Communication Sciences and Disorders Commons^™

Children's Book On Pragmatics, Emily Conners

Senior Honors Projects

Pragmatics of communication is the use of social language skills when communicating with others. These skills are important in learning how to appropriately communicate and in building relationships. This is one area of communication that children can have difficulties with when they are developing language skills.

This children’s book focuses on one pragmatic skill learned during development, using language to request permission, with the goal of teaching children aged two to five about its importance. I used my background knowledge in pragmatics and child development to write a story about a boy named Jacob that struggles to ask his Grandpa …

Developmental Kindergarten Classroom Intervention For Spatial Relational Terms, Maggie Eising, Courtney Karasinski

Open Access Publishing Support Funded Articles

Purpose

Relational ability is a key attribute of language. Knowledge of relational terms, including spatial terms, can facilitate development of relational ability. Acquisition of spatial terms can be challenging and necessitates experience and input due to the abstractness of the concepts. Service delivery models for school-based speech-language pathologists (SLPs) are changing from traditional “pull-out” therapy to intervention in the classroom. Response to Intervention (RtI) and multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) frameworks have expanded SLPs’ roles to working with all children at-risk for academic difficulties.

Methods

Given the importance of spatial terms, and the changing roles and service delivery models for …

A Neurophysiological Investigation Of Listening Effort In Normal Hearing Adults Using Fnirs And Pupillometry, Jessica Defenderfer

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Real-world conversations are often accompanied by some sort of interference that challenges the clarity of the speaker’s message, causing listeners to exert more effort to understand speech. Previous research has demonstrated that when listening to speech becomes difficult, various regions of the brain are recruited beyond those which engage during optimal listening conditions. However, the neural correlates that underly listening effort are not fully understood. Importantly, the pupillary response can be used to index listening effort, such that pupil size increases with increasing cognitive demand. I proposed that pupillometry can be used to characterize the cortical response, such that changes …

Acoustic And Perceptual Effects Of Mask-Wearing On Voice And Communication In Healthcare Practitioners, Astrid C. Ortiz Garcia

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the present study aims to determine the perceptual and acoustic voice effects experienced by healthcare practitioners following prolonged use of face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 19 participants were recruited and divided into control and experimental groups. Of these 19, 10 were assigned to the experimental group (E) which required participants to engage in increasing their fluid intake by 1 liter per day, while the remaining 9 were part of the control group (C) and had no additional instructions.

To gather perceptual data, a survey was created and conducted via Qualtrics software, and addressed …

Effect Of Intervention Of Low-Tech Aac Access Through Triadic Gaze On Communication From School-Aged Children With Multiple Disabilities, Bailey Norton

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study aimed to evaluate the effects of instruction in teaching triadic gaze to communicate by accessing low-tech AAC. The low-tech AAC was an Eye-Com board with two target words laterally fixed to the board via Velco backing. Three school-aged participants completed the study, each with multiple disabilities, severe motor restrictions, and limited speech. This study utilized a multiple baseline across participants design. Laminated color photos depicting individualized, motivating vocabulary for each participant were used as probe materials. All three participants demonstrated increased performance in accurately utilizing triadic gaze for selecting from a field of two from baseline to intervention …

The Effect Of Telepractice On Vocal Interaction Between Provider, Deaf And Hard-Of-Hearing Pediatric Patients, And Caregivers., Abigail Betts

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how telepractice affects a vocal interaction between a speech-language pathologist (SLP), deaf and hard-of-hearing children who received cochlear implants (n = 7), and caregivers as they engage in speech-language interventions conducted in-person and via telepractice (tele). Frequency of vocalizations, vocal turns, pause duration, fundamental frequency (F0) mean and range, utterance duration, syllable rate per utterance duration, and mean length of utterance (MLU) were examined. The SLP vocalized more during in-person than tele-sessions, opposite result for the mother. There were more SLP-child turns during in-person sessions than tele-sessions; opposite result for mother-child turns. …

