Speech and Hearing Science Commons^™

Assessing Outcomes Of Simulation In Communication Sciences And Disorders, Erin S. Clinard

Teaching and Learning in Communication Sciences & Disorders

Assessment is an ongoing process that is necessary at every stage of designing, implementing, and evaluating simulation-based learning experiences (SBLEs). Designing and aligning a high-quality assessment process provides instructors and researchers with valuable data to understand if students have met the desired simulation learning objectives, where students are in their learning, and opportunities to enhance the SBLE. This reflection discusses the importance of assessing student learning outcomes as well as the effectiveness of all simulation-based learning experiences (SBLEs) in communication sciences and disorders (CSD). While the benefits and effectiveness of simulation have been demonstrated in other health professions, simulation research …

Infants’ Discrimination Of Consonant Contrasts In The Presence And Absence Of Talker Variability, Carolyn Quam, Lauren Clough, Sara Knight, Louann Gerken

Speech and Hearing Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

To learn speech‐sound categories, infants must identify the acoustic dimensions that differentiate categories and selectively attend to them as opposed to irrelevant dimensions. Variability on irrelevant acoustic dimensions can aid formation of robust categories in infants through adults in tasks such as word learning (e.g., Rost and McMurray, 2009) or speech‐sound learning (e.g., Lively et al., 1993). At the same time, variability sometimes overwhelms learners, interfering with learning and processing. Two prior studies (Kuhl & Miller, 1982; Jusczyk, Pisoni, & Mullennix, 1992) found that irrelevant variability sometimes impaired early sound discrimination. We asked whether variability would impair or facilitate discrimination …

The Ongoing Disparity Between Early Intervention Services And Those Who Need Them, Addison Goerl

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Although early intervention (EI) services have been shown to be highly effective and beneficial for young children, only 12% of those who qualify at 24 months receive services (Feinberg et al., 2011). There is a myriad of barriers that impedes access to EI services for those who need them. These barriers include myths about development and intervention, parent’s concerns being ignored, social inequalities limited access to early intervention, systemic barriers within the professional world, unperceived benefits of intervention, and limited communication flow to parents. However, there are some supports that help more families access EI services including doctors, early interventionists, …

The Utility Of Multiplex Closeness Centrality For Predicting Item Difficulty Parameters In Anomia Tests, Khanh L. Nguyen

University Honors Theses

Background: Confrontation naming tests for the assessment of aphasia are perhaps the most commonly used tests in aphasiology. Recently, such tests have been modeled using item response theory approaches. Despite their advantages, item response theory models require large sample sizes for parameter estimation that are often unrealistic when working with clinical populations. As an alternative approach, Fergadiotis, Kellough & Hula (2015) explored automatic item calibration by regressing item difficulty parameters on word length, age of acquisition (AOA), and lexical frequency as quantified by the Log10CD index. Despite the high predictive utility that they achieved, the model’s performance was far from …

Variables And Mechanisms Affecting Response To Language Treatment In Multilingual People With Aphasia, Mira Goral, Aviva Lerman

Publications and Research

Background: Despite substantial literature exploring language treatment effects in multilingual people with aphasia (PWA), inconsistent results reported across studies make it difficult to draw firm conclusions. Methods: We highlight and illustrate variables that have been implicated in effecting cross-language treatment effects in multilingual PWA. Main contribution: We argue that opposing effects of activation and inhibition across languages, influenced by pertinent variables, such as age of language acquisition, patterns of language use, and treatment-related factors, contribute to the complex picture that has emerged from current studies of treatment in multilingual PWA. We propose a new integrated model—Treatment effects in Aphasia in …

Zika Virus Infection Causes Widespread Damage To The Inner Ear, Kathleen T. Yee, Biswas Neupane, Fengwei Bai, Douglas E. Vetter

Faculty Publications

Zika virus (ZIKV) has been recently recognized as a causative agent of newborn microcephaly, as well as other neurological consequences. A less well recognized comorbidity of prenatal ZIKV infection is hearing loss, but cases of hearing impairment following adult ZIKV infection have also been recognized. Diminished hearing following prenatal ZIKV infection in a mouse model has been reported, but no cellular consequences were observed. We examined the effects of ZIKV infection on inner ear cellular integrity and expression levels of various proteins important for cochlear function in type I interferon receptor null (Ifnar1^−/−) mice following infection at …

Measuring Listening Effort Using Physiological, Behavioral And Subjective Methods In Normal Hearing Subjects: Effect Of Signal To Noise Ratio And Presentation Level, Lakshmi Magudilu Srishyla Kumar

