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Rewaj, Phillipa Jane. "Nature of language impairment in motor neurone disease." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/9744.
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Background: Language impairment associated with Motor Neurone Disease (MND) has been documented since the late 19th century, yet little is understood about the pervasiveness or nature of these deficits. The common clinical view among healthcare professionals is that communication difficulties can be attributed solely to the motor speech disorder dysarthria. Recent literature raises the possibility of more central processing deficits. Impairments in naming ability and comprehension of complex grammatical constructs have been frequently reported in some patients with MND. However, there is now growing evidence of spelling impairment, which could suggest the contribution of a more phonologically based deficit. In addition, the close relationship between MND and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) raises questions about the connection between the language impairments seen in MND patients and those documented in patients with the primary progressive aphasia (PPA) syndromes associated with FTD. Aims: This thesis examines the nature of speech and language deficits in people with MND and the extent to which expressive communication impairment can occur above and beyond dysarthria. In particular, the study explores: i) to what extent these language impairments can be attributed to deficits in working memory, executive functioning and/or disease severity; ii) what spelling errors can reveal about the integrity of lexical, phonological and orthographic processing; iii) whether similar patterns of impairment can be seen in PPA syndromes; iv) the relationship between language impairment and bulbar onset; and v) the impact these findings have on clinical management of MND patients. Methods: MND patients from across Scotland with changes in speech and/or language were tested using a neuropsychological battery of experimental and standardised tests of naming, spelling, syntactic comprehension, prosody and phonological and orthographical awareness. Patients were also screened for levels of dysarthria, executive functioning and working memory deficits, and results compared to those of matched controls. Findings: As a group, MND participants performed significantly worse than matched controls on measures of naming, spelling, orthographical awareness, grammatical comprehension, affective prosody and verbal fluency, but not working memory. However, based on patterns of individual impairment, of which spelling impairment formed a distinctive marker, the patient group divided into dichotomous subgroups, with 44% of participants categorised as ‘linguistically impaired’, while the remainder displayed little to no impairment. Those participants identified as linguistically impaired did not differ significantly from other MND participants on measures of disease severity, disease duration or dysarthria severity, although significantly more bulbar onset than limb onset participants were linguistically impaired. Spelling error patterns were suggestive of deficits at both a lexical and sublexical level, and were comparable to those reported in PPA literature. These findings suggest that dysarthria may be masking linguistic deficits in almost half of dysarthric MND patients, and highlight the importance of multidimensional assessment of language for effective clinical management.
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Braddock, Barbara. "Links between gesture, speech, and motor skill in children with clinical characteristics of specific language impairment /." free to MU campus, to others for purchase, 2003. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/mo/fullcit?p1418007.
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Roy, David Michael. "Gestural human-machine interaction using neural networks for people with severe speech and motor impairment due to cerebral palsy." Thesis, City University London, 1996. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.307917.
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Ferreira, Janna. "Sounds of silence : Phonological awareness and written language in children with and without speech." Doctoral thesis, Linköping : Örebro : Faculty of Arts and Science, Linköping University ; The Swedish Institute for Disability Research, Örebro University, 2007. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-10184.
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Wilson, W. R. "Speech motor control." Thesis, University of Essex, 1986. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.376738.
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Kaipa, Ramesh. "Evaluation of principles of motor learning in speech and non-speech-motor learning tasks." Thesis, University of Canterbury. Communication Disorders, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10092/10349.
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Principles of motor learning (PMLs) refer to a set of concepts which are considered to facilitate the process of motor learning. PMLs can be broadly grouped into principles based on (1) the structure of practice/treatment, and (2) the nature of feedback provided during practice/treatment. Application of PMLs is most evident in studies involving non-speech- motor tasks (e.g., limb movement). However, only a few studies have investigated the application of PMLs in speech-motor tasks. Previous studies relating to speech-motor function have highlighted two primary limitations: (1) Failure to consider whether various PMLs contribute equally to learning in both non-speech and speech-motor tasks, (2) Failure to consider whether PMLs can be effective in a clinical cohort in comparison to a healthy group. The present research was designed to shed light on whether selected PMLs can indeed facilitate learning in both non-speech and speech-motor tasks and also to examine their efficacy in a clinical group with Parkinson’s disease (PD) in comparison to a healthy group.
