Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Speech and languge therapy'

Using a semi-structured qualitative methodology, this study examines the symbolic and interactional abilities of preschool children with moderate to severe language impairment and of typically developing preschoolers and how they compare within the context of joint-reminiscing with a parent. Patterns of interaction were identified across three frames of analysis including, children’s contributions to reminiscing, breakdowns in orientation to shared past events, and breakdowns in conversation format. The analysis describes how participants in both group are negotiating event-related meanings, conversational expectations, and stances in time throughout reminiscing conversations. The results point to the same underlying mechanisms giving rise to these negotiations for both groups and provide demonstrations of how parents can facilitate and support such negotiations.

Several studies across various languages have shown that monolingual listeners perceive significant differences between the speech of monolinguals and bilinguals. However, these differences may not always affect the phoneme category as identified by the listener or the speaker; differences may often be found between tokens corresponding to unique phonological categories and, as such, be more easily detectable through acoustic analysis. We hypothesized that unshared English vowels produced by young Spanish-English bilinguals would have measurably different formant values and duration than the same vowels produced by young English monolinguals because of Spanish influence on English phonology. We did not find significant differences in formant values between the two groups, but we found that SpanishEnglish bilinguals produced certain vowels with longer duration than English monolinguals. Our findings add to the ever-growing body of literature on bilingual language acquisition and the perception of accentedness.

The purpose of this study was to investigate if socioeconomic status has a direct impact upon the accessibility of speech-language resources. A secondary purpose was to identify the possible barriers experienced by parents when accessing speech-language pathology resources. Online questionnaires were completed by 31 parents who had at least one child between the ages of 0-18 with or without a speech-language or hearing disorder, and were currently or previously received services at either Tichenor Orthopedic Clinic for Children in Long Beach, CA or Sounds Smart Speech Therapy in Placentia, CA. Results indicated that inverse relationship between the income level and the number of barriers experienced when accessing resources exists (i.e., income level increases = number of barriers experienced decreases). The results further indicated that the higher level of parental education, the sooner the child will be diagnosed. Further research is necessary to assist speech-language pathologists in facilitating parent education and identification of children with speech-language deficits (i.e., delays and/or disorders) across socioeconomic levels.

A central challenge in California is how best to provide speech and language services to linguistically and culturally diverse (CLD) populations, given that only a small percentage of speech-language pathologists (SLPs) identify as bilingual. The present thesis investigated whether bilingual speech-language pathology assistants (SLPAs) can serve as suitable collaborators with SLPs in the process of carrying out screenings and assessments of CLD students/clients. A survey was administered to 6 bilingual SLPAs who reported that they currently assist with bilingual assessment. The results revealed that these participants expressed confidence in their ability to assist in assessments of CLD students/clients. This confidence seems to stem from their linguistic fluency, as well as from their cultural competency. Moreover, these SLPAs reported making use of materials and procedures identified as best practices. However, training for assisting in CLD assessments was largely obtained during work experience, not from formal coursework. Future research will be needed to identify how SLPA training programs can best train bilingual SLPAs to competently assist in CLD assessments in California schools and clinics.

Due to the limited research of speech language pathologists’ (SLP) working with patients with psychotic disorders, the purpose of this study was twofold. The first purpose was to investigate currently practicing SLPs’ confidence, competence, and knowledge when assessing and treating communication and swallowing disorders in these patients. The second purpose of this study was to highlight the importance and need to further research, provide more resources, and educate SLPs in this scope of practice. The present study utilized a 26 item survey, completed by 29 certified and licensed SLPs. This paper sought to identify correlations between an SLP’s number of years of experience he or she has and their confidence levels when assessing and treating patients with psychotic disorders. Results of a correlational analyses showed that there was a weak correlation between the number of years of experience an SLP has and his or her confidence levels in identifying symptoms related to communication. There was also no statistical significance between the number of years of experience of an SLP and assessing and diagnosing communication impairments in patients with psychotic disorders. This study also investigated correlations between an SLP’s number of training courses taken specific to patients with psychotic disorders and their confidence levels when assessing and treating these patients. Results revealed a strong positive correlation regarding the number of formal training courses specific to patients with psychotic disorders and the participant’s level of confidence in accurately identifying symptoms related to speech and communication impairments. Given the paucity of research available for practicing SLPs in the assessment and treatment of patients with psychotic disorders, this study’s results support the need for more research and education of SLPs serving this population.

Children with language impairments frequently benefit from language intervention which utilizes children's books. However, careful selection of the children's books by interventionists must be done, as these children are frequently delayed in narrative abilities. This research investigates the narrative level of children's books used in language intervention with three methodologies of narrative analysis. Results indicate that children's books have narratives that span across developmental levels; revealing that not all books are appropriate for all children in narrative terms. Clinical implications are discussed.

Caregivers interacting with young children in natural settings have been found to provide language input that is in tune with the child's output in terms of mean length of utterance (MLU). Previous research suggests that caregivers provide language input within the child's proximal zone of language development, that is 2.0-3.0 morphemes ahead of their child's MLU. The purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate whether speech-language pathologists (SLP) working in early intervention tailor their input in the same way.

