Communication Sciences and Disorders Commons^™

A Comparison Of Intervention Approaches Using The Ipad, Meredith Healy

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Research has indicated that an interactive, naturalistic style of instruction facilitates vocabulary learning (Armbruster, Lehr, & Osborn, 2010; Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2005; Brett, Rothlein, & Hurley, 1996). Evidence also suggests that direct instruction is effective for children with language impairment (Jenkins, Pany, & Schreck, 1978; Boehm, 1986; Siefert & Schwarz, 1991). A reduced fast-mapping ability is characteristic of children with language impairment (Rice, Buhr, & Nemeth, 1990), necessitating additional support when providing vocabulary instruction (Steele & Mills, 2011) . As many forms of technology are being integrated into educational settings, it is imperative to consider the effects of technology …

Executive Functions As Rated By Teachers Of Preschool Children With Language Impairment And Typical Language Skills, Karissa Genenbacher

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Executive functions (EFs) comprise an array of higher order cognitive skills which are important for the development of self-control and effective participation in home and school environments. Research has begun to identify executive function deficits in children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) and in children who are at-risk for language impairment. The purpose of this study was to investigate differences in executive functioning skills of children with SLI, children demonstrating at-risk language, and children with typical language, based on teacher ratings of the Behavioral Rating inventory of Executive Function- Preschool (BRIEF-P). The relationships between executive functions and language skills …

The Effect Of Dialect On Speech Audiometry Testing, Shawn L. Nissen, Richard W. Harris, Ron W. Channell, Nathan E. Richardson, Jamie A. Garlick, Dennis L. Eggett

Faculty Publications

Purpose: In this study, the authors examined the validity of using materials from 2 nonregional yet mutually intelligible dialects to evaluate an individual’s speech recognition threshold (SRT) and word recognition (WR) abilities and whether a speaker of 1 dialect could accurately administer and score materials in the other dialect. Method: Previously created SRT and WR materials were presented to 32 Mandarin listeners with normal hearing:16 speakers of Mainland Mandarin and 16 speakers of Taiwan Mandarin. Hearing abilities were examined using SRT and WR materials created for speakers from 2 different regional dialects. Presentation of the materials occur red during 2 …

Narrative Discourse In Aphasia: Main Concept And Core Lexicon Analyses Of The Cinderella Story, Emily Patricia Dillow

Theses and Dissertations

Discourse is a highly individualized and complex speech act essential for effective communication in daily life. Individuals with language disorders demonstrate impaired narrative ability and a resultant decline in functional communication (Webster, Franklin, & Howard, 2007). Discourse analysis is often time-consuming and impractical for everyday clinical use. Most informative discourse measures require specialized training to perform and are time-consuming. A clinically practical measurement is lacking. Standardized core lexicon and main concept lists for discourse tasks could allow clinicians to efficiently assess discourse skills and predict activity and participation limitations. This study presents the development and application of a core lexicon …

Graduate Bulletin, 2013-2014, Minnesota State University Moorhead

Graduate Bulletins (Catalogs)

No abstract provided.

Examining The Validity And Reliability Of The Infant-Toddler Meaningful Auditory Integration Scales (It-Mais) Via Rasch Analysis, Anne Denise Schubert

LSU Master's Theses

In this study, we analyzed the validity and reliability of the Infant-Toddler Meaningful Auditory Integration Scales (IT-MAIS; Zimmerman-Phillips, Osberger, & Robbins, 2001), an assessment designed to measure listening skills in children ages 0-3 years. The IT-MAIS is a caregiver report tool used by speech-language pathologists and audiologists to assess listening skills in children with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) pre- and post-cochlear implant (CI). The IT-MAIS is widely used; however, it has not undergone thorough psychometric analysis. Using longitudinal data collected by the University of Iowa Children’s Cochlear Implant Program, we analyzed the psychometric properties of the IT-MAIS via Rasch analysis, …

Military Trauma And Its Influence On Loudness Perception, Marc A. Fagelson

ETSU Faculty Works

Excerpt: It is often the case that veterans who experience hyperacusis have hearing loss and tinnitus; what sets the patient with PTSD apart is an increased likelihood that will rate sound tolerance problems as more severe than tinnitus and hearing loss.