Eighty healthy subjects with no history of sensory, cognitive, or neurological abnormalities, ranging 40-80 years of age, and 16 patients with PD, ranging 58-78 years of age, were recruited as participants for the current study. Four practice conditions and one feedback condition were considered in the training of a speech-motor task and a non-speech- motor task. The four practice conditions were (1) constant practice, (2) variable practice, (3) blocked practice, and (4) random practice. The feedback was a combination of low-frequency, knowledge of results, knowledge of performance, and delayed feedback conditions, and was paired with each of the four practice conditions. The participants in the clinical and non-clinical groups were required to practise a speech and a non-speech-motor learning task. Each participant was randomly and equally assigned to one of the four practice groups. The speech-motor task involved production of a meaningless and temporally modified phrase, and the non-speech-motor task involved practising a 12-note musical sequence using a portable piano keyboard.
Each participant was seen on three consecutive days: the first two days served as the acquisition phase and the third day was the retention phase. During the acquisition phase, the participants practised 50 trials of the speech phrase and another 50 trials of the musical tune each day, and each session lasted for 60-90 min. Performance on the speech and non-speech tasks was preceded by an orthographic model of the target phrase/musical sequence displayed on a computer monitor along with an auditory model. The participants were instructed to match their performance to the target phrase/musical sequence exactly. Feedback on performance was provided after every 10th trial. The nature of practice differed among the four practice groups. The participants returned on the third day for the retention phase and produced 10 trials of the target phrase and another 10 trials of the musical sequence. Feedback was not provided during or after the retention trials. These final trials were recorded for later acoustic analyses.
The analyses focused on spatial and temporal parameters of the speech and non-speech tasks. Spatial analysis involved evaluating the production accuracy of target phrase/tune by calculating the percentage of phonemes/keystrokes correct (PPC/PKC). The temporal analysis involved calculating the temporal synchrony of the participant productions (speech phrase & tune) during the retention trials with the target phrase and tune, respectively, through the phi correlation. The PPC/PKC and phi correlation values were subjected to a series of mixed model ANOVAs.
In the healthy subjects, the results of the spatial learning revealed that the participants learned the speech task better than the non-speech (keyboard) task. In terms of temporal learning, there was no difference in learning between the speech and non-speech tasks. On an overall note, the participants performed better on the spatial domain, rather than on the temporal domain, indicating a spatial-temporal trade-off. Across spatial as well as temporal learning, participants in the constant practice condition learned the speech and non-speech tasks better than participants in the other practice conditions. Another interesting finding was that there was an age effect, with the younger participants demonstrating superior spatial and temporal learning to that of the older participants, except for temporal learning on the keyboard task for which there was no difference. In contrast, the PD group showed no significant differences on spatial or temporal learning between any of the four practice conditions. Furthermore, although the PD patients had poorer performances than the healthy subjects on both the speech and keyboard tasks, they showed very similar pattern of learning across all four practice conditions to that of the healthy subjects.
The findings in the current study tend to have potential applications in speech-language therapy, and are as follows: (1) a constant practice regime could be beneficial in developing speech therapy protocols to treat motor-based communication disorders (e.g., dysarthria), (2) speech therapists need to exercise caution in designing speech therapy goals incorporating similar PMLs for younger and older adults, as the application of similar PMLs in younger and older adults may bring about different learning outcomes, (3) and finally, it could be beneficial for patients to practise speech tasks which would require them to focus either on the spatial or temporal aspect, rather than focussing on both the aspects simultaneously.
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Alcock, Katherine Jane. "Motor dysphasia : a comparative study." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1995. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.308710.
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Mailend, Marja-Liisa, and Marja-Liisa Mailend. "Speech Motor Planning in Apraxia of Speech and Aphasia." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/625882.
