Speech Pathology and Audiology Commons^™

Feasibility Of Group Voice Therapy For Individuals With Parkinson’S Disease, Jeff Searl, Kristel Wilson, Karen Haring, Angela M. Dietsch, Kelly E. Lyons, Rajesh Pahwa

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

Purpose: The primary purpose was to demonstrate the feasibility of executing treatment tasks focused on increasing loudness in a group format for individuals with Parkinson’s disease (PD). A second purpose was to report preliminary pre-to-post treatment outcomes for individuals with PD immediately after they complete the group program.

Methods: The group intervention is described. Fifteen adults with PD who participated in the group and three clinicians leading the group provided feedback about the execution of the intervention. The participants also provided voice samples and self-ratings of voice handicap once before completing the 8-week voice group and once immediately …

Audibility As A Predictor Of Speech Recognition And Listening Effort, Ryan W. Mccreery

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Two studies were conducted to evaluate how audibility influences speech recognition and measures of working memory in children with normal hearing. Specifically, audibility limitations related to background noise and limited bandwidth were analyzed, as these factors are characteristic of the listening conditions encountered by children with hearing loss who wear hearing aids.

In the first study, speech recognition was measured for 117 children and 18 adults with normal hearing. Stimulus bandwidth and the level of background noise were varied systematically in order to evaluate predictions of audibility based on the Speech Intelligibility Index. Results suggested that children with normal hearing …

Age Effect On The Gaze Stabilization Test, Julie A. Honaker

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

Impairments of the vestibular-ocular reflex (VOR) lead to a decline in visual acuity during head movements. Dynamic visual acuity (DVA) testing is a sensitive assessment tool for detecting VOR impairments. DVA evaluates accuracy of visual acuity during fixed velocity head movements. In contrast, the Gaze Stabilization test (GST) is a new functional evaluation of the VOR that identifies a person’s maximum head velocity (in degrees per second) a person can maintain with stable vision of a target (i.e. optotype). The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of age on the GST in participants without vestibular disease. The …

Writing Motivation Of Students With Specific Language Impairments, Kyle Lee Brouwer

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study was designed to compare the writing motivation of students with specific language impairments with their non-disabled peers. Due to the cognitive and linguistic demands of the writing process, students with language impairments face unique difficulties during the writing process. It was hypothesized that students with specific language impairments will be more likely to report lower levels of perceived writing competence and be less autonomously motivated to write. Students in grades 3-5 in 11 schools (33 with specific language impairments, 242 non-disabled peers) completed self-report measures, designed from a Self-Determination Theory perspective, which measured the degree that students are …

Modified Head Shake Computerized Dynamic Posturography, Julie A. Honaker, Connie M. Converse, Neil T. Shepard

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

PURPOSE: Recent research on head shake posturography has demonstrated a modest increase in sensitivity to identifying peripheral vestibular system asymmetry when horizontal head movements were added to portions of the standard Sensory Organization Test (SOT) battery. However, limitations with respect to the head shake protocol were outlined, and usable data for assessing performance could not be established. The purpose of this study was to test a change in protocol for use of head shake SOT to address the noted limitations.
METHOD: Forty participants ranging in age from 20 to 79 years with no history of dizziness completed Conditions 2 and …

Chronic Subjective Dizziness (Csd) Vs. Conversion Disorder: Discussion Of Clinical Findings And Rehabilitation., Julie A. Honaker, Jane M. Gilbert, Jeffrey P. Staab

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

PURPOSE: Audiologists frequently encounter patients who complain of chronic dizziness or imbalance, in the absence of active vestibular or neurological deficits. Knowledge about conditions that cause this clinical presentation will allow audiologists to make important contributions to accurate diagnosis and effective management of these patients. This article reviews two such conditions, chronic subjective dizziness (CSD) and conversion disorder. METHOD: A case of CSD and another of conversion disorder are presented with a literature review of their clinical presentations, key diagnostic features, and treatment strategies. The role of the audiologist in assessing patients with these conditions and facilitating appropriate treatment referrals …

Fukuda Stepping Test: Sensitivity And Specificity, Julie A. Honaker, Neil T. Shepard

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

Background: A vestibulospinal test known as the Fukuda Stepping Test (FST) has been suggested to be a measure of asymmetrical labyrinthine function. However, an extensive review of the performance of this test to identify a peripheral vestibular lesion has not been reported.
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of the standard FST and a head shaking variation for identification of a peripheral vestibular system lesion.
Research Design: In this retrospective review, we compared performance on the FST with and without a head shaking component to Electronystagmography (ENG) caloric irrigation unilateral weakness results.
Study …

Communication Characteristics Of Children With Developmental Apraxia Of Speech, Laura Jean Ball

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Speech-language pathology researchers have pursued a strategy to identify children with distinct DAS characteristics in an effort to study the characteristics, possible cause(s), and interventions for this disorder. Increasingly, reports indicate that children with suspected DAS experience a range of speech, language, social interaction, behavioral, and academic disabilities. Investigators in DAS continue to recommend intervention strategies that focus primarily on motor speech impairments, although it is clear that few children with a distinct version of DAS exist.

Evaluations of communication skills were obtained from 36 children identified with suspected DAS for this research project. Hierarchical cluster analysis was completed on …

Attention Effects On Distortion Product Otoacoustic Emissions With Contralateral Speech Stimuli, Genaya Kae Timpe

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of attending to a speech stimulus on the amplitude of the distortion product otoacoustic emission (DPOAE). The distortion product otoacoustic emission is a measurement of the activity of the inner ear, specifically the outer hair cells in the ear. The activity of the outer hair cells depends upon the auditory nervous system; when it is stimulated, the outer hair cell activity is modified. Normal outer hair cells will create a large DPOAE amplitude. When a stimulus is presented to the opposite ear, the auditory nervous system acts upon the …

Effecting Change By The Use Of Consultative Coaching With The Primary Caregivers Of Language Delayed Preschoolers, Sari Jeanne Giles

Open Access Master's Theses (through 2010)

This study examined the effect of a speech-language pathologist using consultative coaching with the primary caregivers (PCG) of two expressive language delayed preschool children. The coaching was designed to improve the PCG’s use of specific communication behaviors and strategies to facilitate growth in the child’s communicative behaviors. Specifically, the consultative coaching encouraged the PCG to (1) follow the child’s lead (2) use self and parallel talk (3) expand on the child’s verbal productions and (4) use open-ended questions. Two dyads, made up of expressive language delayed preschool children and their primary caregivers, were the subjects in single subject multiple-baseline designs. …