Speech Pathology and Audiology Commons^™

From Policy To Practice In Deaf Education: American Sign Language And Spoken English Outcomes Of Deaf And Hard Of Hearing Children In Kansas, Jena Mcdaniel, Shreyas Teegala, Rebecca Maloney, Angie Walker, Mary S. Dietrich, Matthew L. Hall, Leah C. Geer, Julie Bustos

Journal of Early Hearing Detection and Intervention

Purpose: In the context of the recent expectation for state Early Hearing Detection and Intervention programs to track language milestones of deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) children, we examine how to leverage statewide assessment programs for improving language outcomes of DHH children. We present the degree to which DHH children in Kansas are meeting their language milestones for American Sign Language (ASL) and English and the influence of two measurement features.

Method: Performance on the ASL/English Language Milestones for 198 children who were DHH (aged 1 to 8) was analyzed for attainment of age-expected language skills and …

An Observational Study Of Discourse Tasks And Running Speech Sampling In The Assessment Of Paediatric Voice Quality, Victoria Reynolds, Kristin Scavo-Smith, Kate Oteng-Bediako, Sophie Scanlon

Speech-Language Pathology Faculty Publications

Introduction

Running speech sampling is an essential component of a paediatric voice evaluation, in that it should provide the examiner with a representative vocal sample of the child's everyday voice use outside of the clinic setting. Current speech sampling practices, consisting of reading tasks, informal conversation sampling and the voice question ('Tell me about your voice problem'), may not elicit consistent samples or samples of sufficient length to allow the examiner to make a reliable and valid judgement about vocal quality. The aim of this study is to compare the voice quality of children produced in response to existing running …

How Speech-Language Pathologists Can Collaborate With A Well-Meaning Judiciary To Improve Jury Instructions, Lillian N. Stiegler, Rebecca L. Parker

Journal of Interprofessional Practice and Collaboration

Abstract

Purpose: Many U.S. adults are called upon to fulfill civic responsibilities through jury duty. Jury participation is a responsibility, but it is also a privilege that ensures the balance of power between government and citizens. Problems arise when jury instructions are presented using complex language that challenges the comprehension of laypersons with and without language and literacy differences, negatively influencing the juror’s participation experience and trial outcomes. In spite of plain language mandates and clear findings regarding the average literacy abilities of U.S. adults, much of the legal community persists in the use of difficult jury instructions.

Method: Academic …

Lcd 106: Introduction To Communication Sciences And Disorders, Yael Neumann

Open Educational Resources

This course will provide an introduction to the development and disorders of speech, language, and communication in children and adults. Disorders such as autism, aphasia, stuttering, and learning disabilities will be discussed. Differences noted in culturally and linguistically diverse communities will also be addressed. The course activities will give students an experiential appreciation of the experience of communication challenges and supporting people with those challenges. Information about the professions of Speech-Language Pathology (SLP), Audiology, and Speech and Hearing Science will be reviewed as potential career paths.

Impact Of Testosterone Therapy On Voices In Trans-Masculine People: A Scoping Review, Samuel E. Hedine, Jeff Conn, Deanna Britton

Student Research Symposium

Treatment of trans people by speech-language pathologists (SLPs) dates back to at least the 1980s. However, the majority of early research on the voices of trans people focused on trans-women. More recently, the field of speech-language pathology has garnered more interest in the effects of testosterone therapy in trans-masculine individuals. The goal of this project is to review current research, and compile the known effects of testosterone therapy in the trans-masculine population on common acoustic indices of voice production, including fundamental frequency (pitch), decibels/sound pressure level (dB SPL; loudness) and cepstral peak prominence (voice quality). A scoping literature search was …

Exploring Early Language Acquisition Through English And French, Rebecca C. Aguilar

Honors Capstones

Knowing that there is no singular event that leads to learning a language, and factoring in the extent an individual’s culture can affect language learning, this study emphasizes the importance of a cross-linguistic approach to continue to broaden the scope of language acquisition research. The primary objective is to identify and analyze the critical commonalities in the initial stages of learning English and French as first languages through two major categories: speech/language and culture. This project carried out an analytical review of 24 pieces of relevant literature, in both languages, in an effort to highlight key findings. Those findings include: …

