Speech Pathology and Audiology Commons^™

Promoting Parent-Child Connectedness: Insights From A Parent Education Training., Bisola E. Duyile, Robyn Becker, Kate Papas, Shanta K. Pamphile

Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Purpose: This study explores the interrelationship of speech, language, and literacy development, parentchild connectedness, and children’s mental health when viewed as social determinants of health, specifically among families of children with developmental disabilities. Through interprofessional collaboration, researchers aim to identify effective strategies that parents can use to enhance their children’s communication skills and emotional well-being.

Methods: A mixed methods design was employed, involving a post-workshop survey completed by five mothers. The quantitative component included Likert scale items to measure satisfaction with social support. We also evaluated satisfaction with the workshop. The qualitative component comprised openended questions about newly learned tools …

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: …

Efficacy Of Communication Interventions For Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Gracie Rhea Rightnowar

Honors College Theses

The purpose of this literature review is to analyze the efficacy of various communication interventions for individuals with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The implications of disease presentation and progression are discussed. This research seeks to determine the role of a speech language pathologist in the treatment of an individual with this progressive neurological disease. Various interventions are considered. Methods of service consist primarily of compensatory strategies intended to prolong communication abilities beyond that which requires speech motor capabilities. This research seeks to better understand the associated factors with each treatment plan on the individual’s functionality and quality of life.

The Implementation Of Music Within Communication Intervention And Its Effect On Communication Development, Rebecca Dunn

Honors Theses

The purpose of this study was to evaluate how and under what circumstances licensed speech-language pathologists incorporate music within communication intervention and to better understand perceptions towards the incorporation of music within speech or language therapy. A survey was developed based on the review of related literature and then entered on the Qualtrics^ã server for data collection and analysis. Once IRB approval was secured, the survey was then disseminated via a Facebook group for licensed speech-language pathologists. The author used Qualtrics^ã to collect and analyze the data, which was then used to determine when and how music was …

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 …

The Adverse Childhood Experiences Identification Gap In Speech Language Pathology, Mallory Prior

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

Children exposed to adverse childhood experiences, a variety of potentially traumatic events occurring within the first 18 years of life, are at increased risk for speech and language disorders. Due to the high prevalence of trauma and its lasting effects, it is almost guaranteed that children who are experiencing the ongoing effects from adversity will be found on practicing Speech Language Pathologists’ caseloads. This scoping review was designed to identify current screening practices of Speech Language Pathologists (SLP) in comparison to other professionals (e.g., allied health and education), as well as additional information related to screening procedures for SLPs. The …

The Effect Of Visual Feedback On Vocal Compensation Abilities In Individuals With Post-Stroke Aphasia, Marissa Rylee Olson

Theses and Dissertations

Speech production is a complex and highly organized process comprised of various sensory and perceptual components. Post-stroke aphasia can impair speech production abilities by interrupting individuals’ ability to detect and correct speech errors and produce their targeted behavior. Contemporary models of speech production aim to understand the relationship between sensory systems and the human ability to produce perceptually accurate speech. This study seeks to understand the relationship between visual feedback and vocal compensation abilities in individuals with post-stroke aphasia to determine the effectiveness of incorporating visual feedback into therapeutic expressive language intervention. It was hypothesized that that the multi-sensory experimental …

Establishing Cueing Skills When Treating Bilingual Speech Sound Disorders, Carlos D. Irizarry-Pérez, Mirza J. Lugo-Neris, Andrea Martinez-Fisher

Teaching and Learning in Communication Sciences & Disorders

Purpose: This study sought to train cueing skills in first-year graduate students when working with bilingual children with speech sound disorders to ensure fidelity of intervention of a larger research investigation.

Method: Before explicitly training cueing skills, three students were randomly assigned bilingual clients that had been previously diagnosed with a speech sound disorder and asked to administer trial therapy. During the instructional phase, we gave students a cueing protocol, a scoring template, and feedback. We assessed performance according to challenge-point criteria and adherence to our cueing protocol.

Results: Performance varied per student, but overall scores were higher during the …

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 …

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, …

How Are The Features Of Infant Directed Speech Related To Cradling Bias?, Tiffany S. Jacob

Honors Capstones

The current study explored whether the cradling bias observed in mothers of very young infants is related to acoustic features of infant directed speech. Six mothers were asked to set their 4-month-old infants down and pick them up to determine which side mothers used to cradle their infants. Mothers were placed in two groups: left-sided cradling bias and right-sided cradling bias. The mothers were then recorded as they talked to their infants while they shared books and simple toys designed to elicit the vowels /i/, /a/, and /u/. Vowel fundamental frequency (/i, a, u/) and word length (i.e., “sheep, shop, …

Assessment And Treatment Of Childhood Apraxia Of Speech: The Perspective Of Current Speech-Language Pathologists, Sabrina White

