Speech Pathology and Audiology Commons^™

Using Implementation Science To Engage Stakeholders And Improve Outcome Measurement In A Preschool Speech-Language Service System, Barbara Jane Cunningham, Janis Oram Cardy

PRECISe Preschool Speech and Language Publications

This tutorial presents one example of collaborative implementation research in a preschool speech-language service system - Ontario Canada’s Preschool Speech and Language Program. Working collaboratively with stakeholders including policy makers, managers, and speech-language pathologists (SLPs), four webinar modules were developed to support implementation of the Focus on the Outcomes of Communication Under Six (FOCUS), a new participation-focused outcome measurement tool in pediatric speech-language pathology. The webinar modules were pilot tested at two community sites to determine whether they were effective at increasing SLPs’ knowledge, perceptions, and intentions for practice. The Knowledge-to-Action framework was used to inform all phases of this …

Pediatric Amplification Management: Parent Experiences Monitoring Children’S Aided Hearing, Karen F. Munoz, Makynzie Larsen, Lauri Nelson, Sarah E. Yoho, Michael P. Twohig

Journal of Early Hearing Detection and Intervention

Objective: Investigate parents’ experiences monitoring aided hearing for children who use hearing aids, bone conduction hearing aids, and cochlear implants.

Design: A cross-sectional survey design, using three survey instruments, was used to collect parent data.

Study Sample: A total of 178 parents of children birth to six years were included in the analysis (81 hearing aid; 61 cochlear implant; 36 bone conduction hearing aid).

Results: Surveys explored hearing device use and monitoring. Variability was found for hearing aid use, and many parents reported being unaware if their child’s device has data logging capability. Parents varied widely in how often they …

Involvement Of Adults Who Are Deaf Or Hard Of Hearing In Ehdi Programs, Elizabeth Shuler-Krause, Karl R. White

Journal of Early Hearing Detection and Intervention

Consistent with a position statement of the Joint Committee on Infant Hearing (JCIH, 2007), several key organizations and groups have supported involving deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) adults in Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) systems, including providing families of children who are DHH with opportunities to interact with adults who are DHH. This article reviews the available data on the involvement of adults who are DHH in EHDI systems to determine the availability of opportunities for families who have children who are DHH to interact with adults who are DHH, how families feel about these experiences, and to …

Family Impact Of Pediatric Hearing Loss: Findings From Parent Interviews And A Parent Support Group, Kristen L. Haddad, Wendy W. Steuerwald, Lori Garland

Journal of Early Hearing Detection and Intervention

Parents experience numerous stressors tied to their child's diagnosis as deaf or hard of hearing (DHH). This study sought to inquire about the lived experiences of parents with children who are DHH to inform the types of supports that should be provided within an audiology care coordination system. Semi-structured phone interviews were conducted with parents of children under the age of five who are DHH and patients of the Division of Audiology at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC). Interview findings informed focus group questions, which were facilitated in a parent support group with parents of children who are DHH …

Newborn Hearing Screenings For Babies Born At Home: Report From An Initiative In Michigan, Shannon B. Palmer, Jill L. Adelson, Brittany F. Crawford, Nan Asher, Wendy Switalski

Journal of Early Hearing Detection and Intervention

Objective: Babies born in an out-of-hospital setting (e.g., homebirth) often do not receive a universal newborn hearing screening (UNHS). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of providing training and equipment for newborn hearing screening to midwives who attend homebirths.

Study Design: Midwives from around the state of Michigan were invited to participate in a two-part UNHS training. Hearing screening data from all midwives who attended homebirths (N=112) during the 2015 and 2016 calendar years were analyzed using a two-level multilevel model. Estimated odds of babies being screened were calculated based on midwife group.

Results: …

A Method Paper For Earplug-Fitting Augmentative Procedures Tested In Groups Of More Experienced And Less Experienced Users Of Hearing Protection, Natalie Dixon, Antony Joseph

AuD Capstone Projects - Communication Sciences and Disorders

Although a long history of research has led to extensive knowledge about hearing protection devices (HPDs), there has been limited research about procedures that provide aid and verification during HPD insertion, although several studies have reported about HPD training. No standard methods have been established for training of earplug use (Takahashi, 2011).

