Speech and Hearing Science Commons^™

Perception Of Hearing Loss In Orchestral Musicians, Eva Gebel, Sherri M. Jones, Julie A. Honaker

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Musicians are at risk for hearing loss due to noise exposure and presbycusis (1, 2). Compared to non‐musicians with hearing loss, musicians with hearing loss show improvements in speech understanding in a background of noise, but by self‐report do not perceive an advantage (3). This project aimed to explore this further by studying six orchestral musicians aged 42‐64 with a perceived hearing loss. Scores on a variety of assessments were compared to published normative data and a survey was also completed. No significant differences were found between the musicians and the normative data. Survey responses indicated that overall, the musician …

The Effect Of Clinical Experience On Perceived And Self-Reported Empathy In Novice Speech- Language Pathology Clinicians, Erline Vieira Nakano

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the field of medicine, empathic providers have been found to bring numerous benefits to a clinical encounter as they are better able to elicit detailed and thorough case histories, build rapport and therapeutic alliance with patients, and foster greater compliance with treatment recommendations. Despite its multiple benefits, empathy has not been researched systematically within the field of speech-language pathology. In medical training, empathy has been found to decline by the time medical students are introduced to direct patient care. Currently, no information is available regarding the empathy trajectory of novice speech-language pathologists.

The goal of the current project was …

Perceived Stress, Self-Compassion, And Emotional Variance In Parents Of Children With Communication Disorders: A Family Approach To Service Delivery In Speech-Language Pathology, Olivia Marie Arnos

Theses and Dissertations

The amount of children born with developmental disorders in the United States is on the rise, increasing from 12.8% in 1998 to 15.04% in 2008 (Huang, Chang, Chi & Lai, 2013). Children with developmental disabilities often have chronic conditions that require additional support across their lifetime, ranging in deficits of attention, physical abilities, visual impairments, hearing impairments, learning disabilities, and communication disorders. Research has shown as dependency of a child on caretakers increases, there is an increase in parental stress and a decrease in perceived well-being. Hall and Graff (2011) found parents of children with developmental disorders are less likely …

Program Sustainability: Hearing Loss And Tinnitus Prevention In American Indian Communities, William Hal Martin, Judith L. Sobel, Susan E. Griest, Linda C. Howarth, Thomas Becker

Speech and Hearing Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

INTRODUCTION: An important goal of any health promotion effort is to have it maintained in delivery and effectiveness over time. The purpose of this study was to establish a community-based noise-induced hearing loss and tinnitus prevention program in three different types of American Indian communities and evaluate them for evidence of long-term sustainability.

METHODS: The target population was fourth- and fifth-grade students from three different models of American Indian communities. The evidenced-based Dangerous Decibels® program was adapted to include local media, classroom education, family and community outreach, and web-based activities. Sustainability was attempted by promoting funding stability, political …

The Effect Of A Single Bout Of Physical Exertion On Expressive Language And Word Finding In Individuals With Multiple Sclerosis, Marissa A. Barrera

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

To date, little research has been conducted on the relationship between fatigue and expressive language among Multiple Sclerosis patients (MS). This study was a response to this knowledge gap. A nonrandom, matched- subject, mixed-factor design model was used with a purposive sample of 17 individuals with MS (five had primary-progressive (PP) MS, and 12 had relapsing-remitting (RR) MS). The research design was subjected to pretesting to ensure validity. Participants were assessed on a range of language tasks after undergoing one bout of cardiovascular exercise (NuStep T5 Recumbent Cross Trainer) and asked to provide a subjective fatigue score. The expressive language …

Assessment With Children Who Need Augmentative And Alternative Communication (Aac): Clinical Decisions Of Aac Specialists, Shelley Lund, Wendy Quach, Kristy S. E. Weissling, Miechelle L. Mckelvey, Aimee R. Dietz

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to explore how speech-language pathologists (SLPs) who are augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) specialists approach the assessment process for 2 case studies, 1 child with cerebral palsy and 1 with autism spectrum disorder. The aim of the study was to answer the following questions: (a) How do clinicians with expertise approach the AAC assessment process for children with developmental disabilities? (b) Can any initial hypothesis be drawn about how SLPs approach the assessment of children with motor versus social interactive deficits?

