Communication Sciences and Disorders Commons^™

The Facts And Fiction About The Use Of Sign Language With Young Children, Naomi Greenblat

Undergraduate Research Symposium

In this study we sought to determine how parents and caregivers perceived the use of sign language with young children. We asked participants Likert scale questions concerning their agreement with various statements about sign language. The participants were asked questions about using sign language for communication, expressing emotion, advancing intelligence, and promoting pro-social behavior. We also asked participants open ended questions about what they had previously heard about sign language use, their thoughts about using sign language, and if they had every purchased or used materials to teach a child sign language. The responses show that on average most participants …

Undergraduate Students’ Knowledge About Applying To And Attending Graduate School In Speech-Language Pathology: The Effect Of A Panel Presentation On The Topics, Chelsea Swadling

Honors Theses

The researcher of the following study recognized that undergraduate students in the speech-language pathology and audiology program at Western Michigan University feel unprepared and anxious about applying to and attending graduate school. The following study was conducted in order to determine the effectiveness of a panel presentation in preparing undergraduate students for applying to and attending graduate school. A professional panel of five nationally certified speech-language pathologists was gathered to give a presentation to the speech-language pathology and audiology undergraduates aiming to expand the knowledge base and reduce the anxiety that undergraduates possessed about attending and applying to graduate school. …

The Relationship Between Speaking Rate & Nasalance In Typical Adults, Rachel Whitney, Stephen M. Tasko, Helen M. Sharp, Greg Flamme

Research and Creative Activities Poster Day

This poster analyzes the relationship between speaking rate & nasalance in typical adults.

An Internationalized Classroom Using Research Teams, A. Lynn Williams, Brenda Louw

ETSU Faculty Works

Overview: (1) What is internationalization of the curriculum (loC)? (2) Why is loC important to SLP/A? (3) How can we internationalize student learning? (4) How can we assess cross-cultural awareness or effectiveness?

Promoting Client Goal Ownership In A Clinical Setting, Laura H. Vanpuymbrouck

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

Effective goal setting involves collaboration between the client and therapist and is an important component of occupational therapy practice. However, encouraging involvement and collaboration does not necessarily guarantee that client goals are incorporated into the treatment plan. The purpose of this innovative treatment program was to determine if providing a client with a venue for goal identification, documentation, and maintenance might impact participation and satisfaction in a day rehabilitation setting. Responses to a study satisfaction survey (Ss) were taken at baseline and immediately postintervention from the experimental (N = 11) and control (N = 10) groups and attendance rates were …

A Comparison Of The Effects Of Soundfield Amplification On Acoustical Characteristics And Word Recognition Performance In Relocatable And Permanent Classrooms, Sarah M. Babin

Doctoral Dissertations

There are three acoustical characteristics that should be addressed when developing a good classroom listening environment: signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), reverberation time (RT), and levels of background noise. Previous research has shown that soundfield (SF) amplification systems help to improve these three characteristics, thus improving the classroom listening environment. In the present study, two seventh-grade classrooms were used: one relocatable classroom and one permanent classroom. Acoustical characteristics and speech levels were measured in both classrooms under two amplification conditions (unamplified and amplified). Word recognition abilities of 37 students were also measured under the two amplification conditions in both classrooms. Results showed …

Effect Of Noise On Transient-Evoked Otoacoustic Emissions And Pure-Tone Screening Audiometry, Laura Annette Wade

Doctoral Dissertations

Currently, the American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA) recommends pure-tone audiometry as the preferred audiometric screening method of school-aged children; however, background noise is often present and can result in high referral rate. The current study's goal was to examine the effect of noise on the pass rate on transient-evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAEs) and pure-tone audiometric screening measures. Twenty normal hearing adults (M = 22.85), eighteen females and two males, were screened with TEOAEs and pure-tone audiometry in quiet and in different levels of noise (i.e., 40 dB SPL, 50 dB SPL, 60 dB SPL) in a sound-treated booth.

Pure-tone audiometry …

The Effect Of Hearing Aid Program On The Perceived Sound Quality Of Music, Kalyn Kennedy Bradford

Doctoral Dissertations

Hearing loss affects many aspects of people's lives, including both communication and their ability to enjoy music. Currently, however, there is very little research on patient perception of music through hearing aids; therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine if there was a difference in the perceived listener satisfaction for music between a standard music program and the commonly used option for programming hearing aids (i.e., an automatic program). Data was collected using fifteen participants with symmetrical mild to moderately-severe sensorineural hearing loss with normal to near normal low frequency hearing. Participants were asked to listen to a …

