Communication Sciences and Disorders Commons^™

Supporting Persons With Dementia In Communicating Their Care Preferences, Vanessa L. Burshnic

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Person-centered care is important to the quality of life of nursing home residents with dementia. Preference assessments enable person-centered care by documenting residents’ preferred activities. Residents with severe dementia are less likely to have a role in preference assessment due to communication challenges associated with the disease. External supports (visual and text cues) are effective in improving the communication of residents with dementia, but these cues are often not used in practice. Standard assessment (verbal questioning) places greater demands on short-term memory and attention, which are known deficits in dementia.

Applying a within-subjects design, this study evaluated two conditions (standard …

Neurocognitive Basis Of Repetition Deficits In Primary Progressive Aphasia, Sladjana Lukic, Maria Luisa Mandelli, Ariane Welch, Kesshi Jordan, Wendy Shwe, John Neuhaus, Zachary Miller, H. Isabel Hubbard, Maya Henry, Bruce L. Miller, Nina F. Dronkers, Maria Luisa Gorno-Tempini

Communication Sciences and Disorders Faculty Publications

Previous studies indicate that repetition is affected in primary progressive aphasia (PPA), particularly in the logopenic variant, due to limited auditory-verbal short-term memory (avSTM). We tested repetition of phrases varied by length (short, long) and meaning (meaningful, non-meaningful) in 58 participants (22 logopenic, 19 nonfluent, and 17 semantic variants) and 21 healthy controls using a modified Bayles repetition test. We evaluated the relation between cortical thickness and repetition performance and whether sub-scores could discriminate PPA variants.

Logopenic participants showed impaired repetition across all phrases, specifically in repeating long phrases and any phrases that were non-meaningful. Nonfluent, semantic, and healthy control …

Ua10/1 Vitality Report, Wku Suzanne Vitale Clinical Education Complex

WKU Administration Documents

Newsletter created by and about the WKU Suzanne Vitale Clinical Education Complex.

• Moore, Mary. LifeWorks Groundbreaking Ceremony Announced
• Hardin, Amy. Sensory Bags Avaiable at WKU Home Football Games
• Kersting, Frank. LifeWorks Job Training & Placement
• Sales, Shannon. Coffee & Conversation: Resources in the SOKY Area for Families with Special Needs
• Hudson, Caroline. Renshaw Early Childhood Care Center Explores the Wonders of Nature Through Play
• Hudson, Caroline. Dating Dos & Don'ts - Circle of Support
• Elkins, Michelle. Building Leadership Skills with a New Kelly Autism Program Group
• Elkins, Michelle. Kelly Autism Program Summer Camp Experience
• Orndorff, Ericka. A Farewell Letter
• Collins, …

Automatic Feature Discrimination Of Non-Nutritive Suck Dynamics Among Extremely Preterm Infants., Mckenzie Ann Ochoa

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

Prematurity is the leading cause of death in the first month of life. Neonates are forced to engage the extrauterine environment with an underdeveloped nervous systems, with limited connectivity between orofacial sensorimotor anatomy, brainstem pattern-generating circuits, and sensory-driven thalamocortical inputs to layer IV of the neocortex. This is correlated with an inability to produce the complex neuromotor behaviors of oral feeding. The NTrainer System is an assessment and treatment tool that promotes ororhythmic motor patterning in preterm infants though pulsed orocutaneous stimulation to improve NNS.

This report represents an interim analysis of NNS development among 42 extremely preterm infants enrolled …

The Quality Of Transdisciplinary Team Assessment Practices For Mobile Technology As Augmentative And Alternative Communication, Laura Jeanne Mansfield

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

While research acknowledges the impact the rapid growth in mobile technology is having on the field of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), little has been done to investigate the impact this development has had on assessment practices for matching an individual with the appropriate technology. The purpose of this descriptive and causal-comparative research study was to gather demographic and descriptive data on mobile technology as AAC and to investigate the quality of transdisciplinary teamwork assessment practices as evaluated by speech-language pathologists (SLPs) for the provision of mobile technologies as AAC devices across SLP practice settings. A random sample of 60 …

The Speech And Language Skills, Needs, & Services For Children Who Homeschool: A National Survey, Shelby Hinrichs

Undergraduate Research Journal

Little is known about the communication abilities, needs, and services provided for children who are homeschooled. The current study utilized a national survey to explore this topic and to better inform future research to determine if families who homeschool have the necessary resources for information, support, and services regarding children’s speech, language, and literacy abilities. The participants of this study were contacted through a variety of homeschool associations via social media. The survey was developed through Qualtrics and guided by resources from two existing surveys directed towards homeschool education (Lewis, Robertson, Parsons, 2005; United States of Commerce, 2008).