Critical Thinking Or Critical Creativity: Applying De Bono's Six Thinking Hats To Speech-Language Pathology Education And Practice., Samantha Hahn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Decision-making is a fundamental skill that health care professionals use daily which involves the interaction of many cognitive systems. Critical and lateral thinking are two approaches to decision-making often cited in literature. Critical thinking emphasizes reasoning and systematic analyzation, while lateral thinking encompasses imagination and creativity. Speech-language pathology (SLP) is a prime example of a profession that amalgamates creative processes with organized methodologies. Edward de Bono described six styles of lateral thinking – each style is equated to a colored “hat”. This study sought to determine if an association exists between a given SLP student’s level of clinical experience and …

Exploring Vowel Space Metrics And Quality Of Life Measures In Adolescents With Typical Speech, Residual Speech Sound Disorder, And Childhood Apraxia Of Speech, Michelle Turner Swartz

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) is a complex neurological speech sound disorder (SSD), involving impaired speech motor planning and programming. Speech characteristics of CAS include difficulty in sequencing motor speech movements in the absence of muscle weakness resulting in segmental (e.g., vowel/consonant distortions) and suprasegmental (e.g., inappropriate lexical stress) speech deficits. Acoustic analysis offers a robust objective diagnostic measurement of CAS for lexical stress and consonant accuracy/consistency. However, other reported CAS features, such as vowel errors and distortions, have yet to be extensively validated using acoustic analyses. This study will acoustically analyze vowel inconsistencies for corner vowels (/i, u, æ, …

Examination Of The Colorful Semantic Approach Via Telepractice For Children Who Are Deaf Or Hard Of Hearing, Samadhi Pusuba Devayalage

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: Hearing loss, deafness or hard of hearing are considered to be the inabilityof perceiving sounds beyond 20 dB. Due to a direct impact of a hearing loss, a developing brain undergoes difficulties in acquiring age-appropriate syntax and speech sounds. As a result, children with hearing loss present language, speech, and literacy disabilities. The current study discusses the efficacy of the colorful semantics approach in order to see its impact on sentence structure development. Methodology: A single subject withdrawal experimental study conducted following ABAB model. Two participants (6 years and 10 years) were recruited to the study following an inclusion …

The Lived Experiences Of Transmasculine Speakers: A Phenomenological Investigation Of Vocal Quality And Function In Relation To Gender, Micah Wylie

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this study was to learn how transmasculine individuals perceive the quality and function of their voices, and how those perceptions influence how they experience gender identity and communicate with others. This qualitative study adopted a hermeneutical phenomenological approach that involved using content analysis and thematic analysis to describe and interpret phenomena. This approach assumes that the researcher is not biased, but is a part of the world being studied and, therefore, understands the phenomenon by interpretive means. Saturation was achieved when all relevant information was introduced, and patterns of information had been identified. Sixteen interviews were conducted. …

Results Of The Compare Trial Of Constraint-Induced Or Multimodality Aphasia Therapy Compared With Usual Care In Chronic Post-Stroke Aphasia, Miranda L. Rose, Lyndsey Nickels, David Copland, Leanne Togher, Erin Godecke, Marcus Meinzer, Tapan Rai, Dominique A. Cadilhac, Joosup Kim, Melanie Hurley, Abby Foster, Marcella Carragher, Cassie Wilcox, John E. Pierce, Gillian Steel

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Background:

While meta-analyses confirm treatment for chronic post-stroke aphasia is effective, a lack of comparative evidence for different interventions limits prescription accuracy. We investigated whether Constraint-Induced Aphasia Therapy Plus (CIAT-plus) and/or Multimodality Aphasia Therapy (M-MAT) provided greater therapeutic benefit compared with usual community care and were differentially effective according to baseline aphasia severity.

