Communication Sciences and Disorders Commons^™

85.4 What Works For Treating Language Disorders In Children, Rhea Paul

Communication Disorders Faculty Publications

The goal of this session is to provide an overview of the principles of language intervention for children from ages 3–18 years of age and review the evidence base for selection of treatments for language disorders in preschool-aged and school-aged children, with special attention to interventions aimed at addressing pragmatic and social communication disorders.

Motor Learning Guided Treatment For Acquired Apraxia Of Speech, Rachel K. Johnson

Communication Disorders & Special Education Faculty Publications

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to expand the evidence on the effectiveness of motor learning guided approach for the treatment of acquired apraxia of speech. This study investigated the influence of practice frequency and number of targets per practice set on transfer of speech motor learning.

Method: This is a multiple baseline single-case study across two treatment cycles involving two individuals with chronic acquired apraxia of speech. Treatment Cycle 1 investigated the influence of self-controlled practice on speech motor learning through two conditions of practice. Treatment Cycle 2 investigated the influence of number of targets on transfer of …

Comparison Between Mexican And American Parentese: A Qualitative Case Study, Elayna S. Dyke

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

This single case study examines possible cultural implications of the current definition of Parentese, also called caretaker speech, based on the personal accounts of a person who is bilingual in both English and Spanish. This case study was conducted in one interview in order to find possible differences in Parentese with the Spanish language in Mexican culture in contrast to Parentese in the English Language in American culture. The purpose of this study was to find if there were differences between parentese between these cultures, and in which ways they were different. According to the subject’s personal experiences within her …

Swallowing Mechanics Associated With Artificial Airways, Bolus Properties, And Penetration–Aspiration Status In Trauma Patients, Angela M. Dietsch, Christopher B. Rowley, Nancy Pearl Solomon, William G. Pearson Jr.

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

Purpose: Artificial airway procedures such as intubation and tracheotomy are common in the treatment of traumatic injuries, and bolus modifications may be implemented to help manage swallowing disorders. This study assessed artificial airway status, bolus properties (volume and viscosity), and the occurrence of laryngeal penetration and/or aspiration in relation to mechanical features of swallowing.

Method: Coordinates of anatomical landmarks were extracted at minimum and maximum hyolaryngeal excursion from 228 videofluoroscopic swallowing studies representing 69 traumatically injured U.S. military service members with dysphagia. Morphometric canonical variate and regression analyses examined associations between swallowing mechanics and bolus properties based on …

A Preliminary Study Of A Spanish Graphic Novella Targeting Hearing Loss Prevention, Mark Guiberson, Emily Wakefield

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

Purpose: This preliminary study developed a digital graphic novella targeting hearing protection beliefs of Spanish-speaking agricultural workers. Researchers used pretest–posttest interview surveys to establish if the novella had an immediate influence on the participants’ beliefs about noise-induced hearing loss and usage of hearing protection devices.

Method: Researchers developed a digital graphic novella directed to increase knowledge about noise-induced hearing loss and increase the proper use of hearing protection devices. The novella was tailored to meet the specific linguistic and literacy needs of Spanish-speaking agricultural workers. Thirty-one Spanish-speaking farmworkers of Mexican nationality participated. This study included an interview survey with specific …

The Interaction Of Temporal And Spectral Acoustic Information With Word Predictability On Speech Intelligibility, Bahar Somayeh Shahsavarani

Department of Communication Studies: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

High-level, top-down information such as linguistic knowledge is a salient cortical resource that influences speech perception under most listening conditions. But, are all listeners able to exploit these resources for speech facilitation to the same extent? It was found that children with cochlear implants showed different patterns of benefit from contextual information in speech perception compared with their normal-haring peers. Previous studies have discussed the role of non-acoustic factors such as linguistic and cognitive capabilities to account for this discrepancy. Given the fact that the amount of acoustic information encoded and processed by auditory nerves of listeners with cochlear implants …

The Role Of Efferent Reduction Of Cochlear Compression In The Detection Of Tones In Noise, Shaum Bhagat, Anusha Yellamsetty

Faculty Publications

Stimulation of medial olivocochlear (MOC) efferent neurons reduces basilar membrane (BM) sensitivity and increases the slope of BM input-output (I/O) functions in animal models. Decreased compression of I/O functions associated with activation of MOC efferent neurons may assist in extending the neural response to the tone above that of noise, leading to an improvement in masked thresholds. To evaluate this hypothesis, the distortion-product otoacoustic emission (DPOAE) I/O function, a proxy measure of BM compression, was examined in conditions with presentation of contralateral noise. DPOAE I/O functions were measured at f2 frequencies of 1000 and 2000 Hz in 16 normal-hearing adults. …