Concordance Between The Chang And The International Society Of Pediatric Oncology (Siop) Ototoxicity Grading Scales In Patients Treated With Cisplatin For Medulloblastoma, Johnnie Bass, Jie Huang, Arzu Onar-Thomas, Kay Chang, Shaum Bhagat, Murali Chintagumpala, Ute Bartels, Sridharan Gururangan, Tim Hassall, John Heath, Geoffrey Mccowage, Richard Cohn, Michael Fisher, Giles Robinson, Alberto Broniscer, Amar Gajjar, James Gurney

Faculty Publications

BackgroundReporting ototoxicity is frequently complicated by use of various ototoxicity criteria. The International Society of Pediatric Oncology (SIOP) ototoxicity grading scale was recently proposed for standardized use in reporting hearing loss outcomes across institutions. The aim of this study was to evaluate the concordance between the Chang and SIOP ototoxicity grading scales. Differences between the two scales were identified and the implications these differences may have in the clinical setting were discussed.ProceduresAudiological evaluations were reviewed for 379 patients with newly diagnosed medulloblastoma (ages 3–21 years). Each patient was enrolled on one of two St. Jude clinical protocols that included craniospinal …

Let's Talk Speech! Volume 7 Issue 1, Barbara T. Schmidt Ph.D.

Communication Sciences and Disorders Newsletter

The 2013-2014 academic year has been filled with memorable events. As you read, I think you will get a sense of how our department has grown and how many things we are grateful for. First, this academic year brought us 20 new graduate students to add to the 19 we already had. Students coming from approximately 16 different undergraduate programs have filled the halls with activity. The clinical educators, faculty and staff welcomed all of them and have enjoyed working with them. We will be reluctant to see our 2 nd year students leave us in May, but we look …

Disabled: Watching Stories Of The Malagasy Deaf, Nadeen Hamza

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Dislabeled: Mislabeled and Disabled - two words that Malagasy Deaf individuals have used in this project to describe themselves and the struggles of their community. This project explores dynamics between the mainstream Malagasy society and the marginalized Deaf community as well as the dynamics within the Deaf community of Antsirabe. I argue that mainstream stereotypes of the Deaf are manifested in the ways these individuals see themselves as well as the opportunities that society offers them. I also argue that individuals who have high proficiency in Malagasy Sign Language have wider access to public services as well as a higher …

The Relationship Between Speaking Rate And Nasalance In Typical Adult Speakers, Rachel Whitney

Masters Theses

Nasometry is a non-invasive tool frequently used to measure speech resonance in clinical populations. The instrument uses an acoustic recording system to derive a measure termed nasalance, which is an estimate of the relative amount of acoustic energy emitted from the nasal cavity. Nasometry protocols do not provide detailed instructions for speaking rate control during data collection. Studies attempting to establish a relationship between speaking rate and nasalance have yielded mixed results; therefore, it is important to identify the influence of speaking rate on nasalance in a variety of speaking tasks. If rate is found to influence nasalance values, protocols …

The Effects Of Laryngeal Desiccation And Nebulized Isotonic Saline In Trained Male Singers, Robert B. Fujiki

Theses and Dissertations

Vocal fold hydration is important for healthy function of the vocal mechanism. Vocal fold surface fluid protects the mucosa and facilitates efficient vocal fold oscillation. Dry air exposure, mouth breathing, insufficient intake of liquids, and behavioral factors may contribute to laryngeal dehydration. Singers are believed to be particularly at risk for voice problems related to dehydration due to environmental and voice use factors. Laryngeal desiccation and nebulized hydration treatments have been shown to influence phonation threshold pressure (PTP) and self-perceived phonatory effort (PPE) in females. However, little research exists exploring the effects of hydration in males. Additionally, few studies have …

The Effects Of Laryngeal Desiccation And Nebulized Isotonic Saline In Male Speakers, Whitney Jane Robb

Theses and Dissertations

Hydration of the vocal folds is important for the production of normal voice. Dehydration makes voice production more difficult and increases vocal effort. Laryngeal desiccation has been shown to increase phonation threshold pressure (PTP) and self-perceived phonatory effort (PPE) in females. Nebulized saline may reverse or offset this effect. However, few data exist regarding the effects of laryngeal desiccation and nebulized treatments in males. Further, the dose-response relationship between laryngeal desiccation and nebulized hydration treatments is unknown. This study examined the effects of two doses of nebulized isotonic saline following a laryngeal desiccation challenge in healthy male speakers. In a …

March 5, 2014, Communication Disorders & Sciences

Faculty Meeting Minutes & Agendas

Meeting minutes of the March 5, 2014 Faculty Committee meeting.