Toward Generalizable Machine Learning Models In Speech, Language, And Hearing Sciences: Estimating Sample Size And Reducing Overfitting, Hamzeh Ghasemzadeh, Robert E Hillman, Daryush D Mehta

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

PURPOSE: Many studies using machine learning (ML) in speech, language, and hearing sciences rely upon cross-validations with single data splitting. This study's first purpose is to provide quantitative evidence that would incentivize researchers to instead use the more robust data splitting method of nested

METHOD: First, the significant impact of different cross-validations on ML outcomes was demonstrated using real-world clinical data. Then, Monte Carlo simulations were used to quantify the interactions among the employed cross-validation method, the discriminative power of features, the dimensionality of the feature space, the dimensionality of the model, and the sample size. Four different cross-validation methods …

Do High School Students Understand Their Miranda Rights? A Preliminary Investigation, Emma K. Hinds

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Background: Numerous studies have established that the linguistic complexity of the Miranda warning often results in poor comprehension, particularly for adolescents. Several studies have shown that persons with language disorders are overrepresented in U.S. prisons. Additionally, a few studies have shown a strong positive correlation between language scores and scores on Miranda assessments. These findings suggest that individuals with language disorders are at risk for poor comprehension of their Miranda rights, placing them at greater risk of waiving those rights, which can lead to incarceration.

Aims: The goal of this preliminary investigation is to examine how well adolescents with typical …

Benefit Of Visual Speech Information For Word Comprehension In Post-Stroke Aphasia, Anna Krason, Gabriella Vigliocco, Marja-Liisa Mailend, Harrison Stoll, Rosemary Varley, Laurel J. Buxbaum

Moss-Magee Rehabilitation Papers

Aphasia is a language disorder that often involves speech comprehension impairments affecting communication. In face-to-face settings, speech is accompanied by mouth and facial movements, but little is known about the extent to which they benefit aphasic comprehension. This study investigated the benefit of visual information accompanying speech for word comprehension in people with aphasia (PWA) and the neuroanatomic substrates of any benefit. Thirty-six PWA and 13 neurotypical matched control participants performed a picture-word verification task in which they indicated whether a picture of an animate/inanimate object matched a subsequent word produced by an actress in a video. Stimuli were either …

Telepractice-Based Language Intervention Training For Parents Of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders, Sarah Bryan

Honors Theses

This study closely examined the progression and fidelity of strategy implementation of parents undergoing an ASD language intervention training program. This instructional, interactive program was designed for parents of children with autism, thus catering to the needs of participants involved. This study assessed the use of parent comments and redirects, two kinds of parent strategies, during each parent-child interaction to provide more information about the impact of training sessions. The researchers hypothesized that by the end of training, parent participants would increase their fidelity of strategy implementation, increase their use of comments rather than redirects, and employ more open-ended questions …

Communication In Phelan-Mcdermid Syndrome: Assessment And Genotype-Phenotype Correlation, Sarah Quadri

All Dissertations

Phelan McDermid Syndrome (PMS) is a rare genetic disorder caused by deletions or mutations of the SHANK3 gene on chromosome 22q13.3. Language and communication impairment are hallmark features of PMS, and this dissertation aims to address the lack of consensus on appropriate methods for assessing these abilities and genotype-phenotype correlations of language and communication impairments in PMS.

