Communication Sciences and Disorders Commons^™

The Effects Of Utilizing A Robot On The Social Engagement Behaviors Of Children With Autism In A Triadic Interaction, Kristi Anne Blanchard

Theses and Dissertations

The study presents the use of a humanoid robot to facilitate social engagement behaviors in four children with autism. These children were enrolled in a semester long treatment program based on components of the SCERTS model designed to facilitate social communication (Prizant, 2003). Following baseline, children received intervention sessions with and without the robot. During sessions involving the robot, each child would participate in a 10 minute interaction (as part of a 50 minute sessions) using a robot to facilitate interaction with a graduate clinician or parent. The interactions were recorded and analyzed for occurrences of social engagement behaviors. This …

The Effect Of Utilizing A Humanoid Robot On Social Engagement Behaviors In Children With Autism During Interaction With A Familiar Adult, Alyssa Stabenow

Theses and Dissertations

This study focused on intervention using a humanoid robot to facilitate social engagement and joint attention in four children with autism. Intervention was conducted over a three month period, with each child receiving pre-testing, intervention, and post-testing. Intervention was based on the SCERTS model (Prizant, Wetherby, Rubin, & Laurent, 2003). Pre- and post-testing involved interactions with a parent, a familiar adult interaction, a less-familiar adult interaction, and a triadic interaction. This study focuses on the baseline and follow-up testing from the interaction with the familiar adult. Following a period of traditional intervention, sessions involving a humanoid robot (named Troy) were …

Atlas-Based White Matter Analysis In Individuals With Velo-Cardio-Facial Syndrome (22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome) And Unaffected Siblings, Petya D. Radoeva, Ioana L. Coman, Kevin M. Antshel, Wanda Fremont, Christopher Mccarthy, Ashwini Kotkar, Dongliang Wang, Robert J. Shprintzen, Wendy R. Kates

Communication Disorders Faculty Publications

Background: Velo-cardio-facial syndrome (VCFS, MIM#192430, 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome) is a genetic disorder caused by a deletion of about 40 genes at the q11.2 band of one copy of chromosome 22. Individuals with VCFS present with deficits in cognition and social functioning, high risk of psychiatric disorders, volumetric reductions in gray and white matter (WM) and some alterations of the WM microstructure. The goal of the current study was to characterize the WM microstructural differences in individuals with VCFS and unaffected siblings, and the correlation of WM microstructure with neuropsychological performance. We hypothesized that individuals with VCFS would have decreased indices …

Improving Literacy Through Instruction And Community Experiences: : The Effect Of A Summer Program On Literacy Outcomes Of Students From Low Ses Homes, Lisa Delozier Bowers

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Among the academic challenges faced by students from low socio-economic (SES) homes is the loss of academic skills during the summer months. Unfortunately, the public schools are often unable to provide summer learning opportunities because limited space, funding, and teacher availability. Established community organizations frequently provide summer programs, however, there is little research to indicate that they can be used to address summer learning loss.

A summer program was designed to improve oral and written narrative skills for students from low SES homes. This program was based in a local community ministry and was designed to use thematic units that …

Independent Component Analysis Of Event-Related Electroencephalography During Speech And Non-Speech Discrimination: : Implications For The Sensorimotor ∆∞ Rhythm In Speech Processing, Andrew Lee Bowers

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Background: The functional significance of sensorimotor integration in acoustic speech processing is unclear despite more than three decades of neuroimaging research. Constructivist theories have long speculated that listeners make predictions about articulatory goals functioning to weight sensory analysis toward expected acoustic features (e.g. analysis-by-synthesis; internal models). Direct-realist accounts posit that sensorimotor integration is achieved via a direct match between incoming acoustic cues and articulatory gestures. A method capable of favoring one account over the other requires an ongoing, high-temporal resolution measure of sensorimotor cortical activity prior to and following acoustic input. Although scalp-recorded electroencephalography (EEG) provides a measure of cortical …

An Exploratory Study Of Characteristics Associated With Postsecondary Educational Attainment In Students Who Are Deaf Or Hard Of Hearing, Amy Marie Hebert

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

It is well documented that attrition in the postsecondary settings for students who are deaf or hard of hearing is greatly due to their academic and communication skills, as well as pre-entry attributes. However there is little evidence that indicates why students who are deaf or hard of hearing are successful in the postsecondary setting. This study tested a hypothesis that demographic, family, psychological and educational variables have a relationship with postsecondary attainment. The variables included in the study were gender, race, math literacy, reading literacy, high school academic setting (public/residential), communication modality (sign language/oral speech), cochlear implant user, parental …

Outcomes Of A Social Communication Intervention On The Use Of Emotion Words, Amy Tucker Cornett