Rehabilitation, Human Resources and Communication Disorders Undergraduate Honors Theses

“Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) is a neurological childhood (pediatric) speech sound disorder in which the precision and consistency of movements underlying speech are impaired in the absence of neuromuscular deficits (e.g. abnormal reflexes, abnormal tone)” (ASHA, 2007b, Definitions of CAS section, para. 1). The role of speech-language pathology in conjunction with childhood apraxia of speech is the treatment of whichever speech sound disorders exist. The variable nature of CAS creates challenges for SLPs. Presently, “there are no validated diagnostic features that differentiate CAS from other childhood speech sound disorders.” (ASHA, 2007b, Signs and Symptoms, para 1). Due to this …

Speech-Language Pathologists On The Autism Spectrum, Rebecca Freeman Barnett

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This thesis consists of three journal articles for publication that addresses three different aspects of the research that examines the state of diversity in the field of speech-language pathology (SLP) as it pertains to autistic representation and possible implications. In the first article, Demographic Analysis of Autistic Speech-Language Pathologists, the purpose was to determine the demographic differences between SLPs that identified on the autism spectrum and those that did not. A mass survey was conducted of SLPs in the states of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ohio. It was concluded that 2.98% of SLPs self-identified on the autism spectrum. Chi-square analyses found …

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 …

Prevalence Versus Evidence: A Closer Look At The Research Available For Serving Children Exposed To Maltreatment And A Response To Hyter's Call For Trauma-Informed Care, Savanah Gayaldo, Allison Gladfelter

Faculty Articles, Papers, and Other Scholarship

Purpose:

In an October 2021 post of The ASHA LeaderLive, Dr. Yvette Hyter emphasized the need for trauma-informed services for children exposed to maltreatment in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Inspired by her call, we discuss how the pandemic created a high-risk context for maltreatment, the speech-language pathologists' (SLPs') role in prevention and intervention, reflect on the gap in evidence for maltreatment within empirical journals aimed at the speech-language pathology audience, and reiterate Hyter's call for trauma-informed care as a guide for clinicians serving children exposed to maltreatment.

Method:

We searched for empirical evidence within journals aimed at …

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 – …

Assisting Children With Velocardiofacial Syndrome Who Have Developmental Disabilities And Delays Associated With Speech, Communication, And Education, Mckenzie K. Holty

Honors Thesis

Children with velocardiofacial syndrome (VCFS) have a variety of complex needs. Research shows that VCFS is characterized by a combination of medical problems, developmental delays, and learning disabilities, which vary from child to child. This syndrome also puts adolescents at a higher risk for developing psychiatric and psychotic disorders. The complexity of symptoms that can arise from VCFS can influence the ability of these children to communicate, socialize, and learn effectively. This literature review aims to discuss literature for caregivers, educators, and physicians to aid children effectively and understand their challenges relating to speech, communication, and education. This topic is …

Effects Of Speech Cues In French-Speaking Children With Dysarthria, Erika S. Levy, Gemma Moya-Galé, Younghwa Michelle Chang, Luca Campanelli, Andrea A. N. Macleod, Sergio Escorial, Christelle Maillart

Publications and Research

Background: Articulatory excursion and vocal intensity are reduced in many children with dysarthria due to cerebral palsy (CP), contributing to the children’s intelligibility deficits and negatively affecting their social participation. However, the effects of speech-treatment strategies for improving intelligibility in this population are understudied, especially for children who speak languages other than English. In a cueing study on English-speaking children with dysarthria, acoustic variables and intelligibility improved when the children were provided with cues aimed to increase articulatory excursion and vocal intensity. While French is among the top 20 most spoken languages in the world, dysarthria and its management in …

An Experimental Analysis Of Voice Volume For Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Arturo Garcia

Thesis Projects

Inappropriate prosodic production is an often observed, but rarely treated, communication skill deficit for individuals with autism. Expanding on previous literature, we conducted a functional analysis on the voice volume responses (VVR) of two children with ASD utilizing similar procedures to those from Edgerton and Wine (2017). Further, we evaluated the efficacy of using visual feedback from an app and a function-based treatment to decrease inappropriate VVR and increase appropriate VVR. Results of the functional analysis indicated loud VVR was maintained by social negative reinforcement (escape from demands) for one participant and by both social negative and automatic reinforcement for …

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.