The first chapter introduces PMS and associated language and communication impairment, identifies gaps in the literature, and shows how this research fills those gaps to advance our understanding of this rare genetic disease. The second chapter identifies and analyzes practices for assessing speech, …

The Effects Of Exercise On Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Julia Hofacker

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This Honors Research Project will look at the impact of various types of exercise on the speech, language, and behavior of adolescents with autism spectrum disorder. The goal of this research project is to determine how exercise can be implemented into speech and therapy programs in order to better improve the communication skills of adolescents with autism spectrum disorder. To accomplish this, recent studies and publications will be analyzed to compare traditional therapy methods and therapy methods that include exercise. These studies will provide data on how various types of exercise impacted adolescents with autism spectrum disorder speech, language, behavior, …

Contributions Of Semantic And Phonological Working Memory To Narrative Language Independent Of Single Word Production: Evidence From Acute Stroke, Rachel Zahn, Tatiana T Schnur, Randi C Martin

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Neuropsychological case studies have provided evidence that individuals with semantic, but not phonological, working memory (WM) deficits have difficulty producing phrases containing several content words. These findings supported the claim of a phrasal scope of planning at the grammatical formulation stage of production, where semantic WM supports the maintenance of lexical-semantic representations as they are inserted into slots in phrasal constituents. Recent narrative production results for individuals at the acute stage of stroke supported the role for semantic WM in phrasal elaboration while suggesting a role for phonological WM at a subsequent phonological encoding stage in supporting fluent, rapid speech. …

Like, It’S Important: The Frequency And Use Of Like In Autism Spectrum Disorder, Rebekah Jones

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Background & Aims: Discourse markers, such as well or like serve a variety of functions to support conversational reciprocity: filling pauses, aiding word-finding, holding conversational turns, and providing information about pause length. Previous research shows that individuals with ASD use discourse markers less frequently than neurotypical (NT) peers; however, the discourse marker like has been left out of that research, despite its ubiquitous use by NT individuals, and despite the fact that like serves important pragmatic functions that are not encoded by any other discourse marker. Specifically, like signals to the listener that the content of upcoming speech is 1) …

Comparing Measures Of Phonological Development For Bilingual Speech Sample Analysis: A Descriptive Study, Julianna Ciccarelli

Honors Projects

The present study analyzed two common measures of phonology for use within a bilingual (Spanish-English) preschool population. The utilized measures include Percentage of Consonants Correct-Revised (PCC-R) and Phonological Mean Length of Utterance (pMLU) and were selected to avoid sources of bias, often found in standardized, norm-referenced assessments. The scores calculated from these measures were analyzed across language.

Comparison Of Maintenance Gains From Two Treatment Approaches For Patients Diagnosed With Apraxia Of Speech And Broca’S Aphasia: A Critically Appraised Topic, Kalli B. Whiting

The Graduate Review

Three peer-reviewed research articles demonstrated benefits in using the articulatory-kinematic approaches of sound production treatment (SPT) and speech motor learning (SML) for intervention of patients diagnoses with apraxia of speech (AOS) concomitant with aphasia over the age of 50. This CAT was intended to review and compare the treatment maintenance between the two approaches using a specific search question; however, there was limited evidence for the specified population in that question. Although both approaches warranted positive outcomes, the SML approach may demonstrate a stronger linkage to the underlying features of apraxia of speech based on the method’s rationale. Through the …

Parent And Child Characteristics Impacting Identification Of Children With Developmental Language Disorder (Dld), Sarah E. Floyd

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Purpose: Previous research has shown that children with developmental language disorder (DLD) and dyslexia are under-identified in the general population. Parent or caregiver concern is a primary referral tool for these conditions, but may fail to accurately align with the actual presence of a disorder. The purpose of this study was to examine child and parent characteristics related to a child’s likelihood of receiving a diagnosis of DLD.

Methods: Within a large, 5-year, longitudinal study, kindergartener performance on a battery of speech, language, and literacy measures was examined to identify children with and without DLD and possible risk of dyslexia. …

Theory Of Mind Acquisition In Children Who Are Deaf: The Importance Of Early Identification And Communication Access, Kimberly A. Peters, Jessica Beer, David Pisoni, Ethan Remmell

Journal of Early Hearing Detection and Intervention

Objectives: The aim of this study was to compare Theory of Mind (ToM) acquisition in typically-hearing preschool-age children (TH), and deaf children of hearing parents (DCHP) who received a cochlear implant by 18 months of age, to determine if early access to spoken language via a cochlear implant affected ToM acquisition.

