Communication Sciences and Disorders Commons^™

The Effect Of A Fluent Signing Narrator On Children's Behavior During Technology-Enhanced Shared Reading With Children With Hearing Loss And Their Parents, Gabriela Itzel Rodriguez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Shared reading plays an essential role in the language and literacy development of children who are at risk of future problems in those areas. Children with hearing loss (CHL) are a group who usually experience limited and poor quality activities that foster literacy development such as shared reading (SR). Researchers examining high quality interactions have rated child behaviors, primarily attention and initiation, during shared reading and play based activities finding positive correlations between these behaviors and the overall development in typically developing children as well as in children with other impairments such as Autism Spectrum Disorder and Down syndrome (Kim …

Short Term Memory Performance In 7- And 8-Year-Old Children: The Relationship Between Phonological And Pitch Processing, Ashley G. Flagge, Julie M. Estis, Robert E. Moore

Ashley Flagge Publications

Purpose: The relationship between short term memory for phonology and pitch was explored by examining accuracy scores for typically developing children for five experimental tasks: immediate nonword repetition (NWR), nonword repetition with an eight second silent interference (NWRS), pitch discrimination (PD), pitch discrimination with an eight second silent interference (PDS), and pitch matching (PM).

Method: Thirty-six 7- and 8-year old children (21 females, 15 males) with normal hearing, language, and cognition were asked to listen to and repeat nonsense words (NWR, NWRS), make a same vs. different decision between two tones (PD, PDS), and listen to and then vocally …

Preparation Of Speech-Language Pathologists To Provide Effective Services For Children With Cochlear Implants In New Hampshire Public Schools, Carolyn A. Babeu

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

The Spanish-English Bilingual: A Cross-Classfication Comparison Of Maze Use In Children, Jessica Valles

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

With the continual increase of bilingual individuals in the United States, there is a critical need for research that can appropriately identify unique characteristics of language production for these individuals. In particular, maze use, or errors in production have been identified as a characteristic of language that typically occurs more in bilinguals' speech production than in monolingual productions. Research comparing bilingual maze use in individuals who are typically developing with bilingual maze use individuals who are language impaired is limited. To compare these bilingual children with language impairment with to their typically developing peers, children were paired by age, grade, …

The Contribution Of Self-Regulation To Reading Comprehension In Adolescent Learners, Rebecca Lynn Parker

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the dually implicated processes of language and self-regulation in reading comprehension and to determine if self-regulation contributes unique variance to reading comprehension beyond word recognition/decoding and oral language comprehension. The study also sought to determine if the unique contribution of self-regulation to reading comprehension differs for students with language/learning difficulties and students with typical language/learning histories. Thirty-two 6th, 7th, and 8th graders participated in this study. Of these participants, 17 students had language/learning difficulties and 15 students had typical language/learning histories. All participants attended a low performing public middle school located in …

Phonological Encoding Of Medial Vowels In Adults Who Stutter, Allison Elizabeth Jacobs

LSU Master's Theses

Previous data suggest the metrical properties of a word may influence the time course of phonological encoding, particularly in adults who stutter. The purpose of the present study is to examine phonological and metrical encoding skills in fluent and non-fluent adults, in particular the medial stress-bearing vowel. Investigators used a silent phoneme monitoring paradigm to assess reaction times for all phonemes within nonword CVCCVC stimuli. This paradigm required participants to manually identify target phonemes within a nonword to further isolate the level of phonological encoding from other processes. Eight participants were exposed to stimuli with initial-stress, and eight participants were …

Spatio-Temporal Progression Of Cortical Activity Related To Continuous Overt And Covert Speech Production In A Reading Task, Jonathan S. Brumberg, Dean J. Krusienski, Shreya Chakrabarti, Aysegul Gunduz, Peter Brunner, Anthony L. Ritaccio, Gerwin Schalk

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

How the human brain plans, executes, and monitors continuous and fluent speech has remained largely elusive. For example, previous research has defined the cortical locations most important for different aspects of speech function, but has not yet yielded a definition of the temporal progression of involvement of those locations as speech progresses either overtly or covertly. In this paper, we uncovered the spatio-temporal evolution of neuronal population-level activity related to continuous overt speech, and identified those locations that shared activity characteristics across overt and covert speech. Specifically, we asked subjects to repeat continuous sentences aloud or silently while we recorded …