Theses and Dissertations

Children with language impairment (LI) have often been identified as having social communication breakdowns. A number of these problems are likely the result of deficits in emotional competence. This thesis examines a social communication intervention designed to target the emotional competence of children with LI. Three elementary school-aged children with LI were recruited to receive twenty, 20-minute intervention sessions over the course of four months. Each intervention session involved a combination of activities targeting emotion recognition and emotion inferencing using story retell, story exploration, story enactment, perspectives charts, journal entries, emotion labeling, and personalization. These activities revolved around Mercer Mayer's …

Development Of Psychometrically Equivalent Speech Audiometry Materials For Measuring Speech Recognition Thresholds In Native Tagalog Speakers, Brandon Brian Taylor

Theses and Dissertations

In addition to the use of pure-tones for testing hearing, speech signals are highly valuable diagnostic tools for identifying and evaluating hearing impairment. Speech audiometry involves the implementation of such signals in the measurement of hearing acuity. One aspect of speech audiometry involves assessment of the speech recognition threshold (SRT) which evaluates an individual's ability to hear and understand speech. While live speech has been used in the past to assess SRT, recorded materials are preferred and have been shown to be advantageous over live speech. High-quality digitally recorded speech audiometry materials have been available in English for some time, …

Effect Of A Humanoid Robot During Therapy On Responding To Joint Attention With Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Katherine Lowe

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the use of a humanoid robot to engage two children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) on responding language behaviors including language, affect, imitation, and eye contact. The robot was integrated into each child's regular intervention in low-doses (10 min of a 50 min session). The goal was to increase responding language behaviors in the children with their conversational partners. The two children participated in pre and post assessment sessions as well as 16 intervention sessions. The data from these sessions were coded into two main categories including how the children interacted (Initiating Engagement, Responding to …

Inspiratory Breathing Exercises For Vocal Tremor: A Preliminary Study, Jessica Tayseer Hilo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Essential voice tremor (EVT) is a voice disorder that results from dyscoordination within the laryngeal musculature, which negatively impacts the symmetrical motion of the vocal folds. Several investigators have shown that individuals with EVT experience difficulty speaking and a reduced quality of life (QOL; Cohen, Dupont, & Courey, 2006; Verdonck-de Leeuw & Mahieu, 2004). While traditional voice therapy has been ineffective in lessening the severity of vocal tremor, a current approach (Barkmeier- Kraemer, Lato, & Wiley, 2011) designed to lessen the perception of vocal tremor has resulted in reported patient satisfaction with little actual change in voice quality. The present …

Recognition Of Speech In Multi-Talker Babble By Individuals With Hearing Loss, Kyle J. Christensen

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

The purpose of this study was to determine the speech recognition abilities of individuals with hearing loss using multi-talker babble as a competing stimulus. Twenty-six young adults participated, 15 in the normal hearing group (mean age of 21.9 years) and 11 in the hearing loss group (mean age of 22.2 years). The participants with normal hearing (0-20 dB HL) had a high frequency pure tone average (HFPTA) of 5 dB HL in both ears, while the participants in the hearing loss group had an HFPTA of 13 dB HL in the right ear and 25 dB HL in the left …

Autism Spectrum Disorders In Hispanics And Non-Hispanics, Virginia Chaidez, Robin L. Hansen, Irva Hertz-Picciotto

Department of Nutrition and Health Sciences: Faculty Publications

Objectives: To compare differences in autism between Hispanics and non-Hispanics. We also examined the relationship between multiple language exposure and language function and scores of children. Methods: The Childhood Autism Risks from Genetics and the Environment (CHARGE) study is an ongoing population-based case-control study with children sampled (n = 1061) from three strata: those with autism (AU) or autism spectrum disorder (ASD); developmental delay (DD); or the general population (GP). Results: Non-Hispanic cases demonstrated higher cognitive composite scores for the Mullen Scales of Early Learning (MSEL). There were significant associations between multiple language exposure and MSEL subscales for receptive …

Reliability Of The Mean Length Of Utterance Measure In Samples Of Children's Language, Katherine Marie Bigelow

Theses and Dissertations

Mean length of utterance (MLU) is widely used in child language sample analysis as a way to quantify language development. The current study examines the split-half reliability of MLU and two alternative measures: MLU2 and median length of utterance (MdLU). The effects of utterance segmentation into phonological units (P-units) or communication units (C-units) on reliability were also studied. Sixty conversational child language samples were used which included ten children with language impairment. All measures were found to have high levels of split-half reliability, with MLU and MLU2 having higher levels of reliability than MdLU. There was no significant difference between …

Exploring Picture Word Priming Effects In Healthy Aging Adults Using Event Related Potentials, Sasha C. Christopher

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Objective: The aim of the present study was to investigate the mechanics with which older adults activate and access different subdomains of their mental lexicons during word retrieval for picture naming.