Methods: Participants included 25 children with cochlear implants ages 3.0 to 6.5 years and 25 age-matched children with TH all of whom were enrolled in preschools with typical peer models. The test battery included measures of expressive and receptive language and ToM.

Results: There were no …

Language As The Medium: A Literature Review. Harnessing The Prolific Power Of Dramatic Language As A Therapeutic Tool In Drama Therapy, Edward Freeman

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Language in and of the theatre, with its palate of variegated writing styles and playwrights from throughout time, has the potential to be harnessed, focused, and systematized for use as a therapeutic tool within drama therapy – the field’s artistic medium. Drama therapy could benefit from having a specific medium germane to its artform which has the potential to provide practitioners with a common resource and means of communication, assessment, diagnosis, and treatment planning, as well as align the field with other creative arts therapies. Language encompasses all forms of human communication – speaking, writing, signing, gesturing, expressing facially – …

Language Sampling With Older School-Aged Children: Examination Of Analyses And Sampling Contexts, Michelle Lenhart

Dissertations, 2020-current

Purpose: Conversation, narrative, and expository language sampling contexts are recommended for school-aged children (Pezold et al., 2020), and multiple ways to analyze these samples have been promoted in the clinical literature. This dissertation addressed two gaps in the literature related to analyses and sampling contexts. The purpose of study one was to examine differences in two commonly-used language sample analysis methods, Sampling Utterances Grammatical Analysis Revised (SUGAR) and Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (SALT). The purpose of study two was to examine the presence of age-related changes in conversation, narrative, and expository contexts for older school-aged children.

Method: Conversational, narrative, …

Functional Connectivity Of The Inferior Frontal Gyrus In Autism Spectrum Disorders, Emma Miller

Honors Theses

ABSTRACT

The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association defines Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) as a “neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by deficits in social communication and social interaction” which is heavily impacts language abilities. There is an abundance of research on the neurological aspects of the disorder, which appear to have major differences of activation and functionality when compared to typically developing peers. Specifically, in the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), a key language region of the brain, functional connectivity levels tend to be significantly less in ASD groups. This study recognizes these trends and aims to expand the research by locating specific functional connections …

Predictors Of Poststroke Aphasia Recovery: A Systematic Review-Informed Individual Participant Data Meta-Analysis, Marian C. Brady, Release Collaborators, Jackie Hinckley

HPD Articles

Background and Purpose:

The factors associated with recovery of language domains after stroke remain uncertain. We described recovery of overall-language-ability, auditory comprehension, naming, and functional-communication across participants’ age, sex, and aphasia chronicity in a large, multilingual, international aphasia dataset.

Methods:

Individual participant data meta-analysis of systematically sourced aphasia datasets described overall-language ability using the Western Aphasia Battery Aphasia-Quotient; auditory comprehension by Aachen Aphasia Test (AAT) Token Test; naming by Boston Naming Test and functional-communication by AAT Spontaneous-Speech Communication subscale. Multivariable analyses regressed absolute score-changes from baseline across language domains onto covariates identified a priori in randomized controlled trials and all …

The Effects Of Cochlear Implantation And Educational Audiology Services On Language Skills: A Case Study, Madison Josey

Honors Theses

Purpose

Hearing loss can affect many aspects of a child’s life, particularly their language abilities and academic performance. Literature shows that children with hearing loss are more likely to have language deficits compared to their hearing peers (Tomblin et al., 2015). The degree to which language skills are affected has been shown to correlate with various factors, such as age of identification, hearing levels, and amount of speech and language intervention (Delage & Tuller, 2020; Shojaei et al., 2016). The aim of this research study was to assess how cochlear implantation and speech-language intervention affects the language skills and academic …

Exploring The Diagnostic Journey Of A Preschool-Aged Female: A Retrospective Case Study, Lindsay Nicole Crafton

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this case study was to investigate the diagnostic route of a preschool-aged female initially suspected of having ASD with communication deficits and explore her journey to seek and receive services. In any diagnostic experience, it is imperative that caregivers understand the steps to seek appropriate evaluations and receive necessary services to improve their child’s quality of life. While there are some systemic procedures in place aimed to identify children with communication disorders or other developmental concerns such as ASD early; the ultimate responsibility falls on the caregiver to follow up and follow through. Although diagnostic criteria for …

Aphasia In Multilingual Patients, Mira Goral, Zahra Hejazi

Publications and Research

Purpose of Review

We summarize recent published work concerning assessment and treatment of aphasia in bilingual and multilingual people and review current related models of treatment outcomes. As well, we discuss studies that address the recently debated topic of cognitive processes in bilingual individuals with aphasia, with a focus on the effects of bilingualism on aphasia recovery and its potential protective effects.