The survey …

Uncoordinated Maturation Of Developing And Regenerating Postnatal Mammalian Vestibular Hair Cells, Tian Wang, Mamiko Niwa, Zahra N. Sayyid, Davood K. Hosseini, Nicole Pham, Sherri M. Jones, Anthony J. Ricci, Alan G. Cheng

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

Sensory hair cells are mechanoreceptors required for hearing and balance functions. From embryonic development, hair cells acquire apical stereociliary bundles for mechanosensation, basolateral ion channels that shape receptor potential, and synaptic contacts for conveying information centrally. These key maturation steps are sequential and presumed coupled; however, whether hair cells emerging postnatally mature similarly is unknown. Here, we show that in vivo postnatally generated and regenerated hair cells in the utricle, a vestibular organ detecting linear acceleration, acquired some mature somatic features but hair bundles appeared nonfunctional and short. The utricle consists of two hair cell subtypes with distinct morphological, electrophysiological …

Developing A School-Age Language Screening For Sli, Logan Douglass

Theses and Dissertations

Purpose: This study explored past tense marking in oral reading as a clinical marker of specific language impairment (SLI). A School-Age Language Screening Assessment (SALSA) was evaluated to determine whether it can be used to improve the identification of school-age children with SLI. The first aim was to calculate overall accuracy with children with TL and SLI on reading regular and irregular past tense verbs in oral reading of connected text. The second aim was to determine the overall diagnostic accuracy of SALSA.

Method: 96 children with TL and 3 children with SLI (N = 99) in grades 2-4 were …

Speech Entrainment To Improve Spontaneous Speech In Broca's Aphasia., Helga Thors

Theses and Dissertations

Speech entrainment, a treatment method that requires participants to mimic the speech of an audiovisual model in real time, has been shown to benefit individuals with non-fluent aphasia when they speak about trained topics. It is unclear if it improves spontaneous speech, which does not pertain to trained items, in the same way. In an effort to investigate this matter, the current study examined the effects of speech entrainment on spontaneous speech that does not relate to trained items, it also estimated effect sizes associated with improvements in speech production as a result of this treatment approach, and explored participant …

The Effect Of Spectral Shaping On Perceptual, Acoustic, And Listening Effort Measurements In Young Normal Hearing Adults, Rachel Madorskiy

Theses and Dissertations

Amplification is necessary to restore audibility to individuals with hearing impairment. However, frequency-specific amplification alters the spectral shape and level of speech. Previous research has demonstrated that amplification is associated with better speech recognition outcomes as compared to unaided listening (e.g. Humes, 2013). However, many hearing aid listeners report a lack of perceived benefit associated with hearing aids, and adherence is low (McCormack and Fortnum, 2013). This may, in part, be reflected by a common complaint of hearing aid users that speech is audible, but additional effort is required to understand speech. As amplification alters the spectral shape and overall …

Exploration Of Early Spelling In Children With Hearing Loss, Carson Aho

Theses and Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine differences in spelling errors between children with normal hearing and children with hearing loss in kindergarten.

Method: Participants included 21 children with normal hearing and 23 children with hearing loss. All children used spoken English as their primary language. The children with hearing loss all utilized a hearing amplification device. Participants completed three single-word spelling assessments, a language assessment, and an oral reading assessment. An independent samples t-test was used to determine if the groups had differences in the number of spelling errors and whether a difference was observed within the …

Script Training For Adults Who Stutter, Courtney M. Rankin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Treatment for adulthood stuttering traditionally focuses on some combination of stuttering management and fluency management and may also target emotional and cognitive reactions to stuttering. However, long-term gains are often limited, and there is a need for continued development of approaches for mitigating impacts of stuttering. We know of no evidence-based therapy approaches designed to target functional communication in adults who stutter (AWS), despite widespread interest in improving functional communication in members of this speaker group. Script training is an intervention approach designed to improve accuracy and automaticity in functional communication. Script training was originally designed for use with adults …

The Effect Of Narrative Language Intervention On The Language Skills Of Children With Hearing Loss, Stephanie M. Raymond

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Children with hearing loss have limited auditory access to their native language and struggle to develop appropriate language skills. These children consistently demonstrate less complex oral language output, smaller vocabulary inventories, and delays in overall communicative proficiency. With the extensive implications hearing loss has on language development, a child with hearing loss requires immediate access to appropriate and effective intervention to address deficits and curb long-term language delays. However, there is a paucity of research investigating the effects of various language intervention programs with children with hearing loss. Much of the existing research focuses on the consequences of a selected …

Unseen, But In Plain Sight: Identifying Developmental Patterns Of Females With Symptoms Of Autism Spectrum Disorder, Rebecca Lundwall

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Evaluation of how well the academic objectives of the proposal were met I will document the academic objectives met in terms of posters, presentations and papers.