Cognitive And Neurobiological Degeneration Of The Mental Lexicon In Primary Progressive Aphasia, Jet M. J. Vonk

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The ease with which we use the thousands of words in our vocabulary stands in stark contrast to our difficulty establishing how they are organized in our mind and brain. The breakdown of language due to cortical atrophy in primary progressive aphasia (PPA) creates conditions to study this organization at a cognitive and neurobiological level in that the three variants of this disease, namely non-fluent, logopenic, and semantic PPA, each bear their own signature of language-specific decline and cortical atrophy. As the impaired regions in each variant are linked to different lexical and semantic attributes of words, lexical decision performance …

Delirium Reduction Strategies For The Critically Ill, June Chaves, Sam Canonico, Will Cheney, Tammy Corey, Gil Fraser, Alex Kowalewski, Jen Low, Cardiac Intensive Care Unit, Haley Pelletier, Cathy Palleschi, Stephen Tyzik, Suneela Nayak, Ruth Hanselman

MaineHealth Maine Medical Center

Delirium, an acute and fluctuating disturbance of consciousness and cognition, is a common manifestation of acute brain dysfunction in critically ill patients. Patients with delirium have longer hospital stays and a lower 6-month survival rate than do patients without delirium. Preliminary research suggests that delirium may be associated with cognitive impairment that persists months to years after discharge.

In a large acute care hospital, the cardiac intensive care staff became interested in mitigating their unit’s high delirium rate of ventilated patients. At baseline, many members of the healthcare team did not believe that delirium could be prevented and the predominant …

Strategies To Improve Interdisciplinary Communication In An Acute Care Inpatient Pediatric Unit, Sarah Thompson, Haley Pelletier, Barbara Bush Children's Hospital-Inpatient, Maine Medical Center, Suneela Nayak, Ruth Hanselman, Stephen Tyzik

MaineHealth Maine Medical Center

Interdisciplinary patient rounding has been shown to improve patient and family satisfaction as well as reduce patient length of stay and readmission rates. In an acute care inpatient pediatric unit, baseline metrics demonstrated that 100% of the time, nursing was not included in these rounds thus resulting in sub optimal communication.

The goal of this performance improvement project was to attain increased nursing participation. Data collection demonstrated several reasons for lack of participation and corrective actions were instituted. After undertaking this KPI goal and utilizing operational excellence, 95% of the time, nurses were called to morning rounds with the medical …

Development And Validation For A Mobile Speech-In-Noise Audiometric Task, Tommy Peng

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Traditional speech-in-noise hearing tests are performed by clinicians with specialized equipment. Furthermore, these tasks often present contextually weak sentences in background babble, which are poor representations of real-world situations. This study proposes a mobile audiometric task, Semantic Auditory Search, which uses the Android platform to bypass the need for specialized equipment and presents multiple tasks of two competing real-world conversations to estimate the user’s speech-in-noise hearing ability. Through linear regression models built from data of seventy-nine subjects, three Semantic Auditory Search metrics have been shown to have statistically significant (p < 0.05) with medium effects sizes for predicting QuickSIN SNR50. The internal consistency of the task was also high, with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.88 or more across multiple metrics. In conclusion, this preliminary study suggests that Semantic Auditory Search can accurately and reliably perform as an automated speech-in-noise hearing test. It also has tremendous potential for extension into automated tests of cognitive function, as well.

A Population-Based Study Of Communicative Participation In Preschool Children With Speech-Language Impairments, Barbara Jane Cunningham, Steven E. Hanna, Bruce Oddson, Nancy Thomas-Stonell, Peter Rosenbaum

PRECISe Preschool Speech and Language Publications

Aim. To develop statistical models of preschoolers’ communicative participation development and explore variations by level of function.

Methods. This was a secondary analysis of data from a longitudinal study of preschoolers with speech and language delays (N = 46,872, M age = 41.76, SD age = 11.92; 67% male) accessing publicly-funded services in Ontario Canada. Two measures were used: Focus on the Outcomes of Communication Under Six (FOCUS), measuring changes in communicative participation skills, and the Communication Function Classification System (CFCS), classifying communication function into one of five levels. We used mixed effects modeling to fit growth curves for …

Impact Of A Pre-Professional Clinical Education Experience With Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorder: Preparation Of Future Speech-Language Pathologists, Kaitlyn P. Wilson Ph.D., Ccc-Slp, Gregory S. Chasson Ph.D., Amanda C. Jozkowski Ph.D., Otr/L, Meghan V. Mulhern Ed.M.