Methods:

We conducted a three-arm, multicentre, parallel group, open-label, blinded endpoint, phase III, randomised-controlled trial. We stratified eligible participants by baseline aphasia on the Western Aphasia Battery-Revised Aphasia Quotient (WAB-R-AQ). Groups of three participants were randomly assigned (1:1:1) to 30 hours of CIAT-Plus or M-MAT or to …

The Nature Of Word Errors And Response Time In Individuals With Aphasia, Alexandra M. Georges

ETD Archive

Anomia is a relevant language deficit secondary to aphasia that is treated in the speech-language pathologist profession. Most aphasia diagnoses utilize aspects of confrontational naming tasks during speech therapy or testing. This study investigated the nature of word errors and the response time (RT) in persons with aphasia (PWA). Six individuals, three with nonfluent and three with fluent aphasia were asked to name objects in four common categories (occupational tools, everyday objects, food, and clothing) presented under two conditions (1) picture objects on a computer screen and (2) real physical objects. To measure RT and word error, participants were instructed …

The Relationship Between Misophonia Sensitivity And Musicality, Mae Ling Catayong, Sarah Uganiza, William Smithers, Aileen Corral, Sivan Barashy, Solena Mednicoff, Destiny Gonzales

Undergraduate Research Symposium Posters

Misophonia is a condition characterized by negative emotional reactions to certain everyday sounds. Musicality involves Active Musical Engagement (AE), Self-reported Perceptual Abilities (PA), Musical Training (MT), Self-reported Singing Abilities (SA), Sophisticated Emotional Engagement with Music (EM), and General musical sophistication (GM). Numerous active musicians have self-reported having misophonia, while anecdotal reports have shown that music can help treat misophonia symptoms.

Misophonia Sensitivity Is Related To Enhanced Responsiveness To Misophonia, Asmr And Musical Frisson, Alexis Rice, Kiara O'Keefe, Kacey Chang, Sivan Barashy, Solena Mednicoff, Destiny Gonzales

Undergraduate Research Symposium Posters

Misophonia: a condition in which specific everyday sounds (e.g., chewing, breathing) trigger an atypical, negative emotional response.

ASMR: a sensory phenomenon triggered by stimuli that induce a state of relaxation, positive feelings, and tinging sensations that spread from the head to the rest of the body.

Musical frisson: typically characterized by positive affect and strong physiological reactions, such as shivering, goosebumps, and teary-eyes in response to highly pleasurable music.

Animal Activities! : A Children's Book For Vocabulary Intervention, Chloey Dibartolo

Honors Projects

This Honors Project was created as a culmination of research conducted in the fields of Speech-Language Pathology and English. It is a written and illustrated children’s book intended to be used during shared book reading between an adult and a child of preschool age who presents with a language delay or language disorder. Cloze structures are used throughout the book to elicit strategically selected vocabulary words from the child and aid in their vocabulary development. Elements and techniques used in children’s literature were also implemented throughout this book. This book is overall designed a therapy tool that can be used …

Speech-Language Pathologists' Skills And Knowledge In Dysphagia Management In Long-Term Care Facilities, Madelyn Griffin

Honors Theses

An increasing amount of current research indicates the prevalence of oral and pharyngeal dysphagia in all age groups, with a higher number of cases present in the geriatric population. Dysphagia is common in age-related diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and Dementia. The purpose of this study was to investigate the knowledge and skills of speech- language pathologists (SLPs) working in long-term care, in the area of oral and pharyngeal dysphagia. Participating SLPs responded to a survey asking to self-identify their knowledge/skills in oral and pharyngeal dysphagia. The findings from this study revealed the variety of expertise of SLPs …

Effects Of Parent Intervention Via Tele-Practice On Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder In Rural Mississippi, Erin Bowens

Honors Theses

Background

The present study explored the use of parent intervention via tele-practice for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and how effective that intervention was in increasing the child’s language and communication skills and the parents’ strategy use in the rural state of Mississippi.