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Apraxia of speech (AOS) is a motor speech disorder that poses significant obstacles to a person's ability to communicate and take part in everyday life. Agreement exists between current theories of AOS that the impairment affects the speech motor planning stage, where linguistic representations are transformed into speech movements, but they disagree on the specific nature of the breakdown at this processing level. A more detailed understanding of this impairment is essential for developing targeted, effective treatment approaches and for identifying the appropriate candidates for these treatments. The study of AOS is complicated by the fact that this disorder rarely occurs in isolation but is commonly accompanied by various degrees of aphasia (a language impairment) and/or dysarthria (a neuromuscular impairment of speech motor control). In addition, the behavioral similarities of AOS and its closest clinical neighbor, aphasia with phonemic paraphasias, undermine the usefulness of traditional methods, such as perceptual error analysis, in the study of both disorders.
The purpose of this dissertation was to test three competing hypotheses about the specific nature of the speech motor planning impairment in AOS in a systematic sequence of three reaction time experiments. This research was formulated in the context of a well-established theoretical framework of speech production and it combines psycholinguistic reaction time paradigms with a cognitive neuropsychological approach.
The results of the three experiments provide evidence that one component of the speech motor planning impairment in AOS involves difficulty with selecting the intended motor program for articulation. Furthermore, this difficulty appears to be intensified by simultaneously activated alternative speech motor programs that compete with the target program for selection. These findings may prove useful as a theoretically-motivated basis for improving diagnostic tools and treatment protocols for people with AOS and aphasia, thus enhancing clinical decision-making. Such translational and clinical research aimed at developing sensitive and specific diagnostic tools and improving treatment approaches is the ultimate long-term objective of this research program.
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Butler, Rebecca R. "Motor impairment in children's literature : perceptions and pedagogy." Thesis, University of Roehampton, 2014. https://pure.roehampton.ac.uk/portal/en/studentthesis/motor-impairment-in-children’s-literature(83b3a2a0-a718-4640-9bfc-2721099b651a).html.
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This project explores how pupils respond to disabled characters encountered in two fictional stories and considers the potential implications such reactions hold for teaching and learning in schools. The project reviewed three streams of literature, namely books for children in which disabled characters play a part, the literature of disability studies, and literature linked to inclusive education. The research data set was gathered at group sessions held with a total of 41 pupils in four mainstream primary schools and two schools for SEN pupils. The sessions were recorded on DVD. This data set was analysed using a cluster coding convention and grounded theory model. The pupils discussed issues raised by two excerpts from works of fiction in which motor impaired characters play a significant role. The pupils responded actively, coming to grips with complex issues, presenting their own views, discussing the views of others and completing a brief written exercise. The views expressed by the pupils were often supportive of disabled people but critical where the behaviour of the disabled people in the stories warranted criticism. They rarely used prejudicial language about disabled people and they appeared to be almost unaffected by anti- disabled prejudices. One group session was held with disabled pupils at a part-boarding, part-day school for disabled pupils from age 7 to 19. These pupils showed a greater awareness of the day to day realities of life for a motor impaired person. They also showed enthusiasm or the use of books to familiarise non-disabled people with disability. The project also demonstrated that fictional texts featuring motor impaired characters can be used to teach pupils about motor impairment and to encourage them to think about what it means to be thus disabled. It identified key characteristics of the methods used for research with children. It also identified an opportunity for improved teaching in the area of disability. The KS2 curriculum for Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) makes only one mention of disability. Disability could feature more prominently in the curriculum taught by schools and individual teachers.
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Highman, Chantelle D. "Early speech motor and language skills in childhood apraxia of speech: evidence for a core deficit in speech motor control?" Thesis, Curtin University, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/1634.