Teaching and Learning in Communication Sciences & Disorders

The purpose of this study was to (1) investigate the impact of a clinical experience with adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) on graduate speech-language pathology (SLP) students’ knowledge about ASD, and (2) explore the nature of the clinical experience and its impact on students’ preparation to work with adults with ASD. This study used a mixed-methods design. Quantitative methods were used to identify statistically significant changes in student knowledge about ASD following participation in a clinical experience with adults with ASD. Qualitative methods were used to explore student narratives to uncover details of the clinical experience and its impact. …

Interdisciplinary Ethics Learning In Higher Education: Students’ Perceptions, Carrie Knight, Robert Mayo, Michele Porter

Teaching and Learning in Communication Sciences & Disorders

The purpose of this study is to evaluate speech-language pathology (SLP) students’ understandings of professional issues and ethics related to their own profession and to public health administration and to evaluate SLP students’ perceptions of interdisciplinary learning opportunities. Participants were second-year graduate students pursuing a Master of Arts degree in SLP (N = 24) enrolled in an interdisciplinary professional issues and ethics course. Students completed a pre- and post-test questionnaire regarding their perception of interdisciplinary learning opportunities, and their understanding of public health professions and codes of ethics, SLP code of ethics, and SLP professionals’ impact on other professionals …

Speech-Language Pathology Student Anxiety, Expectations, And Needs During Clinical Practicum, Laura W. Plexico, Allison M. Plumb, Daniel E. Phillips

Teaching and Learning in Communication Sciences & Disorders

The current study investigates clinical supervision with regard to millennial student clinician expectations, needs, and anxiety related to the supervisory process. Seven graduate students in speech-language pathology completed questionnaires at six points during their graduate education – The Student Clinician Anxiety Test (Sleight, 1985), as well as Larson’s Supervisory Expectations Rating Scale and Supervisory Needs Rating Scale (Larson, 1981). Results indicated that supervisory needs and expectations were significantly greater pre-practicum when compared to post-externship, with no significant changes in student clinician anxiety noted across six semesters of graduate training. Student clinicians demonstrated less anxiety than Sleight’s data, but had greater …

Bridging The Gap: An Integrated Approach To Facilitating Foundational Learning Of Neuroanatomy And Neurophysiology In Graduate-Level Speech-Language Pathology Coursework, Lisa A. Vinney, Jennine M.T. Harvey

Teaching and Learning in Communication Sciences & Disorders

The current study examined whether the integration of foundational neuroanatomy and neurophysiology content, across a pair of medically-based, disorder-specific courses (motor speech disorders and aphasia), promoted students’ abilities to describe common neurological constructs and apply them to clinical cases. Specifically, student responses to case questions were rubric-scored following their completion of five neuroanatomy and neurophysiology online modules independently and after in-class instructional augmentation of each module’s content. Students’ own perceptions of this integrated curriculum were also surveyed and coded into themes. Rubric scores, evaluating content knowledge of the brainstem, spinal cord, and the neuron, significantly improved from post-module to after …

Rapid Automated Naming Performance Of Young Spanish-English Speaking Children, Carla L. Wood, Kristina N. Bustamante, Lisa Fitton, Dana M. Brown, Yaacov Petscher

Faculty Publications

The aim of this preliminary study was to examine the feasibility of a rapid automatic naming (RAN) task for young Spanish–English speaking dual language learners (DLLs) and to examine the relationship between children’s performance on RAN and other standardized language and literacy assessments. A total of 275 Spanish–English speaking children in kindergarten and first grade attempted a RAN task and completed assessments of language and early literacy. Correlational analyses and quantile regression was conducted to examine relationships. Overall the RAN task was feasible for 74% (n = 203) of the DLLs; however, 42% of participants in kindergarten were unable to …

Speech Processing Approach For Diagnosing Dementia In An Early Stage, Roozbeh Sadeghian, J. David Schaffer, Stephen A. Zahorian

Faculty Works

The clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias is very challenging, especially in the early stages. Our hypothesis is that any disease that affects particular brain regions involved in speech production and processing will also leave detectable finger prints in the speech. Computerized analysis of speech signals and computational linguistics have progressed to the point where an automatic speech analysis system is a promising approach for a low-cost non-invasive diagnostic tool for early detection of Alzheimer’s disease.