Method: Data were analyzed for 12 aging, native English speakers who performed a picture-word priming task. The auditory probe words were presented in the following conditions in relation to the picture stimuli: Identically related, strongly semantically related, weakly semantically related, strongly phonologically related, weakly phonologically related, semantically related to the strong phonological relative of the target picture label, or phonologically-related to the strong semantic relative of the target picture …

Social Circles Of Children With Language Impairment, Erin Whitworth

Theses and Dissertations

Children with language impairment (LI) often demonstrate difficulties in social communication. The purpose of this pilot study was to examine the quantity and quality of the social interactions of children with LI and their typical peers through an analysis of the social networks or circles of each child. Eight children with LI as well as eight children with typically developing language and their parents were interviewed. Children's social networks were organized by social circles to effectively paint a picture of each child's social communication (Blackstone & Hunt Berg, 2003). Children with LI were found to have overall fewer contacts in …

The Correlation Between Spectral Moment Measures And Electropalatographic Contact Patterns For /S/ And /Ʃ/, Benjamin James Marshall

Theses and Dissertations

Spectral Moment Analysis has helped further our understanding of the spectral properties of obstruent speech production; however, the physiologic correlates of these spectral measures are not well understood. The aim of the present study was to examine the possible correlations between the linguapalatal contact patterns used to produce the fricatives /s/ and /ʃ/ and the resulting spectral characteristics. Using spectral moment analysis and electropalatography (EPG), the real-word productions of eight speakers of American English were investigated. The spectral measures for the fricative tokens in the present study were found to be similar to data reported in previous research with adult …

The Effect Of An Artificially Flattened Fundamental Frequency Contour On Intelligibility In Speakers With Dysarthria, Emily E. Redd

Theses and Dissertations

Prosody plays an important role in speech communication. Many individuals with motor speech disorders have decreased prosodic control and thus lower overall intelligibility. Few studies have examined the effect of a flattened prosodic contour on the intelligibility of dysarthric speech, and little is known about the role that listener gender plays in understanding disordered speech. The purpose of this study was to quantify the impact of artificial prosodic manipulation on the intelligibility of dysarthric speech as a function of the extent of fundamental frequency (F0) contour flattening. A further goal was to examine the influence of listener gender on intelligibility. …

Communication-Based Assessment Of Developmental Age For Young Children With Developmental Disabilities, Shari L. Deveney, Lesa Hoffman, Cynthia J. Cress

Special Education and Communication Disorders Faculty Publications

Purpose: In this study, the authors compared a multiple-domain strategy for assessing developmental age of young children with developmental disabilities who were at risk for long-term reliance on augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) with a communication-based strategy composed of receptive language and communication indices that may be less affected by physically challenging tasks than traditional developmental age scores.

Method: Participants were 42 children (age 9–27 months) with developmental disabilities and who were at risk for long-term reliance on AAC. Children were assessed longitudinally in their homes at 3 occasions over 18 months using multiple-domain and communication-based measures. Confirmatory factor analysis …

The Efficacy Of Melodic Based Communication Therapy For Eliciting Speech In Nonverbal Children With Autism, Givona A. Sandiford

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

The purpose of this dissertation is to compare the efficacy of Melodic Based Communication Therapy (MBCT) to traditional speech and language therapy for eliciting speech in nonverbal children with autism. Efficacy was assessed by number of: verbalizations, correct words, words reported by parent, and imitative attempts. Additionally it examines the effect of exposure to MBCT on social language abilities as measured by score on the Pragmatic Language Skills Inventory (PLSI); the effect of age on the response to treatment, and the predictors of overall effectiveness of treatment. Participants were 12 nonverbal children with autism ages 5 through 7 randomly assigned …

The Efficacy Of Melodic Based Communication Therapy For Eliciting Speech In Nonverbal Children With Autism, Givona A. Sandiford

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

The purpose of this dissertation is to compare the efficacy of Melodic Based Communication Therapy (MBCT) to traditional speech and language therapy for eliciting speech in nonverbal children with autism. Efficacy was assessed by number of: verbalizations, correct words, words reported by parent, and imitative attempts. Additionally it examines the effect of exposure to MBCT on social language abilities as measured by score on the Pragmatic Language Skills Inventory (PLSI); the effect of age on the response to treatment, and the predictors of overall effectiveness of treatment.

Participants were 12 nonverbal children with autism ages 5 through 7 randomly assigned …