Communication Sciences and Disorders Commons^™

Unsteady Nasalance Traces Among Sustained Vowels In Typical Adult Speakers: Prevalence & Potential Causes, Catherine Hearit

Honors Theses

Background. Vowels are a commonly used stimulus for evaluating speech resonance because hypernasality is best detected in vowel sounds. It was observed that steady-state sustained vowels show considerable within sample nasalance variance, although nasalance is expected to be stable for this speech target.

Purpose. The purpose of the study was to ascertain the prevalence of variability among normal speakers in steady state vowel nasalance traces and to determine the variables that predict variability.

Methods: Sixty-one participants aged 18 through 30 years were recruited. All participants were lifelong residents of the lower peninsula of Michigan with normal hearing sensitivity and no …

Personal Interviews: Do They Make Sense In 2015?, Larry Boles, Kerry Mandulak

School of Pharmacy Faculty Presentations

No abstract provided.

Grant Proposal: Effects Of Sound Field Amplification On Standardized Test Scores, Jessica Ivey Coker

Doctoral Dissertations

Research has shown that the majority of classroom environments lack appropriate acoustical standards to ensure optimal learning conditions. During the early school grades, it is especially crucial that students overcome poor listening environments to obtain the fundamental educational skills necessary for academic success. Furthermore, the State of Louisiana conducts standardized test assessments (LEAP and iLEAP) to measure the students' knowledge and skills gained. These standardized test scores not only determine if the student progresses to the next grade, but also influences the amount of federal revenue and how the revenue is allocated to the schools. A proposed remedy to …

Ear Specific Anl Measurements In Individuals With Unilateral And Asymmetrical Sensorineural Hearing Loss, Rebecca Howard

Doctoral Dissertations

The present study sought to determine if ANLs differ between ears within subjects with unilateral or asymmetrical SNHL. ANL was measured in four conditions (i.e., binaural, better ear, poorer ear unmasked, and poorer ear masked) in fifteen adults, nine with unilateral SNHL and six with bilateral asymmetrical SNHL. A significant difference between ANL in the four conditions (i.e., binaural, better ear, poorer ear unmasked, and poorer ear masked) was identified; however, the subjects with unilateral and asymmetrical SNHL behaved similarly throughout the testing. When comparing the four conditions, the results showed a significant difference between both the binaural ANL and …

The Effect Of Auditory Processing Abilities On Acceptable Noise Levels, Brandee E. Richardson

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of the present study was to determine typical acceptable noise levels (ANLs) in children diagnosed with auditory processing disorder (APD) and compare those to ANLs in children without APD. Sixteen participants, eight children with APD and eight children without APD, were administered a complete audiological evaluation and a series of APD tests [Filtered Words, Competing Sentences, and Auditory Figure Ground (0) subtests of the SCAN– 3C; Staggered Spondaic Word test; and Pitch Pattern test] to determine normal or abnormal auditory processing ability. Conventional ANLs were measured on each participant to determine acceptance of background noise. The results …

Let's Talk Speech! Volume 8 Issue 1, Barbara T. Schmidt Ph.D.

Communication Sciences and Disorders Newsletter

This has been an AMAZING year for all of us here at Molloy College. First, the New York State Education Department (NYSED) awarded the M.S. Program the opportunity to offer teacher certification to our graduate students in speech-language pathology. This certification is commonly referred to as the TSSLD and was the result of the tireless efforts of Professor Joanne Ascher, who initiated the application and the discussions with NYSED. Second, the Council of Academic Accreditation in Audiology and SpeechLanguage Pathology (CAA) of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, awarded the MS degree program accreditation for a period of five years. This was …

Source Localization In Cross Modality Matching Of Brightness And Loudness Of Young Adults, Tawnya Nadine Coates

Theses and Dissertations

Cross modality matching is a magnitude matching procedure, developed to study the relationships between sensory modalities. Auditory and visual sensory integration can be examined through cross modality matching of brightness and loudness. Brightness and loudness are natural correlates of one another as they both represent the parameter of intensity for their respective sensory modalities. Past studies have demonstrated that typical individuals tend to match brighter lights with louder sounds and dimmer lights with softer sounds. The current study utilized a modified cross modality matching procedure, combined with electroencephalography (EEG) data, to examine the cortical response to sensory integration. It was …

Effects Of Moderate-Level Sound Exposure On Behavioral Thresholds In Chinchillas, Maria Sandra Carbajal De Nava

Open Access Theses

Normal audiometric thresholds following noise exposure have generally been considered as an indication of a recovered cochlea and intact peripheral auditory system, yet recent animal work has challenged this classic assumption. Moderately noise-exposed animals have been shown to have permanent loss of synapses on inner hair cells (IHCs) and permanent damage to auditory nerve fibers (ANFs), specifically the low-spontaneous rate fibers (low-SR), despite normal electrophysiological thresholds. Loss of cochlear synapses, known as cochlear synaptopathy, disrupts auditory-nerve signaling, which may result in perceptual speech deficits in noise despite normal audiometric thresholds. Perceptual deficit studies in humans have shown evidence consistent with …

Different Neural Mechanisms For Causal Processing In Language And Perception: An Fmri Study, Brett B. Bankson, Dirk B. Den Ouden

Communication Sciences and Disorders Faculty Articles and Research

Information that is used to establish and evaluate causal relationships between objects and events can be gleaned from many sources, especially those that rely on language and perception. For example, sentences with a verb structure using change of state verbs such as “to break” or “to freeze” imply sequential events that express understood causal relationships. At this time, little research has examined the neural correlates of causal verb processing or has compared them to the more well researched brain activity involved in perceptual causal processing. This study investigated the extent to which the evaluation of causal verbs and causal image …

March 13, 2015 Annual Retreat, Communication Disorders & Sciences

Faculty Meeting Minutes & Agendas

Meeting minutes of the March 13, 2015 annual retreat.