Method

This study used a phenomenological qualitative design. The researchers conducted 2 …

The Psychosocial Effects Of Aphasia On The Caregiver, Lauren A. Ferrara

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Studies have investigated the physical and emotional wellbeing of family members and spouses who care for persons with stroke (Bakas, et al. 2006). Literature shows burden of care is high in role reversal and depression is frequent. Variables that affect the caregiver burden with persons with aphasia (PWA) have not been identified prior to this study. Results from caregiver interviews found six themes, some which have not been identified prior, such as feelings of optimism.

The Advancement Of Voice Therapy And The Contribution Of Vocal Function Exercises, Sydney Barnett

Lewis Honors College Capstone Collection

The human voice can transmit multiple streams of information about a person including physical, emotional, and social state. Voice disorders can interfere with social relationships, work productivity, and ultimately, impair an individual’s image. Speech-language pathologists have developed several approaches to voice therapy over the past several decades. Vocal function exercises (VFE) are physiological in nature and aim to restore the balance between the three subsystems of vocal production: respiration, phonation, and resonance. With advancing technology and more sophisticated experiments, researchers have shown positive outcomes with VFE regimens in the normal voice population, superior voice population, and disordered voice population. Data …

Mandarin-English Bilinguals Process Lexical Tones In Newly Learned Words In Accordance With The Language Context, Carolyn Quam, Sarah C. Creel

Speech and Hearing Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Previous research has mainly considered the impact of tone-language experience on ability to discriminate linguistic pitch, but proficient bilingual listening requires differential processing of sound variation in each language context. Here, we ask whether Mandarin-English bilinguals, for whom pitch indicates word distinctions in one language but not the other, can process pitch differently in a Mandarin context vs. an English context. Across three eye-tracked word-learning experiments, results indicated that tone-intonation bilinguals process tone in accordance with the language context. In Experiment 1, 51 Mandarin-English bilinguals and 26 English speakers without tone experience were taught Mandarin-compatible novel words with tones. Mandarin-English …

Challenges To Augmentative And Alternative Communication Interventions With Autism Spectrum Disorder Students, Kristy Jane Singer-Macnair

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have challenges with communication, social interactions, and behavior, which can limit their functioning in school settings. They need to have functional communication skills to access the curriculum and have their needs met across all social environments. Special education teachers often experience barriers to successful implementation of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) interventions appropriate for these students. The purpose of this case study was to understand how special education teachers experience AAC intervention processes, and illuminate the conditions for effective AAC implementation. A qualitative case study was conducted using interviews from 6 credentialed special education …

Promotion Of Early Pediatric Hearing Detection Through Patient Navigation, Matthew L. Bush

Theses and Dissertations--Clinical and Translational Science

Congenital hearing loss is the most common neonatal sensory disorder and it is crucial to diagnose hearing loss as soon as possible after birth in order to facilitate rapid treatment. Universal standards of infant hearing healthcare dictate that infant hearing screening should be completed by one month of age and abnormal screening tests should be followed with definitive audiological testing by three months of age. Obtaining diagnostic testing can be complicated by limited access to care in rural areas, breakdowns in communication, lack of parental support, and poor coordination of care. There is no established method to address appointment non-adherence …

Vocal Function Exercises For Normal Voice: With And Without Semi-Occlusion, Megan Suzanne Brown

Theses and Dissertations--Communication Sciences and Disorders

The primary purpose of this investigation was to explore the effects of varying degrees of vocal tract semi-occlusion in Vocal Function Exercises (VFEs) on attainment of pre- established maximum phonation time (MPT) goals in individuals between the ages of 18 and 45 with normal voice. Individuals were randomized into three experimental groups: the traditional VFE with a semi-occluded vocal tract (SOVT), modified /o/ with partial occlusion, and modified /a/ without significant occlusion. For six weeks, the participants completed the four exercises two times each, twice daily on corresponding vocal tract postures assigned by group. Results indicated significant change in percent …

Phonetic Complexity Affects Children’S Mandarin Tone Production Accuracy In Disyllabic Words: A Perceptual Study, Puisan Wong, Winifred Strange

Publications and Research

This is the first study to examine the effect of phonetic contexts on children’s lexical tone production. Mandarin tones in disyllabic words produced by forty-four 2- to 6-year-old children and twelve mothers were low-pass filtered to eliminate lexical information. Native Mandarin speaking adults categorized the tones based on the pitch information in the filtered stimuli. All mothers’ tones were categorized with ceiling accuracy. Counter to the findings in most previous studies on children’s tone acquisition and the prevailing assumption in models of speech development that children acquire suprasegmental features much earlier than segmental features, this study found that children as …

The Distribution Of Talker Variability Impacts Infants’ Word Learning, Carolyn Quam, Sara Knight, Louann Gerken