Dissertations, 2020-current

The main objective of the study is to compare the effectiveness of pupillometry, working memory and subjective rating scale —the physiological, behavioral, and subjective measures of listening effort— at different signal to noise ratios (SNR) and presentation levels: when administered together. Eleven young normal hearing individuals with mean age of 21.7 years (SD=1.9 years) participated in the study. The HINT sentences were used for speech perception in noise task. The listening effort was quantified using peak pupil dilation, working memory, working memory difference, subjective rating of listening and recall effort. The rating of perceived performance, frustration level and …

Application Of Self-Efficacy Training In Group Aural Rehabilitation: An Interprofessional Collaborative Model, Stephen D. Roberts, Nancy A. Delich

JADARA

Few studies have explored self-efficacy training with persons with hearing loss (PHLs), yet alone with their communication partners (CPs). The purpose of this mixed-method study was to examine the impact of self-efficacy training as a framework for an Interprofessional Psychosocial Group Aural Rehabilitation (IPGAR) workshop with PHLs and their CPs. Four PHLs and their four CPs consented to participate in the IPGAR workshop that employed interventions including short lectures, psychosocial exercises, communication strategies training, speech perception training, adaptive/stress reduction exercises, and group discussions relevant to mutually established shared goals for each couple. The participants reported improved communication abilities in the …

Factors Influencing Choice Of Communication Sciences And Disorders Major For Students Who Are Culturally And Linguistically Diverse, Joanna Reinders

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

The purpose of this study was to explore the motivating factors that influenced undergraduate students from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds in the West North Central division of the United States to major in communication sciences and disorders (CSD). This was a nonexperimental study that was conducted by sending a quantitative survey on Qualtrics to undergraduate CSD students in schools in the West North Central division of the United States as defined by the U.S. Census (Census Regions and Divisions of the United States, n.d). All states had respondents to the survey except Nebraska and among the responses, 16 …

Speech Characteristics Of Professional Fighters, Sofiya Krasilshchikova, Amy Neel Ph.D., Jessica Dawn Richardson Ph.D., Rick Arenas Ph.D., Lauren Bennett Ph.D., Sarah Banks Ph.D., Charles Bernick Ph.D.

Speech and Hearing Sciences ETDs

The aims of this project were to accurately measure and describe speech characteristics of professional fighters; and to analyze the future potential of using speech characteristics as biomarkers for acquired neurogenic decline or chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). The Professional Fighters Brain Health Study (PFBHS) is a longitudinal project investigating the effect of repeated head trauma in professional combatants. The PFBHS provided recorded speech samples for this project. This study measured accurate speech characteristics of 102 professional boxers and mixed martial artists and compared these results to a group of 27 age-matched healthy controls. Analysis revealed a significant difference in articulation …

The Impact Of Temporal Resolution On Clinical Decision-Making For Individuals With Dysphagia, Shauna Corinne Murray

Speech and Hearing Sciences ETDs

INTRODUCTION: Dysphagia, or a disordered swallow, affects up to 1 in 25 individuals in the United States. The gold standard for assessing dysphagia is the videofluoroscopic evaluation of swallowing (VFES). This allows the clinician to observe the swallow anatomy in motion via an X-ray movie, which historically was recorded at 30 frames per second. In recent years VFES have been performed at less frames per second due to radiation concern. This project investigates the effect of using lower temporal resolutions on assessment of video-fluoroscopic swallow studies.

METHODS: In this investigation, 30 swallow studies, all acquired at 30 frames per second, …

A Phenomenological Investigation Of The Contextual Variability And Anticipation Of Stuttering, Amanda D. Ortiz-Alvarez

Speech and Hearing Sciences ETDs

Stuttering is a neurologically based speech impairment often defined by listener-oriented parameters (i.e., its overt characteristics). These fail to encompass contextual variability and anticipation, two facets of the speaker’s experience which, though frequently encountered by people who stutter (PWS), remain poorly understood and largely under-researched. To better understand the subjective underpinnings of these phenomena, as well as how PWS conceptualize and relate to their stuttering, the present study sought to explore a) the experiences of PWS with the unpredictable and/or variable nature of their stuttering, as well as their beliefs surrounding potential contributors to its variability; b) the experiences of …

The Experience Of Being A Parent Of A Child Who Stutters And Subsequent Involvement In Support Groups: A Narrative Study, Katlyn A. Ferguson, Richard Arenas

Speech and Hearing Sciences ETDs

INTRODUCTION: Developmental stuttering generally begins after a period of typical fluency and is highly variable in its presentation and persistence. This variability along with the lack of a definitive cause and social stigma often negatively impact both children who stutter (CWS) and their caregivers. However, research on the specific effects of stuttering on the caregiver is quite sparse compared to research into the caregiver experience in other disorders. Additionally, although social support has been identified as a primary protective factor for other caregivers, little evidence exists to show how support groups benefit caregivers of CWS.