Methods

Two dyads of participants were used. Dyad 1 included a mother and her 4-year-old son with high-functioning ASD, and Dyad 2 included a mother and her 4-year-old daughter with severe ASD. Standardized tests were administered to gather data about the children’s diagnoses. The study included four phases across four months, including pre-test, intervention, post-test, and …

Implicit Bias In Speech-Language Pathology Students, Skyller Castello

LSU Master's Theses

Implicit racial biases have been documented across a variety of allied health professions. A systematic review conducted by FitzGerald and Hurst (2017) of implicit bias in healthcare professionals found that 20 out of 25 studies examined displayed bias against BIPOC in diagnosis, treatment recommendations, and other aspects of the medical care they received. A literature review completed by Hall et al. (2015) found similar results, stating that 9 of the 15 studies examined identified bias against Black clients. One allied healthcare profession, speech-language pathology, interacts with a diverse clientele in a clinical environment and yet have been excluded from much …

Participants’ Satisfaction With Functional Treatment Goals, Ricki M. Botsford

Honors College Theses

Goal writing is an important part of treatment and helps guide SLPs' plan for their clients. Goals need to be individualized and relevant to the client’s life. One type of goal that focuses on being specific to the client’s life is functional goals, which is based on the ICF. The LPATS is a method for writing functional goals that was developed with the ICF in mind. The student clinician participants were taught to use LPATS with adult aphasia clients and were surveyed and interviewed on the method’s feasibility. The survey scores were recorded and presented in a graph. The interviews …

Tell Or Retell? The Role Of Task And Language In Spanish-English Narrative Microstructure Performance, Mary Claire Wofford, Jessica Cano, Lisa A. Fitton Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

Purpose:

This study examined performance of dual language learners (DLLs) on Spanish- and English-language narrative story retells and unique tells. Transcription and analysis focused on comparisons of common microstructural language sample measures in Spanish and English across tasks. Each language sample measure was evaluated for its possible convergence with norm-referenced standardized assessments for DLL children.

Method:

Spanish–English DLLs (N = 133) enrolled in English-only kindergarten or first-grade classrooms completed two-language sample tasks (one in each language), which were transcribed and analyzed using Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (Miller & Iglesias, 2017) for measures of syntactic complexity (mean length of …

Language Revitalization: Strategies To Reverse Language Shift, Jessica Martin

Student Research Symposium

Language shift, the process by which a language loses speakers until it becomes extinct, is occurring in speech communities all over the world. This process is influenced by internal and external political, social, and economic factors unique to each community. As its causes and effects are not uniform, a universal model for reversing language shift does not exist. However, several broad principles can be applied across multiple contexts and situations for successful language revitalization. It is essential for the speech community to be the primary decision maker in any program. A thorough assessment of the community’s current status, challenges, and …

Short Term Stability Of The Electrical Stapedial Reflex, Emilee Harris

Student Research Symposium

Electrical stapedial reflex threshold (eSRT) is an objective measurement of the stapedial reflex triggering in response to loud electrical stimulation through the CI electrode. eSRT has been a valuable clinical tool in mapping the Cochlear Implant (CI) electrodes upper limits. The main objective of this study is to validate the changes in the eSRT within and across CI patients over one year post activation. In this study retrospective clinical data were analyzed from 44 patients ranging in age from 1-88 years, with a total of 29 left ear devices and 31 right ear devices activated in the years 2013-2020 with …

Working Memory Capactiy And Speech Perception With Hearing Aids, Ethan Watson

Student Research Symposium

This presentation covers an ongoing literature review that is asessing the relationship between working memory capcity and speech percpetion with hearing aids. It will provide a brief overview of the ELU model and how hearing aids create mismatch in our neural coding process of speech. Current results of what hearing aid signal stratgies relate to WMC will be provided.