Comparing Spoken Language Treatments For Minimally Verbal Preschoolers With Autism Spectrum Disorders, Rhea Paul, Daniel Campbell, Kimberly Gilbert, Ioanna Tsiouri

Communication Disorders Faculty Publications

Preschoolers with severe autism and minimal speech were assigned either a discrete trial or a naturalistic language treatment, and parents of all participants also received parent responsiveness training. After 12 weeks, both groups showed comparable improvement in number of spoken words produced, on average. Approximately half the children in each group achieved benchmarks for the first stage of functional spoken language development, as defined by Tager-Flusberg et al. (J Speech Lang Hear Res, 52: 643–652, 2009). Analyses of moderators of treatment suggest that joint attention moderates response to both treatments, and children with better receptive language pre-treatment do better with …

Finding Similarities Between Photographs And The Stroke And Aphasia Quality Of Life Scale - 39 (Saqol-39) Items, Ashley Renee Brouwer

LSU Master's Theses

Background: The Stroke and Aphasia Quality of Life Scale-39 (SAQOL-39) is a valid, reliable quality of life (QoL) assessment for PWA (Hilari, 2003; Hilari, Byng, Lamping, & Smith, 2003). However, individuals with severe aphasia are unable to use it because their ability to comprehend the text is too severely impaired for accurate self-report (Hilari & Byng, 2009; Hilari et al., 2003; Hilari, Owen, & Farrelly, 2007). Proxy respondents often report on QoL measures for these individuals; however, studies suggest differences between proxy-reported and self-reported scores in less severe populations (e.g., Cruice, Worrall, Hickson, & Murison, 2005; Engell, Hütter, Willmes, & …

Effect Of Rate Reduction On Speech Intelligibility In Individuals With Dysarthria, Zachary Hall

LSU Master's Theses

This study examined how speech rate reduction affects speech intelligibility in speakers with dysarthria associated with diverse neurological conditions. Three speakers with dysarthria were recorded reading a paragraph using conversational and reduced speech rates. The samples of both the conversational and slow rates were digitally edited to include silent pauses at the speakers’ natural breaks. The samples were then segmented into breath group utterances. Five samples with the greatest rate reductions from each speaker were used as stimuli, each presented in four rate conditions: conversational, slow, synthesized conversational, and synthesized slow. The listeners rated the intelligibility of 60 samples using …

Review Of Ear Health And Hearing Among Indigenous Peoples, Jane Burns, Neil Thomson

Research outputs pre 2011

This review of ear health and hearing among Indigenous Australians has been prepared by the Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet as a part of our contributions to ‘closing the gap’ in health between Indigenous people1 and other Australians. The aim is to make relevant, high quality knowledge and information easily accessible to policy makers, health service providers, program managers, clinicians, researchers and the general community. The review is an example of the HealthInfoNet’s translational research, defined as ‘comprehensive applied research that strives to translate the available knowledge and render it operational’

The main purpose of the review, which follows the model of …

Acoustic And Perceptual Measurements Of Prosody Production On The Profiling Elements Of Prosodic Systems In Children By Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders, Joshua John Diehl, Rhea Paul

Communication Disorders Faculty Publications

Prosody production atypicalities are a feature of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), but behavioral measures of performance have failed to provide detail on the properties of these deficits. We used acoustic measures of prosody to compare children with ASDs to age-matched groups with learning disabilities and typically developing peers. Overall, the group with ASD had longer utterance durations on multiple subtests on a test of prosodic abilities, and both the ASD and learning disabilities groups had higher pitch ranges and pitch variance than the typically developing group on one subtest. Acoustic differences were present even when the prosody was used correctly.These …

Roles Of Speech-Language Pathologists In The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Katy Lane Greenlee

Honors Theses

This thesis examined the roles of speech-language pathologists (SLPs) within the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). In 2004, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association published a set of policy documents regarding speech-language pathology practice in the NICU. Research compiled in the literature review explained and supported each of the roles listed in the ASHA policy documents. The literature also revealed that very few sources specific to the speech-language pathology field addressed roles other than those related to feeding and swallowing evaluation and intervention. This research investigated ASHA-certified, masters-level SLPs' familiarity with each of their possible roles in the NICU, as well as …

Experiences Of Speech-Language Pathology Graduate Students: An Exploratory Phenomenological Study, Anysia J. Ensslen

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Leadership Studies

Within the past decade little research has been conducted in the United States to examine the preparedness of beginning speech-language pathologists; the seminal article used for this research study comes from the United Kingdom (Horton, Byng, Bunning, & Pring, 2004). Literature from the past few decades indicates that there may be deficiencies in the way that beginning speech-language pathologists are being trained clinically.