Reliability Of Auditory-Perceptual Ratings Of Dysarthric Speech: Hypokinetic Dysarthria Secondary To Parkinson's Disease, Jessica Lynn Miller

LSU Master's Theses

Perceptual judgment has been the gold standard in clinical practice, especially regarding differential diagnosis and treatment of dysarthria. Thus, it is critical to establish the reliability of perceptual ratings of the speech characteristics associated with different types of dysarthria. Despite its importance, the reliability and sensitivity of perceptual ratings of speech disturbance have been somewhat questioned. The purpose of this study was to examine the interrater reliability of ratings of perceptual characteristics and the saliency of these characteristics as related to hypokinetic dysarthria. Due to the feasibility issue, the scope of the study was limited to hypokinetic dysarthria associated with …

Communication: How Do Females With Rett Syndrome Perform This Activity And What Factors Influence Performance?, Anna Urbanowicz

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Background Rett syndrome is a neurodevelopmental disorder primarily caused by mutations in the X-linked methyl-Cp2G-binding protein 2 (MECP2) gene. The disorder affects approximately 1 in 9000 females and is usually associated with language, physical and intellectual impairments, each of which contributes to difficulties with communication. In Rett syndrome, eye gaze is considered a common form of communication and conventional methods, such as talking and gestures, less common. Females appear to use these forms of communication to serve a number of functions including choice making, requesting, social convention, bringing attention to themselves, and to reject, comment and answer. However, the literature …

A Randomized Controlled Trial Of Very Early Rehabilitation In Speech After Stroke, Erin Godecke, Elizabeth Armstrong, Tapan Rai, Sandy Middleton, Natalie Ciccone, Anne Whitworth, Miranda Rose, Audrey Holland, Fiona Ellery, Graeme Hankey, Dominique Cadilhac, Julie Bernhardt

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Rationale:

The efficacy of rehabilitation therapy for aphasia caused by stroke is uncertain.

Aims and hypothesis:

The Very Early Rehabilitation of Speech (VERSE) trial aims to determine if intensive prescribed aphasia therapy (VERSE) is more effective and cost saving than non-prescribed, intensive (usual care-plus) and non-intensive usual care (UC) therapy when started within 15 days of stroke onset and continued daily over four weeks. We hypothesize that aphasia therapy when started very early after stroke and delivered daily could enhance recovery of communication compared with UC.

Sample size estimates:

A total of 246 participants (82 per arm) will provide 80% …

Stick Or Switch: A Selection Heuristic Predicts When People Take The Perspective Of Others Or Communicate Egocentrically, Shane Rogers, Nicholas Fay

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This paper examines a cognitive mechanism that drives perspective-taking and egocentrism in interpersonal communication. Using a conceptual referential communication task, in which participants describe a range of abstract geometric shapes, Experiment 1 shows that perspective-taking and egocentric communication are frequent communication strategies. Experiment 2 tests a selection heuristic account of perspective-taking and egocentric communication. It uses participants' shape description ratings to predict their communication strategy. Participants' communication strategy was predicted by how informative they perceived the different shape descriptions to be. When participants' personal shape description was perceived to be more informative than their addressee's shape description, there was a …

The Use Of Speech-In-Noise Testing As A Measure Of Hearing Aid Benefit, Morgan Ann Thrasher

Student Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the feasibility of quantifying hearing aid benefit by means of speech-in-noise testing, specifically a modified version of the QuickSIN. Participants were recruited from the files of a licensed audiologist and all had sensorineural hearing loss, requiring hearing aids. Nineteen experienced hearing aid users were selected to participate in the study. Each individual listened, in aided and unaided conditions, to sentences embedded with increasing levels of background noise. Signal-to-noise ratio loss scores were calculated and averaged across conditions. Additionally, the relationship between participants’ audibility indexes and aided and unaided signal-to-noise ratio loss scores were analyzed. Results from this …