A review of the literature revealed a need for tools that might be used to improve user ability to properly insert HPDs consistently, even in the absence of training, because training is rarely provided in the workplace. The prevailing research question was "Does the use of simple fitting …

Relationships Between Ambient Noise Levels And Vocal Effort When Working As A Restaurant Bartender, Ashley Bautista

Ursidae: The Undergraduate Research Journal at the University of Northern Colorado

Workers in many different fields depend upon their voice for job performance. Vocal load, the way a voice is used and how much it is used, increases as a function of the total time speech is produced and the intensity (“loudness”) of the voice. Speakers tend to increase pitch, intensity, and duration of speech in the presence of noise, known as the Lombard Effect, which can lead to greater vocal fold stress and subsequent risk of vocal injury. In addition to increased risk of vocal injury, high levels of ambient noise might put workers at risk of auditory damage. …

Word Error And Word Frequency Correlation In Broca’S Aphasia, Breawna Heal

Honors Projects

Aphasia is a language disorder that is caused to the brain (Shames, Wiig, Secord, 1998) This damage may be caused by a stroke, traumatic brain injury, lesions to the brain, or degenerative neurological diseases(Shames, Wiig, Secord, 1998). Depending on the location of the brain damage, a person with aphasia will present with different communication impairments. People with fluent aphasia produce speech that may feature many grammatical errors or incorrectly produced words but their speech retains a typical speaking rhythm. People with fluent aphasia’s speech is much slower and more halting, and there tends to be frequent and lengthy pauses between …

Participant Accuracy And Impact Of Biofeedback On A Skilled Swallowing Task, Caris Giessler

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Biofeedback is as a visual way to self-assess muscle contraction, particularly during rehabilitative exercises. Speech language pathologists and otolaryngologists have investigated the use of visual biofeedback in swallowing therapy, especially for volitional swallowing rehabilitative exercises such as the effortful swallow, which requires the patient to maximally swallow with all their strength. In contrast to the effortful swallow, “effortful skilled swallowing” is the ability to swallow with a specific and precise amount of effort, which is an emerging topic in dysphagia research. Dysphagia, also known as disordered swallowing, can be an organic congenital disorder treated via feeding tubes, or an acquired …

Cervical Vestibular-Evoked Myogenic Potentials (Cvemps): "Differentiation Of Inter-Neck Emg Symmetry Between Children And Adults", Ellen Jones

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

A cervical Vestibular-Evoked Myogenic Potential (cVEMP) is one of the few objective vestibular diagnostic tests available for pediatric populations. This test evaluates the functionality of the saccule end organ through an inhibitory reflex on the sternocleidomastoid (SCM) muscle that inhibits the level of electromyographic (EMG) activity (Wiener-Vacher, 2013). Because the saccule response is measured as an inhibition of EMG in the SCM, it is imperative that the SCM have a tonic contraction prior to eliciting the response and that the contraction of the SCM is equal on the right and left sides. It is generally accepted that young, healthy adults …

The Feasibility Of Standardized Cognitive Assessments For Vestibular Patients, Brynn Morales

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Vestibular dysfunction, or impairments in the inner ear and/or brain structures that process sensory information and help control balance, has a high correlation with cognitive deficits, or problems with mental processes. This relationship negatively affects daily activities and quality of life in persons that live with vestibular dysfunction. Though there is sufficient research proving the relationship, few studies have applied that information in ways to better help the population with vestibular dysfunction. The purpose of this study was to assess the feasibility of a cognitive assessment battery (a set of correlated assessments delivered in one session) tailored to measuring performance …

Do Emg Monitoring And Amplitude Normalization Reduce Cvemp Variability In A Pediatric Population?, Brenna Murray

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Untreated balance disorders can cause anxiety, social withdrawal, and even slow motor development in children, making early and accurate diagnosis crucial to patient care. One of the leading tests for the diagnosis of balance disorders is known as the cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potential (cVEMP) test. The cVEMP test is the only clinically available tool that assesses the integrity of the organ of balance known as the saccule and its afferent pathway through the inferior vestibular nerve. The test is noninvasive and easy to administer, making patient diagnosis quick and effective rendering it crucial in the assessment of vestibular function …

Examining The Effectiveness Of Interprofessional Collaboration For Preprofessional Speech-Language Pathology And Occupational Therapy Graduate Students, Morgan Cornwell

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

This study explores the effects of an emergent writing interprofessional collaboration experience for preprofessional speech-language pathology (SLP) and occupational therapy (OT) graduate students. The preprofessionals were split into two groups (SLP only and SLP-OT pairs) and delivered emergent writing interventions to preschoolers either individually (SLP only) or collaboratively (SLP-OT pairs). The purpose of this study was to investigate how working collaboratively versus working individually to deliver the interventions to preschoolers influences the preprofessionals’ knowledge of theInterprofessional Education Collaborative’s (IPEC) core competencies and emergent writing concepts. The results showed that paired preprofessionals reported higher levels of interprofessional competency than unpaired preprofessionals. …

Subjective Differences Between Premium And Mid-Level Digital Hearing Aids, Dakota Sharp