The review of the literature suggests that the field may lack a clear and broadly supported learning theory or framework for the clinical supervision and training of speech-language pathology graduate students. The literature further supports the importance …

The Effects Of Morphophonic Faces As A Method For Teaching Sight Words, Ashley Jean Williams

LSU Master's Theses

Previous studies exploring the use of superimposed pictures for sight word learning provide mixed results, with inconclusive benefits. One criticism is that even when sight word learning is enhanced, it does not improve the learner’s use of the alphabetic principle. A second criticism is that it is only feasible for easily depicted words. This study addressed these criticisms by using pictured sight words representing a hybrid between alphabet and sight word learning, MorphoPhonic Faces (MPF). MPF have the first letter drawn in the mouth of a face suggesting speech production cues. Thus, participants were provided alphabet cues first and then …

Differentiation Of Voice Disorders Using Objective Parameters From Harmonic Waveform Modeling In High-Speed Digital Imaging, Aimee Elaine Perkins

LSU Master's Theses

High-speed digital imaging (HSDI) has recently become clinically available for the direct observation of vocal fold movement in the last 20 years. However, before it can become routinely used in the clinical setting, a universal means of objectively analyzing and interpreting the HSDI data must be established. In this study, preliminary data was gathered for five parameters used to objectively analyze vocal fold vibratory patterns observed with HSDI. The parameters investigated were established by Ikuma, Kunduk, and McWhorter (2012a) and were previously studied with a small sample (N=8) comparing pre and post-phonosurgical removal of benign lesions. The five parameters included …

An Acoustic Description Of Vowels Spoken By Speakers With Cajun Ethnicity In Southern Louisiana, Ali Beslin

LSU Master's Theses

This study aimed to provide selected acoustic data for vowels of one portion of the southern region (Southern LA) in recognition that a variety of Southern dialects have not been recognized on the American English dialect map. To examine dialectical variations in vowel acoustics, this study included a relatively greater number of acoustic parameters including: vowel duration, F1 and F2 from the temporal midpoint of the vowel, trajectory length, and F2 slope. Ten participants between the ages of 18 to 24 were selected from the Southern Louisiana dialect region. Speech stimuli, which have been used in prior research regarding dialect, …

Supporting Speech-Language Pathologist Evidence-Based Practice Use: A Mixed-Methods Study In Skilled Nursing Facilities Within The Promoting Action On Research Implementation In Health Services Framework, Natalie Franko Douglas

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As the management of dementia is a significant public health concern, efforts to increase access to effective treatments to a greater number of residents with dementia in skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) are warranted. The treatment addressed in this study, non-electronic external memory aids, is an evidence-based practice that has been found to increase positive communicative interactions and decrease negative behavioral problems of residents with dementia in SNFs.

Although use of memory aids is recommended, there are significant barriers such as lack of time and resources that inhibit the use of effective treatments in typical clinical settings. To address such barriers …

Does The Use Of Personally Relevant Stimuli In Semantic Complexity Training Facilitate Improved Functional Communication Performance Compared To Non-Personally Relevant Stimulus Items Among Adults With Chronic Aphasia?, Stephanie Karidas

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the influence of semantic complexity treatment in individuals with fluent aphasia on discourse performance. Semantic treatment is an effective way to improve semantically based word retrieval problems in aphasia. Treatment focused on the semantic application of the Complexity Account of Treatment Efficacy (CATE) (Thompson, Shapiro, Kiran, & Sobecks, 2003) promotes training of complex items resulting in generalization to less complex, untrained items. In addition, research has shown that the personal relevance of treatment material can increase treatment efficacy. This study investigated the effect of semantic treatment of atypical personally relevant items among individuals with aphasia on discourse …

The Effect Of Rate Change On The Relative Timing Of Speakers With Multiple Sclerosis, Brandlynn N. Reister

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Relative timing ratios are a useful measure for determining the temporal regularities of speech. The timing intervals that make up these ratios are thought to be important when creating the motor plan for an utterance (Weismer & Fennell, 1985). In fact, these ratios have been shown to be remarkably stable, even when speakers deliberately increase their rate (Tuller & Kelso, 1984; Weismer & Fennell, 1985). The constancy of these ratios also has been demonstrated in speakers with known speech timing disturbances, like the dysarthrias associated with Parkinson's and Huntington's disease (Goberman & McMillan; Ludlow, Connor, & Bassich, 1987; Weismer & …