Pedigree Structure And Kinship Measurements Of A Mid-Michigan Community: A New North American Population Isolate Identified, Joseph D. Bonner, Rachel Fisher, James Klein, Qing Lu, Ellen Wilch, Karen H. Friderici, Jill L. Elfenbein, Debra L. Schutte, Brian C. Schutte

Human Biology Open Access Pre-Prints

Previous studies identified a cluster of individuals with an autosomal recessive form of deafness that resides in a small region of mid-Michigan. We hypothesized that affected members from this community descend from a defined founder population. Using public records and personal interviews, we constructed a genealogical database that includes the affected individuals and their extended families as descendants of 461 settlers who emigrated from the Eifel region of Germany between 1836 and 1875. The genealogical database represents a 13-generation pedigree that includes 27,747 descendants of these settlers. Among these descendants, 13,784 are presumed living. Many of the extant descendants reside …

Genetics Of Peripheral Vestibular Dysfunction: Lessons From Mutant Mouse Strains, Sherri M. Jones, Timothy A. Jones

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

Background

A considerable amount of research has been published about genetic hearing impairment. Fifty to sixty percent of hearing loss is thought to have a genetic cause. Genes may also play a significant role in acquired hearing loss due to aging, noise exposure, or ototoxic medications. Between 1995 and 2012, over 100 causative genes have been identified for syndromic and nonsyndromic forms of hereditary hearing loss (see Hereditary Hearing Loss Homepage http://hereditaryhearingloss.org). Mouse models have been extremely valuable in facilitating the discovery of hearing loss genes, and in understanding inner ear pathology due to genetic mutations or elucidating fundamental mechanisms …

The Effect Of Metalinguistic Strategy Instruction On The Oral And Written Expression Of School-Aged Children, Karen Lara Dudek

Theses and Dissertations

Vocabulary knowledge is critical for academic success; and research has indicated that students with low vocabularies can learn metalinguistic strategies that can improve their performance in school. In this study, I investigated the impact of metalinguistic strategy instruction on the oral and written expression abilities of elementary-aged children (third grade). The strategy was the Expanding Expression Tool (EET; Smith), which can help students to increase their oral and written expression by describing words using semantic features. I used a pretest-posttest-posttest between groups design to investigate the impact of three experimental conditions on oral and written expression over a nine week …

February 19, 2014, Communication Disorders & Sciences

Faculty Meeting Minutes & Agendas

Meeting minutes of the February 19, 2014 Faculty Committee meeting.

Aac Intervention As An Immersion Model, Janet L. Dodd, Megan Gorey

Communication Sciences and Disorders Faculty Articles and Research

Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) based interventions support individuals with complex communication needs (CCN) in becoming effective and efficient communicators. However, there is often a disconnect between language models, communication opportunities, and desired intervention outcomes in the intervention process. This paper outlines a service delivery model that unites these elements of intervention. The social theory of language acquisition provides the foundation of this immersion model (Paul & Norbury, 2012; Pence & Justice, 2013) while adaptations of indirect language stimulation strategies create (Beukelman & Mirenda, 2013; Paul & Norbury, 2012) the support system necessary to develop an independent and functional communicator. …

Adaptive Behaviors In Toddlers Under Two With Autism Spectrum Disorders, Rhea Paul, Rebecca Loomis, Katarzyna Chawarska

Communication Disorders Faculty Publications

The Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale was administered to 54 children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) before age 2, and a matching group of 18 toddlers with developmental delay (DD). The group with ASD was more impaired on all scales of the Vineland than DD peers. When 18 ASD/DD pairs very closely matched on age, verbal and nonverbal development were selected, differences were found only on Vineland Receptive Communication and Daily Living. Correlation analyses to explore connection of these areas of difference with cognition and autistic symptoms suggested that Vineland Daily Living scores were significantly correlated with nonverbal ability and …

Neurophysiological Bases Of Frequency Discrimination In Children With Auditory Processing Disorder Or Specific Language Impairment, Christine Rota-Donahue

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The purpose of this study was to determine if 10-12 year old children with Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) or Specific Language Impairment (SLI) could discriminate three different frequency changes behaviorally and electrophysiologically. Behavioral frequency discrimination and event-related potentials were examined using a 1000Hz pure tone base frequency. Typically developing children and children with APD or SLI differed in in their detection of frequency changes: behavioral results were below chance level and the MMN amplitude was smaller in the impaired population. Slight differences between children with APD and children with SLI were also found that might shed light on the controversy …

The Accurate Productions Of Emotion Words During A Social Communication Intervention In Children With Language Impairment, Emily Marie Gibbons