Dissertations, 2014-2019

This study compared perceptual differences between premium and mid-level hearing aids from a major manufacturer in normal hearing listeners. Limited literature currently exists comparing perceptual differences between premium and mid-level digital hearing aids. This information is highly important in decision-making for clinicians and patients alike. Barry et al. (2018) evaluated four major hearing aid models’ noise reduction properties and determined that one manufacturer’s premium and mid-level devices demonstrated significant differences in noise reduction gain in frequencies associated with human speech. We programmed this device for a mild sloping to moderately-severe SNHL using the manufacturer’s proprietary fitting formula and noise reduction …

Music And Speech Perception In Children Using Sung Speech: Effects Of Neurocognitive Factors, Victoria A. André

Dissertations, 2014-2019

The current study aimed to explore normal-hearing children's ability to utilize pitch and timbre cues and how these findings correlate with neurocognitive factors. Participants were recruited if they had English as their first language and no formal musical training or 3+ years of formal musical training. Twenty normal-hearing children, age 7.5-14.5 years (mean = 10.5; n=20) were recruited for the study. Nonverbal intelligence, receptive vocabulary, and auditory working memory were assessed using subtests of the Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test-2, Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-4, and Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing-2, respectively. Raw scores were used to analyze these neurocognitive abilities in …

Audiologists’ Preferences In Programming Cochlear Implants, Leanne Browning

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Cochlear implants have become a viable option for those with severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss who gain little benefit from hearing aids and have poor word recognition ability. However, the techniques audiologists use to program these devices are not standardized (Sorkin, 2013). There is little data available which analyzes how audiologists handle clinical cochlear implant programming between the top manufacturers. These companies supply default settings in their products but is it unknown how often audiologists use these in practice in the United States.

In the present study, a questionnaire based on previous European data from Vaerenberg et al. (2014) …

Voice Quality As A Predictor Of Dysphagia, Lindsay Griffin

Dissertations, 2014-2019

The clinical swallowing evaluation (CSE) is a non-instrumental exam that informs speech-language pathologists about a patient’s cognition, readiness for instrumental evaluation, and swallowing symptoms. Because of the common neuroanatomy and physiology of the larynx during voicing and swallowing tasks, coughing or throat clearing after food and drink may indicate swallowing impairment. Also because of the shared mechanisms of the larynx, some clinicians also attribute voice changes after swallowing to dysphagia although many studies to date demonstrate conflicting results on the effectiveness of post-prandial voice assessment. The aim of this study was to assess if dysphonia and/or voice change after swallowing …

The Test-Retest Reliability Of Binaural-Processing Tasks At Home Versus A Clinical Environment, Logan Grace Faust

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Objective: Investigate the reliability of a custom-designed, portable, stereo-hearing testing system (as in the Ganev, 2017, Au.D. dissertation) when subjects self-administer two different stereo-hearing tasks at home. Results obtained under known and supervised conditions at a university clinic or lab versus unknown conditions at the participants’ homes were compared. Intra-subject comparison, and inter-subject trends, discerned the reliability of patient setup and self-administration of the two tasks.
Design: Ten subjects were evenly split among two conditions: five subjects each setup and self-administered the tasks first at home and then received direction in the clinic, and five received direction and did the …

Counseling For Patients With Hyperacusis, Mary Maraist

Communication Sciences and Disorders: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

Hyperacusis is the phenomenon of experiencing moderately loud sounds as overly loud and/or intensely annoying. Hyperacusis can also cause fear or pain in response to sound. There is no one known cause of hyperacusis, and because of the variety of ways it presents itself, the approximate prevalence is difficult to determine. Despite the ambiguity of hyperacusis, the audiologist is an important part of diagnosing and educating clients with hyperacusis. During this project we aimed to discover the challenges individuals with hyperacusis face. These include anxiety, depression and avoidance behavior, and sometimes co-occurring tinnitus and hearing loss. Another aim was to …

Validation Of A Scale To Measure Phonological And Morphological Knowledge And Skill Of Speech-Language Pathologists And Elementary Teachers, Susan S. Perry

Dissertations

Phonological and morphological skills are crucial to the process of reading. Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) have received advanced trained in these basic foundations of language and could be an untapped resource in our school systems for teaching beginning reading skills. The purposes of this research were to examine SLPs’ and general education elementary (K-6) teachers’ attitudes toward SLPs taking part in reading instruction, to compare the differences in phonological and morphological knowledge and skill among SLPs and teachers, and to assess the performance of the Revised Basic Language Constructs Surveywhen administered to SLPs and teachers.

Results indicated that, although fewer …