METHOD: Five parents participated in …

Sound Discrimination And Explicit Mapping Of Sounds To Meanings In Preschoolers With And Without Developmental Language Disorder, Carolyn Quam, Holly Cardinal, Celeste Gallegos, Todd Bodner

Speech and Hearing Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Purpose: To investigate links between sound discrimination and explicit sound-meaning mapping by preschoolers with and without developmental language disorder (DLD).

Method: We tested 26 children with DLD and 26 age- and gender-matched peers with typical language development (TLD). Inclusion was determined via results of standardised assessments of language and cognitive skills and a hearing screening. Children completed two computerised tasks designed to assess pitch and duration discrimination and explicit mapping of pitch- and duration-contrasting sounds to objects.

Result: Children with TLD more successfully mapped pitch categories to meanings than children with DLD. Children with TLD also showed significantly better overall …

Indicators Of Mild Cognitive Impairment Associated With Language Processing And Production, Diana Julbe-Delgado

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The research purpose of the present study was to (1) examine cognitive-linguistic features related to processing and production across a series of tasks that are representative of everyday discourse and (2) compare older adults with and without mild cognitive impairment (MCI) across linguistic features. Twenty-seven participants, including 12 individuals with- and 15 individuals without MCI, were enrolled from a larger study (Hudak et al., 2019). Cognitive status was initially assessed as part of the larger study using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA; Nasreddine et al., 2005). Participants who scored ≤ 25 on the MoCA received a standardized neuropsychological evaluation and …

Enhancing Intergenerational Conversation Using Visual Cues: Effects Of A Historical Timeline, Allyson Lindsay

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Interacting with individuals with expressive aphasia can be particularly challenging not only because of the language impairments, but also because of the frequent age difference between the clients with aphasia and student clinicians. Although students learn a variety of strategies to support language impairments, there remains a need to bridge the age gap in historical knowledge to enhance conversation. The current study explored the use of a timeline as written and pictorial cue to support conversations between individuals with aphasia and students. This study consisted of Two Experiments. The purpose of Experiment 1 was to identify the differences in knowledge …

Aligning Voice And Communication With Identity – A Survey On Transgender And Gender Diverse Populations, Rachel T. Chalom

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Purpose: This research has two goals. The first goal is to examine transgender (TG) and gender diverse (GD) voice and communication functioning and the impact of voice on their everyday lives. The second goal is to examine the knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs speech-language pathologists (SLP) have about the TG and GD community and to investigate the relationship between self- and listener-perception and its correspondence to quality of life (QoL).

Methods: A total of 59 participants took part in this research. The research was separated into two parts, the first included 24 TG and GD individuals who participated in a Qualtrics …

The Perception Of Prosody In English-Speaking Children With Cochlear Implants: A Systematic Review, Grace R. Smith

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Objective: The goal of this paper was to systematically review literature in order to investigate the perception of prosody in English-speaking children with cochlear implants.

Methods: A comprehensive search utilizing various peer-reviewed databases accessible through the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center Library was conducted to identify relevant studies. Inclusion criteria included studies that examined prosody perception in pre-and post-lingually deafened children with cochlear implants. Children who utilized unilateral, bilateral, and bimodal configurations of cochlear implants were therefore included in this search.

Results: 9 studies met the inclusion criteria for this systematic review. The findings …

Maximum Sound Output Levels Of Pediatric Marketed Headphones: The Development Of Healthy Listening Habits In Children, Adrienne L. Ammirati

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Background: In recent years there has been a growing concern regarding the etiology of pediatric hearing loss. Based on cross-sectional studies of data produced by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys, the incidence of hearing loss in US adolescents (age 12-19 years) has increased from 14.9 to 19.5% from 1988-2006 (Shargorodsky, Curhan, & Eavey, 2010) (Brooks & Chan, 2017). Many individuals suspect the leading contributor of this to be frequent exposure to unsafe listening conditions (Muchnik, Amir, Shabtai, & Kaplan-Neeman, 2012) (Brookhouser, Wothington, & Kelley, 1992).

Presently there are no government issued regulations on the maximum sound output …

Primary Care Physician Perceptions Of Hearing Loss And Amplification: A Survey, Sophie Racine

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The goal of this survey is to determine primary care physicians’ (PCP) views regarding hearing loss and hearing amplification. A questionnaire was created, using TypeForm©. Factors interrogated in the survey included structural aspects of the health care delivery system, presence of stigma among providers regarding hearing amplification, PCPs’ knowledge of hearing loss, the utility of amplification, official recommendations on screening and amplification, costs of hearing aids and risks of untreated hearing loss, and practitioners’ viewpoints and practice behaviors surrounding hearing loss and amplification. The survey instrument is comprised of four domains: 1) demographics, 2) knowledge of hearing loss and amplification, …