March 4, 2015, Communication Disorders & Sciences

Faculty Meeting Minutes & Agendas

Meeting minutes of the March 4, 2015 Faculty Committee meeting.

Brain Mapping Of The Latency Epochs In A Mcgurk Effect Paradigm In Music Performance And Visual Arts Majors, Lauren Donelle Nordstrom

Theses and Dissertations

The McGurk effect is an illusion that occurs when an auditory /ba/ is combined with a visual /ga/. The two stimuli fuse together which leads to the perception of /da/, a sound in between /ba/ and /ga/. The purpose of this study was to determine whether music performance and visual arts majors process mismatched auditory and visual stimuli, like the McGurk effect, differently. Nine syllable pairs were presented to 10 native English speakers (5 music performance majors and 5 visual arts majors between the ages of 18 and 28 years) in a four-forced-choice response paradigm. Data from event-related potentials were …

External Validity Of Grammatical Word Category Classification Using An Adaptation And Selection Model, Michelle Chatterton

Theses and Dissertations

The process of acquiring language requires children to learn grammatical categories and apply these categories to new words. Researchers have proposed various explanations of this process in the form of algorithms and computational modeling. Recently, adaptation and selection models have been tested and applied as a possible explanation to the process of acquiring grammatical categories. These studies have proven promising, however, the external validity of this approach has not been examined by grammatically coding samples outside the training corpus. The current thesis applies an adaptation and selection model, which pauses the evolution of dictionaries after every thousand cycles to allow …

Modeling Children's Acquisition Of Grammatical Word Categories From Adult Input Using An Adaptation And Selection Algorithm, Nicole Adele Stenquist

Theses and Dissertations

It is understood that children learn the use of grammatical categories in their native language, and previous models have only been partially successful in describing this acquisition. The present study uses an adaptation selection algorithm to continue the work in addressing this question. The input for the computer model is child-directed speech towards three children, ages ranging from 1;1 to 5;1 during the course of sampling. The output of the model consists of the input words labeled with a grammatical category. This output data was evaluated at regular intervals through its ability to correctly identify the grammatical categories of language …

Reliance On Auditory Feedback In Children With Childhood Apraxia Of Speech, Jenya Iuzzini-Seigel, Tiffany P. Hogan, Anthony J. Guarino, Jordan R. Green

Speech Pathology and Audiology Faculty Research and Publications

Children with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) have been hypothesized to continuously monitor their speech through auditory feedback to minimize speech errors. We used an auditory masking paradigm to determine the effect of attenuating auditory feedback on speech in 30 children: 9 with CAS, 10 with speech delay, and 11 with typical development. The masking only affected the speech of children with CAS as measured by voice onset time and vowel space area. These findings provide preliminary support for greater reliance on auditory feedback among children with CAS.

Learning outcomes: Readers of this article should be able to (i) …

Monophthongal Vowel Production In Females With Primary Sjögren's Syndrome Following A Hydration Treatment Of Nebulized Saline, Kara Rytting

Theses and Dissertations

Sjögren's Syndrome (SS) is an autoimmune disease that causes extreme dryness, or sicca,of the eyes and mouth, as well as other potential drying of the throat and intestines. Speech, voice, and swallowing problems are common in individuals with SS. Therefore, this study examined the possible changes in acoustic characteristics of monophthongs (/i, æ, α, u, ʌ/) in eight females with SS following laryngeal hydration treatments. An ABAB experimental design was implemented. Treatment consisted of nebulized isotonic saline immediately following completion of audio-recordings. Using acoustic analysis software the duration, formant frequencies, and vowel space area (VSA) was calculated for the participant's …

Stakeholder Perspectives Of The Effectiveness Of Augmentative And Alternative Communication Techniques In Children With Autism, Daria Constantinescu

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to utilize focus groups and individual interviews to investigate the effectiveness and efficiency of augmentative and alternative (AAC) techniques in facilitating language in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) as expressed by the opinions and attitudes of stakeholders involved in the process. ASD is a disorder that affects an individual's social and communication skills that usually surfaces within a child's first three years of life. There have been numerous studies conducted comparing different types of AAC intervention systems, but there is little information on stakeholders' opinions. The current study utilized one focus group interview …

February 4, 2015, Communication Disorders & Sciences

Faculty Meeting Minutes & Agendas

Meeting agenda of the February 4, 2015 Faculty Meeting.

Effectiveness And Parent Acceptability Of 'Youth Engagement Through Intervention' Social Skills Group For Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders, Zachary Shindorf, Anisa Goforth, Jennifer K. Schoffer Closson, Erin Yosai, Phillip A. Thomas, Miki J. Anderson

Speech, Language, Hearing, and Occupational Sciences Faculty Publications

This poster was presented at the Annual National Association of School Psychologists Conference in Orlando, Florida.

January 14, 2015, Communication Disorders & Sciences

Faculty Meeting Minutes & Agendas

Meeting agenda of the January 14, 2015 Faculty Meeting.