The Predictive Validity Of A Kindergarten Dynamic Assessment Of Language, Veronica White, Douglas Petersen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Kindergarten students are often administered screening instruments designed to identify weaknesses in emergent literacy skills. Unfortunately, these screeners, which only measure what a student currently knows, cannot validly differentiate between students who have low scores because of limited exposure, language/dialectal differences, or a disability. A more valid approach to identifying kindergarten students for future reading difficulty is needed. Dynamic assessment is emerging as a valid alternative to traditional screening measures. The language subtest of the PEARL (Petersen & Spencer, 2016) uses a dynamic assessment approach where students are administered a pretest (a story retell), participate in language instruction on story …

Using Implementation Science To Engage Stakeholders And Improve Outcome Measurement In A Preschool Speech-Language Service System, Barbara Jane Cunningham, Janis Oram Cardy

PRECISe Preschool Speech and Language Publications

This tutorial presents one example of collaborative implementation research in a preschool speech-language service system - Ontario Canada’s Preschool Speech and Language Program. Working collaboratively with stakeholders including policy makers, managers, and speech-language pathologists (SLPs), four webinar modules were developed to support implementation of the Focus on the Outcomes of Communication Under Six (FOCUS), a new participation-focused outcome measurement tool in pediatric speech-language pathology. The webinar modules were pilot tested at two community sites to determine whether they were effective at increasing SLPs’ knowledge, perceptions, and intentions for practice. The Knowledge-to-Action framework was used to inform all phases of this …

Interpreting Speech Perception In Children With Phonological Deficits: Evidence From Event Related Potentials (Erp), Camille Nuttall, Kathryn Cabbage

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Children with dyslexia and children with speech sound disorder exhibit differing issues in regard to their speech and language. Dyslexia is a difficulty decoding written language, such as with word recognition or spelling. Speech sound disorder is characterized by speech production errors. Although dyslexia and speech sound disorders are often co-morbid, each can occur singularly (Lewis et al, 2011). Although both disorders respond to expert intervention, the underlying deficits last a lifetime and may negatively affect quality of life. Early identification is paramount to preventing long-term negative outcomes. A better understanding of how these disorders are activating in the brain …

Emotional Inferencing In Children With Language Impairment, Allison Barney, Bonnie Brinton

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Children with language impairment (LI) present with “a significant impairment in the acquisition and use of language across modalities” (ASHA, 1993). LI is a prevalent disorder affecting 7% of kindergarteners (Tomblin et al, 1997). LI limits a child’s ability to acquire language, to establish relationships with others, and to succeed in school. In addition, children with LI experience a range of social problems including withdrawal, exclusion, and peer victimization (Fujiki & Brinton, 2017). Recent research has indicated that children with LI have particular difficulty with emotion understanding (Brinton & Fujiki, 2014; Spackman, Fujiki, & Brinton, 2006). That is, they struggle …

Psychometric Evaluation Of The Bilingual English-Spanish Assessment Sentence Repetition Task For Clinical Decision-Making, Lisa A. Fitton Ph.D., Rachel Hoge, Yaacov Petscher, Carla Wood

Faculty Publications

Purpose: The purpose of the present study was a) to examine the underlying components or factor structure of the Bilingual English-Spanish Assessment (Peña et al., 2014) sentence repetition task and b) to examine the relationship between Spanish-English speaking children's sentence repetition and vocabulary performance. Method: Participants were 291 Spanish-English speaking children in kindergarten and first grade. Item analyses were used to evaluate the underlying factor structure for each language version of the sentence repetition tasks of the BESA. The tasks were then examined in relation to a measure of English receptive vocabulary. Results: Bifactor models, which include a single underlying …

Dual Task Effects On Story Retell For Participants With Moderate, Mild, Or No Aphasia: Quantitative And Qualitative Findings, Tyson G. Harmon, Adam Jacks, Katarina L. Haley, Antoine Bailliard

Faculty Publications

Purpose: To determine dual task effects on content accuracy, delivery speed, and perceived effort during narrative discourse in people with moderate, mild, or no aphasia and to explore subjective reactions to retelling a story with a concurrent task.

Method: Two studies (one quantitative and one qualitative) were conducted. In study 1, participants with mild or moderate aphasia and neurotypical controls retold short stories in isolation and while simultaneously distinguishing between high and low tones. Story retell accuracy (speech productivity and efficiency), speed (speech rate, repetitions, and pauses), and perceived effort were measured and compared. In study 2, participants completed semi-structured …