Communication interactions between six speech-language pathologists and their toddler aged clients between the ages of 28 and 33 months were audio recorded during one of their regularly scheduled speech and language intervention sessions. MLUs for the SLPs and the children were calculated for each intervention dyad via the Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (SALT) version 2012 computer software program. The MLU of each SLP was then compared to the MLU of her client. Data analysis revealed that three of the six SLPs directed their language input to the child at levels within the child's proximal zone of language development, between 2.0 and 3.0 morphemes greater than the child's MLU. The other three SLPs provided input at levels that exceeded the 2.0 to 3.0 morpheme range. Qualitative analysis suggest that factors other than the children's MLUs, such as their language comprehension levels, may have been a factor in the complexity levels of the SLPs input. Future research, employing larger sample sizes and careful measures of the children's language comprehension and cognitive levels, is indicated.

Purpose: Non-verbal cognition and language functions were examined in adult stroke survivors with aphasia. The specific purpose of the study was twofold: 1) to examine the relationship between self-reported outcomes from people with aphasia (PwA), measures of non-verbal cognition (Delis-Kaplan Executive Function Systems Test (D-KEFS), Delis, Kaplan, & Kramer, 2001) and measures of language (Western Aphasia Battery-Revised (WAB-R), Kertesz, 2007; Boston Naming Test Second Edition (BNT-2), Kaplan, Goodglass, & Weintraub, 2001) and 2) to examine these same relationships using partner-reported outcomes for that same group of PwA. This study used the Aphasia Communication Outcome Measure (ACOM, Doyle et al., 2013) to gather both self-reported ACOM data and partner-reported ACOM data (ratings of the person with aphasia’s communication made by a regular conversation partner).

Method: Seventeen participants with aphasia underwent examination with an extensive test battery including measures of functional communication, non-verbal cognition, and language impairment. In addition, 16 of their regular communication partners rated functional communication performance.

Results: Self-reported functional communication is strongly related to the number of errors committed on the D-KEFS design fluency test (r = .81, p = .001). Furthermore, a modified form of the D-KEFS design fluency test (in which the examinee is allowed unlimited time) shows that the proportion of errors contributes significantly to a two- predictor linear regression model. These two predictors account for 66% of the variance in self-reported functional communication ratings. These results suggest that non-verbal cognition for people with mild to moderate aphasia may serve an important role in functional communication. By contrast, self-reported functional communication was uncorrelated with aphasia severity (r = .04, p = .88), naming performance on either the WAB-R (r=.059, p=.823) or the BNT-2 (r=.097, p=.713), and category fluency (r=.086, p=.741). Partner-reported functional communication was highly correlated to the naming subtest on Western Aphasia Battery-Revised (WAB-R) scores (r=.71, p=.02) and to performance on the Boston Naming Test (BNT-2; r=.56, p=.026).

Partner-reported functional communication was also strongly predicted based on the number of animals named during the category fluency task on the WAB-R (r=.782, p=.000). A linear regression model including WAB-R category fluency accounted for 61.1% of the variance in partner-reported ratings. A second linear regression adding naming as a predictor was not significant (F_change = 2.18, p=.163). By contrast, none of the non-verbal cognition measures were useful predictors of partner-reported functional communication. These results suggest that aphasia severity serves an important role in partner ratings of functional communication whereas non-verbal cognition does not.

Taken together, these results suggest that PwA and their partners rely on different aspects of communication when judging functional communication.

Further work to explore the use of patient-reported outcome (PRO) measures and to identify factors that contribute to self-reported functional communication is needed. The discussion addresses the appropriateness of using PRO measures in aphasia and the use of surrogate reports.

The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study is to explore the perspectives of Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) and Behavior Analysts (BAs) related to their scopes of practice and their influence on collaboration. A methodological overview of qualitative, phenomenological interviewing will be described. Based on a collective analysis of the participants’ responses, several themes emerged related to barriers to collaboration between SLPs and BAs such as the following: (a) Influence of schedules and personality characteristics; (b) Lack of consensus of the relationship between behavior and communication; (c) Professional territorialism; (d) Perception of other professional’s level of competency; (5) Different theoretical backgrounds; and (e) Perceived inequities about insurance approval for therapy. The perspectives of SLPs and BAs are reported within each barrier to collaboration in order to provide further insight between these two professionals. Lastly, the importance of an interprofessional approach to collaboration when treating individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders is reviewed.

Previous research indicates that auditory temporal processing is related to phonological processing abilities in individuals with reading difficulties; however, additional research is needed that comprehensively investigates the relationships between specific auditory temporal processing, language, and reading skills in children. The purpose of the current study was to examine these relationships in school-aged children, using a comprehensive battery of clinically-relevant assessments. Statistically significant positive relationships were found between performance on tasks of temporal ordering and phonological awareness. No significant relationships were found between temporal resolution and phonological awareness tasks, or between temporal processing and reading tasks. This information provides additional insight into the relationship between auditory temporal processing and the phonological awareness skills that are critical for success in reading, and may contribute to the development of interventions to improve the phonological awareness abilities of struggling readers.