We present empirical evidence that strong discrimination between subjects with a diagnosis of probable Alzheimer’s versus matched normal controls can be achieved …

On Syntropy & Precognitive Interdiction Based On Wheeler-Feynman’S Absorber Theory, Florentin Smarandache, Victor Christianto, Yunita Umniyati

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

It has been known for long time that intuition plays significant role in many professions and human life, including in entrepreneurship, government, and also in detective or law enforcement activities. Women are known to possess better intuitive feelings or “hunch” compared to men. Despite these examples, such a precognitive interdiction is hardly accepted in established science. In this letter, we discuss briefly the advanced solutions of Maxwell equations, and then explore plausible connection between syntropy and precognition.

Bilabial Substitution Patterns During Consonant Production In A Case Of Congenital Aglossia, Betty Mcmicken, Frederico Salles, Shelley Von Berg, Margaret Vento-Wilson, Kelly Rogers, Asterios Toutios, Shrikanth S. Narayanan

Communication Sciences and Disorders Faculty Articles and Research

Purpose: Congenital aglossia is a rare syndrome in which an individual is born without a tongue. The present paper examines articulatory details of the production of multiple consonants by an aglossic speaker.

Method: Real-time magnetic resonance imaging data of the upper airway were collected from the aglossic speaker. Air-tissue boundaries were determined from the video sequences using a segmentation algorithm, and dynamics of vocal-tract constrictions and cross-dimensions were calculated.

Results: The aglossic speaker produced the consonants /t, d, th, l ,r, f ,v, s, sh/ with a bilabial closure instead of a normal lingua-alveolar closure; however, in …

Wine Flavor Perception In A Person With Isolated Congenital Aglossia, Naïve Wine Taster, And Sommelier, Kristin Mahood, Long Wang, Betty Mcmicken, Cheryl Rock

Communication Sciences and Disorders Faculty Articles and Research

Objective: This study aimed to augment previous research that investigated flavor perception in isolated congenital aglossia by a whole food/beverage approach. Isolated congenital aglossia is the rare condition of absence of a tongue at birth without the presence of other symptoms. Previous studies confirmed taste perception in isolated congenital aglossia using single taste solutions including sour, salty, sweet, bitter, and umami.

Methods: The current randomized, double-blinded study age- and sex-matched a naïve wine taster and sommelier to the 46 year-old female with isolated congenital aglossia. A Nose and Palate Survey with 54 variables created based on the Court …

Estimating The Impact Of Assessment And Treatment Fidelity On Aphasia Treatment Outcomes, Trisha L. Tanaka

Speech and Hearing Sciences ETDs

Purpose: Calls for treatment and assessment fidelity strongly suggest the need to reduce treatment provider and assessor variance surrounding intervention research. The extent to which these sources of variance influence treatment outcomes in aphasia treatment research has yet to be examined. This simulation study sought to explore the relationships between quality of fidelity methods, sample size, power to detect treatment effects, and aphasia treatment effect sizes.

Methods: Individual participant outcomes collected from previous aphasia treatment research studies were used to simulate 200,000 participant outcomes, from which 8,000 sample treatment trials were simulated. Effect sizes were calculated for treatment outcomes related …

Development Of Kinematic Templates For Automatic Pronunciation Assessment Using Acoustic-To-Articulatory Inversion, Deriq K. Jones

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Computer-aided pronunciation training (CAPT) is a subcategory of computer-aided language learning (CALL) that deals with the correction of mispronunciation during language learning. For a CAPT system to be effective, it must provide useful and informative feedback that is comprehensive, qualitative, quantitative, and corrective. While the majority of modern systems address the first 3 aspects of feedback, most of these systems do not provide corrective feedback. As part of the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded study “RI: Small: Speaker Independent Acoustic-Articulator Inversion for Pronunciation Assessment”, the Marquette Speech and Swallowing Lab and Marquette Speech and Signal Processing Lab are conducting a …

The Efficacy Of A Literature-Based Social Communication Intervention On Teacher Report Of Withdrawal For Children With Language Impairment, Cammy G. Peterson

Theses and Dissertations

Research shows that children with language impairment (LI) often have deficits in social communication. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of a social communication intervention targeting emotion understanding on teacher perceptions of withdrawal in six elementary-aged boys with LI. The intervention incorporated four elements into treatment sessions: a) Story sharing of children's literature that was rich in emotional content and prosocial behaviors; b) Story enactment of the same children's literature; c) identification and discussion of pictures of facial expressions; and d) journaling to help internalize and reflect on emotions and social behaviors targeted. Two withdrawal subscales …