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines a social communication intervention that targets the emotional competence of children with language impairment (LI). Three elementary school-aged children with LI received twenty, 20-minute intervention sessions over four months. Each intervention session involved a combination of activities targeting emotion recognition and emotion inferencing. The emotion-based word productions were counted and analyzed. Categorized words belonged to the emotional categories of happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, and disgust. The percentage of appropriate usage was calculated to represent how often the participants used each emotion-based word in a semantically correct manner. Emotion word productions that did not match the intended …

Language Trends Of Spanish/English Dual Language Learners, Cailin Amundsen

Honors Theses

This honors thesis project explores past and current research on the language and literacy development and assessment of Spanish-English bilinguals. The researched differences between Spanish and English language acquisition, cross-language development patterns and phenomena found in bilingual children, and holistic approaches to accurate and authentic assessment of language acquisition of bilinguals have lent support to future research questions and methodologies. The following literature review provides clear connections from current bilingual language acquisition and literacy development studies to the future research questions and ideas they rouse. Said questions and ideas have been organized into a research proposal addressing the language trends …

Graduate Bulletin, 2014-2015 (2014), Minnesota State University Moorhead

Graduate Bulletins (Catalogs)

No abstract provided.

A Case Study On Empowering A Non-Profit Organization To Better Help People With Disabilities Through M-Health, James Lawler, Hannah Moller, Robert Salloum

Wilson Center for Social Entrepreneurship

Local non-profit organizations are constrained in developing efficient methods for helping people with disabilities confined at their own homes. The cost of labor of physically serving such people is a continued issue at the organizations. This case study explores an entrepreneurial focus on best-in-class applications of m-Health devices for improving methods of home medication support furnished by a leading metropolitan non-profit organization. This study explores further the potential of hosted infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) m-Health remote monitoring systems technology. The findings of this study can benefit non-profit organizations considering economic entrepreneurial innovation in interactive managed care technology.

Cultural Language Variations: An Examination Of Appalachian Discourse, Katherine Ward

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Examinations of discourse are essential for documenting the linguistic variations of a particular culture. In turn, linguistic variations across cultures may suggest similar variations in global discourse measures. It is imperative for clinicians to first understand the framework and cultural norms of a particular dialect or language to properly identify deficits in disordered language. By first looking closely at specific aspects of discourse such as story grammar within a normative or non-brain injured population, clinicians can improve treatment protocols for working with aphasic or brain-injured clients. With Appalachia being the heart of the “stroke belt,” research in intervention strategies for …

Speech Disfluencies Of Preschool-Age Children Who Do And Do Not Stutter, Victoria Tumanova, Edward G. Conture, Warren Lambert, Tedra A. Walden

Communication Sciences and Disorders - All Scholarship

Purpose—The goals of the present study were to investigate whether (1) the speech disfluencies of preschool-age children are normally distributed; (2) preschool-age children who do (CWS) and do not stutter (CWNS) differ in terms of non-stuttered disfluencies; (3) age, gender, and speechlanguage ability affect the number and type of disfluencies children produce; and (4) parents’ expressed concern that their child stutters is associated with examiners’ judgments of stuttered disfluency.

Method—Four hundred and seventy two children participated, of which 228 were CWS (56 girls), and 244 CWNS (119 girls). Participants provided conversational speech samples that were analyzed for frequency of occurrence …

The Effects Of Communication Partner Training On Aac Users, Jessica Marie Phillips

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study investigated the acquisition of communication skills of children who use AAC systems following their parents' participation in a communication partner training program. Communication skills evaluated were mean length utterance (MLU), number of different symbols used, initiations, and responses. Communication partner training was divided into two phases, training and follow-up. Participants included 4 children between the ages of 3 and 9 years who used a high tech AAC system. Data was collected over the course of a year via 15 minute video observations. Parents also completed surveys pre- and post-study to evaluate perceptions on increases in communication behaviors, as …

Differences In Symptoms Among Adults With Canal Versus Otolith Vestibular Dysfunction: A Preliminary Report, Lisa Farrell, Rose Marie Rine

Physical Therapy Faculty Research

Despite the importance of symptomatology in the diagnosis of vestibular dysfunction, the qualitative nature of the symptoms related to semicircular canal (canal) versus otolith dysfunction is not fully understood. The purpose of this study was to compare symptoms, and their severity, in individuals with canal versus otolith peripheral vestibular dysfunction. A subjective tool, the Descriptive Symptom Index (DSI), was developed to enable categorization of symptoms as rotary, linear, imbalance or falls, and nondistinct. Fourteen adults were recruited and grouped based on vestibular function testing: canal only dysfunction, otolith only dysfunction, or canal and otolith dysfunction. Also, the Dizziness Handicap Inventory …