Public Education V. Deaf Children: The Benefits And Downsides Of Public Education For Deaf Children, Esther Christensen

Student Research Symposium

My research was focused on the benefits and downsides of public education on deaf children. This research aims to find the best solution for the education of deaf children in American society, and inform others of the results. I used a library database to find primary and secondary sources from the Deaf community and other communities that are influenced by this topic. Through my research I found that it is possible for deaf children to succeed in public schools, they are far better off in schools for the deaf. The results that I found indicate that there are some benefits …

The Development Of Controlled Attention, Lexie Scott, Katelin Pyfer

Student Research Symposium

The ability to maintain items of information within working memory is depending on the ability to allocate attention to items within WM. Individual differences in WM capacity may bedependent on the amount of information that can be held and maintained in the focus of attention. A basic question in cognitive development is whether individuals increase the capacity of the focus of attention or the efficiency with which they can process information. We examined the differences in typically developing children versus adults in the capacity and efficiency of attention control. In our study, children and young adults completed a dichotic attention …

Bodies Of Beauty, Tyaira Mackay

Student Research Symposium

The rates of eating disorder diagnoses amongst young people in the United States has gradually increased, while beauty standards have gained more prevalence. These beauty standards have become more unrealistic and glorify frail, stick-like bodies. This research aims to discover if there is any correlation between these unhealthy standards and the development and diagnosis of eating disorders. To conduct my research, I used library and internet sources to gather a pool of primary and secondary sources. I used sources by underrepresented scholars concerning different body standards as well as information given by eating disorder clinics to gain a better understanding …

Post-Intensive Care Syndrome Prevention And Detection In Covid-19 Patients, Bethany Sloane Melega

Student Scholar Showcase

COVID-19 has impacts on patient health beyond the hospital. The trauma that patients, and families of patients, can experience during an admission to an intensive care unit (ICU) can last long after discharge from the ICU and the hospital in general. The psychological and physical impacts of ICU hospitalization can cause patients to experience Post Intensive Care Syndrome (PICS). PICS is the culmination of symptoms that persist after a critical illness that involve all aspects of a patient’s physical and mental well-being and can significantly affect family life and increase recovery time. Due to the strict personal-protective equipment (PPE) usage …

Implementation Of An Automated Grading Tool For Phonetic Transcription Training, Marisha Speights Atkins, Dallin J. Bailey, Cheryl D. Seals

Faculty Publications

Clinical phonetic transcription is regarded as a highly specialised skill requiring hours of practice for mastery. Although this skill is a critical part of students’ clinical preparation to become speech-language pathologists, students often report feeling unprepared to apply the skill in clinical practice. Previous studies suggest that increased opportunities for practice and timely feedback on transcriptions are needed in order to develop skill confidence. However, providing more opportunities for practice can be impeded by the limited resources to manage the grading of additional assignments. The purpose of this study is to show the implementation of a web-based learning management system …

Caregiver Experiences Of Feeding Instruction For Infants Born With Cleft Lip And/Or Palate, Clare Huang

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to learn what feeding education was provided to caregivers of infants with cleft lip and/or palate and how they view the feeding experience. Method: Participants (n=5) were recruited from two Facebook support groups, Cleft Lip and Palate Support Group :*) and Cleft Mom Support. The data were collected using Qualtrics™ software. The questionnaire consisted of eight demographic questions and seven topic-specific questions. The demographic questions included the exclusion and inclusion criteria. The participants of this study were required to be an English-speaking parent or a caregiver of a child under one year of …

Neurogenic Stuttering: Exploring Potential Emotional And Life Impact, Natalie Devries

Masters Theses

The purpose of the current study was to explore the potential emotional and life impact of living with neurogenic stuttering and how and when an impact develops, if present. The current diagnostic criteria for neurogenic stuttering includes no emotional impact (Canter, 1971). The literature is divided in supporting this criterion (Lebrun et al., 1990; Leder et al., 1996; Perino et al., 2000; Theys et al., 2008; Tani &Sakai, 2011; Ellis & Sheehy, 2013; Vanhoutte et al., 2014). The current study relied on qualitative interviewing which was analyzed using Reflexive Thematic Analysis to explore potential for emotional and life impact (Braun …