Speech and Hearing Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Infants struggle to apply earlier-demonstrated sound-discrimination abilities to later word learning, attending to non-constrastive acoustic dimensions (e.g., Hay et al., 2015), and not always to contrastive dimensions (e.g., Stager & Werker, 1997). One hint about the nature of infants’ difficulties comes from the observation that input from multiple talkers can improve word learning (Rost & McMurray, 2009). This may be because, when a single talker says both of the to-be-learned words, consistent talker’s-voice characteristics make the acoustics of the two words more overlapping (Apfelbaum & McMurray, 2011). Here, we test that notion. We taught 14-month-old infants two similar-sounding words in …

Singing Portuguese Nasal Vowels: Practical Strategies For Managing Nasality In Brazilian Art Songs, André Campelo

Theses and Dissertations--Music

The articulation of Portuguese nasalized vowels poses some articulatory problems accompanied by negative acoustic effects for the performance of Brazilian art songs. The main objective was to find strategies that permit the singer to conciliate an idiomatic pronunciation of these vowels with a well-balanced resonance, a desirable quality in classical singing. In order to devise these strategies, the author examined sources dealing with nasalized vowels from varied perspectives: acoustic properties of vowel nasalization, phonetic and phonological aspects ofBrazilian Portuguese (BP), historical views on nasality in singing, and recent vocal pedagogy research. In addition to the overall loss of sonority, the …

Does Increasing Speech Production And Language Acquisition Through Therapies Aimed At Emphasizing Speech Therapy Improve The Verbal Communication Capabilities In Autistic Children?, Jessica Olejnik

PCOM Physician Assistant Studies Student Scholarship

Objective: The objective of this EBM review was to determine if increasing speech production & language acquisition through therapies which emphasized speech therapy, would improve verbal communication skills in autistic individuals.

Study Design: Three RCTs selected due to relevance to the proposed question and fulfillment of the requirement of measuring POEMs.

Data Sources: All articles were published in peer-reviewed journals via PubMed.

Outcome Measures: The Preschool Language Scale 4 and Comprehensive Assessment of Spoken Language was measured pre-intervention and 12 months later. The verbal production evaluation scale which measured phonology, pragmatics, prosody, and sematic features. The …

A Literature Review On Accent Modification, Alyssa Pennington 6978027

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Accents reflect the unique social aspects and backgrounds of the speaker. Unfortunately, some accents result in communication problems that affect speech intelligibility. This is especially true for those who speak English as a second language (ESL). As a result, non-native English speakers may avoid social interactions with those who find them difficult to understand. For those who elect to modify their accents, clinicians may offer accent reduction therapy services to help ESL speakers improve their ability to communicate with others across the home, school, work, and community setting.

Therapy designed to change accents is within the scope of practice for …

The Success Of An Aided Language Stimulation Training Video For Communication Partners Working With Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders, Hannah Peterson

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Aided language stimulation (ALS) is an effective intervention method for nonverbal children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) learning to use an augmentative-alternative communication system to communicate with others. Communication partners can use ALS to stimulate the use of the augmentative alternative communication (AAC) system. The purpose of this paper is to develop a research study that will be completed in the future to determine the success of an ALS training video. The intended participants of the study include 30 special education teachers who work with children with ASD who use Proloquo2go formatted AAC systems. The participants of the study will …

Assessment Protocol For Cognitive And Auditory Processing Skills For Clients Receiving Neurofeedback Treatment For Traumatic Brain Injury & Concussion: Literature Review, Elexea N. Aurilio, Miranda Hendrus

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Neurofeedback has become increasingly popular in the medical world and will hopefully become more commonly used in the fields of speech-language pathology and audiology. Currently, there is a lack of a singular, baseline and progression diagnostic tool to measure a client’s cognitive and auditory processing skills once they are referred for neurofeedback treatment.

K-5 Educators' Perceptions Of The Role Of Speech Language Pathologists, Dr. Karmon D. Hatcher

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Rarely is a school-based speech language pathologist (SLP) thought of as an active contributor to the achievement of students or to the learning community in general. Researchers have found benefits for students when members of the learning community collaborate, and the SLP should be a part of this community collaboration. This qualitative case study examined elementary school teachers', administrators', and reading specialists' perspectives related to knowledge of and the inclusion of the SLP in the learning community at a local elementary school in central Georgia. Schon's theory of reflective practice and Coleman's theory of social capital provided the conceptual framework. …