Recent Findings

Providing assessment and treatment tools that best serve multilingual individuals with aphasia and unpacking the variables and mechanisms that underlie response to treatment have emerged as goals of several recent studies. Additionally, while findings are still …

An Analysis Of Informational Content In A Descriptive Narrative Task Completed By People With Aphasia, Anna Marie Sulminski, Brent Archer, Jay Jones

Honors Projects

Speech and language are important tools used for communication. Communication techniques such as narrative story telling skills can be used to build relationships. People with aphasia may lack these effective communication skills. This study provides a close-up interpretation of people with aphasia telling the story of Cinderella. Two different approaches were used to analyze the elements of the participant’s stories. By using these approaches during speech therapy, Speech-Language Pathologists can help people with aphasia to build a more concise and thorough story.

Morphological Production Accuracy Patterns In Younger And Older Spanish-English Bilingual Children, Isabel Angelica Cano

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Clinicians require a model of typical bilingual language development. Morphological production accuracy patterns vary in Spanish-English (S-E) bilingual children considering differences in the exposure and use of their two languages compared to their monolingual peers. The purpose of the current study was to examine morphological production accuracy patterns in thirty younger (3- to 4-years old) and older (5- to 6-years old) S-E bilingual children utilizing English and Spanish Morphosyntax subtests from a bilingual language screener. Across development, older bilingual children were more accurate on all forms in both English and Spanish than younger bilingual children. Across languages, all S-E bilingual …

Automated Phonetic Transcription Grading Tool (Aptgt), Marisha Speights Atkins, Dallin J. Bailey, Cheryl D. Seals, Guorui Li, Robertson Bassy, Yang Cao, Sicheng Li, Bennett Abigail

Faculty Publications

The Automated Phonetic Transcription Grading Tool (APTgt) is an online Learning Management System (LMS) that facilitates the comparison of phonetic transcriptions for instruction and clinical training purposes. It uses an embedded IPA graphical keyboard for transcription input. A custom edit distance algorithm aligns transcriptions in an intuitive way and then calculates differences quantitatively. This allows for objective scoring of transcriptions of even severely impaired productions, which may be difficult to score via traditional comparison methods. APTgt also includes support for comparing narrow phonetic transcriptions with diacritics. Contact the Technologies for Speech Language Pathology Research Lab at [email protected] for registration information.

Efficacy Of A Three-Week Intervention Program For Children In The Areas Of Language, Articulation, Phonological Awareness, And Auditory Processing, Zoey Caballero

Honors Theses

Competency in the areas of language, articulation, phonological awareness, and auditory processing are essential for children to succeed academically. For the past four summers, select professors and graduate student clinicians in the Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology Department at Andrews University have conducted an intensive three-week therapy program for school aged children to target these areas. By comparing pre/post-test scores, the purpose of the study is to obtain statistical evidence for specific therapy interventions in order to strengthen the effectiveness of the intensive therapy program.

Orthographic And Phonological Processing In Beginning Readers, Emily Fisher

Senior Theses

In order to learn to “sound out” new words, children must have phonological awareness, the ability to reflect on and manipulate the sounds in words. However, in skilled readers, performance on phonological awareness tasks is influenced by orthographic awareness, the awareness of spelling patterns and constraints. Both orthographic and phonological awareness are essential to reading, however, until recently the role of orthographic knowledge in phonological awareness has not been thoroughly investigated in beginning readers. Therefore, this study examined the relationship between orthographic and phonological knowledge in beginning readers and established a proof of concept for the use of …