The Ability Of Five Children With Language Impairment To Describe Mental State In Story Narratives In Spontaneous And Prompted Conditions: Does It Help To Ask?, Naomi Asai

Theses and Dissertations

Numerous studies have shown that children identified with Language Impairment (LI) have marked difficulty with producing story narratives compared to their typically developing peers. One particular area of weakness seen in the narratives of children with LI is their ability to incorporate internal states, specifically internal response, internal plan, and emotion words. The current study examines five children with LI and their descriptions of mental and emotional states of characters in story narratives under spontaneous and prompted conditions. Participants produced story retells based on a series of wordless picture books taken from the Edmonton Narrative Norms Instrument. Story retells were …

Using Constant Time Delay And Ecoaching To Teach Employment Skills To Young Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorder And Intellectual Disability In A Community Work Environment, Annemarie L. Horn

Communication Disorders & Special Education Theses & Dissertations

The goal of secondary education is to prepare students for greater levels of independence, especially in the areas of continued education and community employment. However, despite underlying potential, young adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and comorbid intellectual disability (ID) are vastly underrepresented in the area of post secondary employment. This could be attributed to the unique characteristics and learning needs of these students, or it may be a function of the lack of effective, evidence-based teaching practices, implemented with fidelity.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness and participant perceptions of implementing the constant time delay …

Development Of An Early Expository Text Comprehension Assessment: A Pilot Study, Stacey Christianson

Theses and Dissertations

Literature supporting the use of informational texts with preschool children has increased in recent years. However, many preschool classrooms still focus on narrative text, and teachers are often unsure how to provide support for children's comprehension of informational texts. An assessment addressing preschool children's informational text comprehension will help teachers understand what children can do with informational texts and point out demands or tasks that children should be able to handle. A comprehension assessment for preschool children focusing on text purpose, text features, text retell, and comprehension of text structures has not been available. To fit this need, recent effort …

The Impact Of Dysphagia On Quality Of Life And Stigma In Hispanic New Mexicans, Aaron Padilla

Speech and Hearing Sciences ETDs

INTRODUCTION: Eating is a function of daily life and is the centerpiece of family gatherings, business meetings, and holiday/religious traditions. Dysphagia (difficulty swallowing), can abolish the pleasure of mealtimes, which can negatively impact quality of life (QOL) and result in stigma. These variables may be influenced by cultural perceptions and/or acculturation, which is a measure of the impact that one cultural group has on another. The purpose of this investigation was to: a) identify the relationship between level of acculturation and QOL and stigma for Hispanics, b) measure the relationship between dysphagia severity and QOL and stigma, and c) explore …

Selection Of Memory Book Content: Agreement In Content As A Function Of Informant Relationship To Memory Book Recipient, Rebecca J. Allen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study was designed to determine to what extent provision of personally relevant information and sensory cues would agree between Recipient and Informant for selection of memory book content. Six dyads married to each other an average of 29.17 years (SD = 10.03), between the ages of 43 and 70 years (Mean = 57; SD = 8.39), and cognitively competent (i.e., no diagnosis of cognitive impairment) participated. Participants completed questionnaires independently and provided personally relevant information/memories, aversions towards select memories/topics, and sensory cues on behalf of themselves (as “Recipient) and their spouse (as “Informant”). For provision of personally relevant information/memories, …

Cib2 Interacts With Tmc1 And Tmc2 And Is Essential For Mechanotransduction In Auditory Hair Cells, Arnaud P. J. Giese, Yi-Quan Tang, Ghanshyam P. Sinha, Michael R. Bowl, Adam C. Goldring, Andrew Parker, Mary J. Freeman, Steve D. M. Brown, Saima Riazuddin, Robert Fettiplace, William R. Schafer, Gregory I. Frolenkov, Zubair M. Ahmed

Physiology Faculty Publications

Inner ear hair cells detect sound through deflection of stereocilia, the microvilli-like projections that are arranged in rows of graded heights. Calcium and integrin-binding protein 2 is essential for hearing and localizes to stereocilia, but its exact function is unknown. Here, we have characterized two mutant mouse lines, one lacking calcium and integrin-binding protein 2 and one carrying a human deafness-related Cib2 mutation, and show that both are deaf and exhibit no mechanotransduction in auditory hair cells, despite the presence of tip links that gate the mechanotransducer channels. In addition, mechanotransducing shorter row stereocilia overgrow in hair cell bundles of …