising success in extracting grammatical word categories from transcriptions of caregiver input to young children. Additional insight into children's learning of the grammatical categories of words might be gained from evolutionary computing algorithms, which apply principles of evolutionary biology such as variation, adaptive change, self-regulation, and inheritance to computational models. The current …

Benefit And Quality Of Life Improvement In Older Adult Cochlear Implant Recipients: A Review Of The Literature, Theresa Bartoldus

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The aging population is increasing rapidly, and in this group hearing loss is one of the most common disabilities. For those with severe to profound impairment, which occurs in approximately 10% of this population, conventional amplification often fails to provide adequate benefit. In these cases, a cochlear implant is indicated. The literature on cochlear implantation in older adults has shown that it offers significant speech perception and quality of life benefits to this population. However, it remains controversial despite ample research demonstrating these benefits, due to concerns about surgical complications and reduced benefit due to aging processes. Much literature also …

A Review Of Animal Studies For The Efficacy Of D-Methionine In Reducing Threshold Shifts And Affecting Biochemical Changes After Exposure To Noise, Alexandra Petraru

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Noise induced hearing loss (NIHL) is a major public health concern in the United States and worldwide. Certain individuals such as factory workers and military personnel are at greatest risk for irreversible sensorineural hearing loss due to the limitations of hearing protection measures and devices. D-Methionine (d-Met) is an antioxidant otoprotective agent that currently is in human clinical trials. The purpose of this systematic literature review was to review d-Met’s efficacy in reducing threshold shifts as well as in producing biochemical and physical changes in animal studies vis-à-vis the administration paradigm (preloading, rescue and a combined approach), d-Met dose quantity …

Otoscopic And Tympanometric Outcomes In Haitian Children, Ellen May

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Outer and middle ear pathologies are common and highly treatable conditions that affect children worldwide. While data on the prevalence of outer and middle ear disorders in children in North America and other developed countries is ample, such data in developing countries is oftentimes scarce. Determining the prevalence of outer and middle ear disorders is vital, as these types of disorders, if left untreated, can have medical, audiological, and educational implications. Both the identification and treatment of outer and middle ear pathologies are especially important in Haiti, a country that has a severe lack of medical resources, and is especially …

Attitudes Of Speech-Language Pathology/Audiology Students Towards Noise In Youth Culture, Lillian Law

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In order to increase the use of hearing conservation strategies among youth, it is important to identify which populations are most amenable to potential behavior change. The purpose of the present study was to compare attitudes towards noise between undergraduate speech-language pathology/audiology majors and other majors. Participants (N = 119) responded to a survey used to compare attitudes toward noise in the two groups, as well as their perceived ability to influence their sound environment. In addition, a correlational analysis was performed to determine if a relation exists between attitudes towards noise and attitudes towards influencing one's sound environment. Findings …

Efficacy Of N-Acetylcysteine On Prevention And Amelioration Of Cisplatin-Induced Ototoxicity: A Systematic Literature Review, Maryana Peravozchykava

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Objective: The purpose of this investigation is to perform a systematic review of the existing literature on NAC efficacy in prevention of cisplatin-induced ototoxicity.

Methods: A comprehensive search utilizing databases via the Mina Rees Library of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York was conducted to identify relevant studies for analysis. The levels of evidence were applied to restrict articles reviewed to Level 3 or better.

Results: Eight articles evaluating NAC protective efficacy against cisplatin-induced ototoxicity were identified. The results revealed significant variability in NAC otoprotective efficacy.

Discussion: The significant variability in findings on NAC otoprotective efficacy …