Average Speech Directivity, Samuel D. Bellows, Claire M. Pincock, Jennifer K. Whiting, Timothy W. Leishman

Directivity

Speech directivity describes the angular dependence of acoustic radiation from a talker’s mouth and nostrils and diffraction about his or her body and chair (if seated). It is an essential physical aspect of communication affecting sounds and signals in acoustical environments, audio, and telecommunication systems. Because high-resolution, spherically comprehensive measurements of live, phonetically balanced speech have been unavailable in the past, the authors have undertaken research to produce and share such data for simulations of acoustical environments, optimizations of microphone placements, speech studies, and other applications. The measurements included three male and three female talkers who repeated phonetically balanced passages …

Word Error And Word Frequency Correlation In Broca’S Aphasia, Breawna Heal

Honors Projects

Aphasia is a language disorder that is caused to the brain (Shames, Wiig, Secord, 1998) This damage may be caused by a stroke, traumatic brain injury, lesions to the brain, or degenerative neurological diseases(Shames, Wiig, Secord, 1998). Depending on the location of the brain damage, a person with aphasia will present with different communication impairments. People with fluent aphasia produce speech that may feature many grammatical errors or incorrectly produced words but their speech retains a typical speaking rhythm. People with fluent aphasia’s speech is much slower and more halting, and there tends to be frequent and lengthy pauses between …

Strategies To Address Challenging Behaviors In Children With Down Syndrome, Emily Sproat, Ciera M. Lorio, Kimberly Adelman Ms Ccc-Slp

Graduate Independent Studies - Communication Sciences and Disorders

As a future speech-language pathologist, it is imperative to develop knowledge and skills regarding how to provide therapy while managing challenging behaviors. Challenging behaviors could have long and short-term effects on the individual themselves and multiple entities in the child’s environment including caregivers, teachers, peers and other professionals. The presence of challenging behaviors can significantly impact learning as well as impede social interaction with peers. The purpose of this literature review is to inform speech-language pathologists about behavioral aspects of individuals with Down syndrome, with a focus on challenging behavior, and the best application of strategies and interventions for success. …

Contextual Interference In Speech Motor Learning Secondary To Similar Phonemes, Katelyn M. Bond

Capstones and Honors Theses

Purpose: The contextual interference (CI) effect is a motor learning phenomenon where learners experience difficulty during training resulting in poor performance; however, improved performance is observed in transfer conditions. Different variables elicit a CI effect, and the purpose of this study is to investigate whether phoneme (or sound) similarity may result in a CI effect during speech motor learning.

Method: The study included twenty-nine participants whose hearing and speech abilities were within the normal range. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two training sessions involving nonwords with either similar or dissimilar phonemes. Each training session included nonword repetition training …

The Experiences Of Undergraduate Students Of Color In The Field Of Speech-Language Pathology, Charu Dwivedi

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This qualitative research study explored why undergraduate students of color have pursued degrees in speech-language pathology. The population of the United States consisting of individuals of color is rapidly increasing. However, the demographic of individuals of color in the field of speech-language pathology is not. Interviews with undergraduate students of color were completed to understand their journey that led them to the field. The results of the study indicated that the students of color who succeeded in getting accepted into a speech-language pathology major had support, internal motivation, and were financially stable.

Progress Monitoring Timing Effects In Speech And Written Language Therapy, James P. Blaida

Theses and Dissertations

Progress monitoring is a crucial aspect of speech-language pathology. Without it, speech-language pathologists (SLPs) have little way of determining if patients are making progress with the implemented therapy. Currently, most SLPs perform progress monitoring during therapy. This study compared the traditional, status-quo, method of progress monitoring to that of progress monitoring performed before therapy begins in an effort to determine if a timing change would affect therapy outcomes. 2 boys, receiving articulation therapy, and 1 girl, receiving spelling therapy, each had 1 treatment goal for the during condition and 1 treatment goal for the before condition. The children all received …

Neuroanatomical Correlates Of Speech And Melody Repetition In Chronic Stroke, Sarah Elizabeth Bradford

Theses and Dissertations

The ability to repeat speech is impaired in most individuals with aphasia. Recent evidence suggests damage to area Spt (boundary of the parietal and temporal lobes at the Sylvian fissure) may cause the repetition difficulties commonly seen in aphasia. This study examined if such repetition impairments are specific to speech or reflect a more general repetition deficit, and determined how regional and network brain damage predict repetition impairments. Participants in the chronic phase of stroke (N=47) listened to a series of ten five-second melodies that consisted of six tones and repeated the melody (by humming) following its presentation. The participants’ …

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 …

Developing A Revised Performance-Perceptual Test Using Quick Speech-In-Noise Test Material, Matthew Wetmore, Hua Ou

AuD Capstone Projects - Communication Sciences and Disorders

Objective: Two audiometric speech measures have been recognized to be useful to predict hearing aid use success: the Quick Speech-in-Noise (QuickSIN) test and the Performance-Perceptual Test (PPT). The PPT involves using the same speech test material (Hearing In Noise Test; HINT) twice, to evaluate patients’ objective and subjective speech recognition performance in noise and the discrepancy between the two measures (Performance-Perceptual Discrepancy; PPDIS). Utilizing the QuickSIN with the PPT (Revised-PPT) may provide a clinician with two important pieces of information from one test to help predict hearing aid use success and the need for counseling. This study aimed 1) …