College Students' Knowledge About Stuttering: A Preliminary Investigation, Nichole Marie Terry

Student Theses and Dissertations

There is ample research on the public’s perception of individuals who stutter, but little research was found about the public’s knowledge about the definition and etiology of stuttering. The present study attempted to address whether college students in a specific area of study possessed either quantitative or qualitative differences in their knowledge about the definition and etiology of stuttering. Subjects included 80 males and 100 females across 9 different academic colleges to assess their knowledge of stuttering. Five open response questions were presented to each participant. Responses were orthographically transcribed and coded based on the current notions on the etiology …

Signs Of Friendship, Ashley N. Brickner, Kaylee J. Kapalko

Honors Projects

This children's book is about mainstreaming a deaf student into a public school composed of predominantly hearing children, and the eventual friendship between that student and a hearing student. The majority of deaf students are educated in hearing schools and experience high rates of social isolation as a result of the inability to communicate with their peers. In order to create this book, there was collaboration between a communication disorders major and a creative writing major in order to create a realistic portrayal yet creative learning tool for children at a young age. We chose to aim our book at …

Signs Of Friendship, Kaylee J. Kapalko, Ashley N. Brickner

Honors Projects

This children's book is about mainstreaming a deaf student into a public school composed of predominantly hearing children, and the eventual friendship between that student and a hearing student. The majority of deaf students are educated in hearing schools and experience high rates of social isolation as a result of the inability to communicate with their peers. In order to create this book, there was collaboration between a communication disorders major and a creative writing major in order to create a realistic portrayal yet creative learning tool for children at a young age. We chose to aim our book at …

December 2, 2015, Communication Disorders & Sciences

Faculty Meeting Minutes & Agendas

Meeting minutes of the December 2, 2015 Faculty Committee meeting.

Thyroid Disorders, Amanda Myers

University Honors Program

Thyroid disorders are highly prevalent worldwide. In order to obtain a better understanding of these disorders research was done by analyzing current data and scholarly literature. Questions answered by this research comprise different aspects of thyroid disorders and their affects. What types of thyroid disorders exist? How do they affect the body and how detrimental are they when left untreated? How do these disorders affect the daily living of the individuals affected? And how are third world populations affected by these disorders? Research suggests that over 750 million people worldwide suffer from a thyroid disorder. These disorders have detrimental effects …

Flow Experiences Among Individuals With Aphasia, Thomas W. Sather

Dissertations

Flow has been described as positive experiences of intense concentration, distorted time passage, and loss of self-consciousness. While flow has been reported for multiple populations in various settings, it has not been studied among individuals with aphasia. The purpose of this three paper dissertation is to examine flow experiences among individuals with mild aphasia, including environmental and personal factors associated with flow. Advocates of life participation approaches to aphasia stress the importance of interventions that support full engagement in life. Research on flow experiences and related environmental and personal factors may foster improved service delivery and outcomes for this population. …

The Right Ear Advantage In Response To Levels Of Linguistic Complexity: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study, Elizabeth Hyatt

Theses and Dissertations

The right ear advantage (REA) phenomenon has been utilized in clinical and research settings to study auditory processing disorders and linguistic lateralization. Previous research has established that the REA is not reliable in its measures within or between individuals. This is likely due to the influence of other variables, such as neuromaturation and attention. One variable that has not been studied in depth in this context is linguistic complexity. It was hypothesized that stimulus conditions with levels of linguistic complexity would elicit corresponding levels of temporal lobe activity. Understanding and controlling the variables that affect the REA will increase the …

Story Generation In Five School-Aged Children With Language Impairment, Suzanne Tutt Jones

Theses and Dissertations

This project examined the story generations of five children with language impairment (LI) between the ages of 5;11 and 10;1 across the treatment sessions of a narrative-based intervention program designed to improve social communication. These stories were analyzed to find whether the participants would approach the task by describing the stimulus pictures or if their stories would reflect an episodic structure containing cause and effect relationships. Additionally, the stories were analyzed for inclusion of emotion words to discern the participants' awareness of the characters' emotions. There was a high degree of variability in the participants' performance; however, the majority of …