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Children with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) present with significant speech production deficits, the effects of which often persist well into late childhood (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 2007; Lewis, Freebairn, Hansen, Iyengar, & Taylor, 2004). Debate has historically surrounded whether the features of CAS are the result of an impairment in linguistic or speech motor systems, or both (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 2007). Most research, however, has failed to explicitly consider a developmental perspective of the disorder, arguably limiting the associated interpretations that often (implicitly) assume an established underlying system (Maassen, 2002). One of the key tenets of such a developmental perspective is the possibility of an original core deficit in one system, with negative consequences for aspects of the system that subsequently develop.A mixed-methodology paradigm was employed in the present research in order to explore the core deficit in CAS. Similar paradigms have been applied to the study of dyslexia (Koster et al., 2005; Lyytinen et al., 2001; Viholainen et al., 2006) and autism spectrum disorders (Coonrod & Stone, 2004; Dawson, Osterling, Meltzoff, & Kuhl, 2000; Iverson & Wozniak, 2007), but have yet to be applied to CAS.Study 1 sought to quantify parental report of vocalisation behaviours in children with a clinical diagnosis of CAS. The parents of 20 children with suspected CAS (sCAS) completed a questionnaire focussing on the prelinguistic development of their children as infants. Responses were compared to those from parents of 20 children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) and 20 children with typically developing (TD) speech and language development. The sCAS children were reported to be significantly less vocal, less likely to have babbled, later in the emergence of first words and later in the emergence of two-word combinations than the TD children. However, the SLI children were reported similarly on many (but not all) items. Despite this similarity, the sCAS group were unique in terms of the presence of reported babbling (35% were reported not to have babbled at all, compared to the TD and SLI children who were all recalled as having babbled in infancy), and the emergence of two word combinations (significantly later than both the TD and SLI groups). In addition, the motor milestones of age of crawling and age of walking were significantly correlated with age of emergence of two-word combinations in the sCAS group, suggesting commonly constrained speech and motor development. Overall, the results provided preliminary support for the notion of atypical prelinguistic vocal development in children with sCAS, and highlighted the importance of further research on the topic.Study 2 applied a retrospective data paradigm in exploring the prelinguistic vocal development of children with CAS. Nine clinically-ascertained children, aged 3 to 4 years and presenting with a range of speech and language profiles (including 3 with suspected CAS), were characterised in terms of operationally-defined CAS characteristics in the first stage (2A) of this study. The battery of tasks included standardised speech and language assessments as well as non-standardised tasks targeting speech production ability. A group of 21 age-matched children with typically developing speech and language skills provided comparison data for the non-standardised tasks. This phase of the study documented CAS characteristics in five of the nine clinical sample participants, with two of these children showing all five of the features investigated. Study 2B examined the early speech, language and motor development of the clinical sample children, via analysis of data available retrospectively for this unique group of children.Their infant profiles were compared to those of 205 infants who had been part of the same community program that the clinical sample had been involved in (and thus had infant data available) but who did not have identified ongoing speech and language issues. Single case comparisons (Crawford & Garthwaite, 2005) revealed that the child with the greatest number and severity of CAS features at preschool age demonstrated significantly poorer expressive skills and a significant dissociation in receptive-expressive abilities in infancy, compared to the typically developing children. Profiles for the other clinical sample children varied considerably.In the third study (Study 3), the development of infants with a family history of CAS (n = 8) was compared to that of infants with no such familial risk (n =8) to further examine the proposed core deficit in CAS. Early speech, language and motor development was tracked at 9, 12, 15, 18 and 24 months. The siblings as a group demonstrated significantly poorer expressive language, speech sound development and fine motor ability than the comparison group, consistent with the notion of a verbal trait deficit (Lewis, Freebairn, Hansen, Taylor et al., 2004). At two years of age, two siblings (and none of the comparison infants) showed clinically-important delays in speech and language development. Inspection of their profiles suggested one infant (SIB2) to present with features consistent with putative early features of CAS (Davis & Velleman, 2000); the other (SIB1) to present with language difficulties not suggestive of CAS.Analysis of their vocalisation samples revealed that while SIB2’s rate of vocalisations at 9 months was not different to that of the comparison group, the nature of the vocalisations were different. While all comparison infants were using canonical syllables at 9 months, SIB2 had not entered this important stage until 12 months, and showed a significantly reduced proportion of canonical syllables at this age (2.5% compared to the comparison infants, who averaged 17%, with none producing less than 6%). Acoustic analyses performed on prelinguistic canonical syllables showed that while duration did not differ, a restricted use of the F1:F2 planar space was noted for SIB2 compared to the typically developing infants, suggesting limited vowel production. Furthermore, a particularly strong correlation between F1 and F2 was observed, suggesting stronger coupling of the articulators. Importantly, the vocalisation data, together with data from standardised assessments, showed a dissociation between speech motor and conceptualiser areas, with a deficit in speech motor control evident in the context of intact conceptual skills for this infant. In contrast, SIB1 (who showed a language delayed profile at 2 years, with no CAS features) did not evidence the types of anomalies identified for SIB2.Taken together, the results of the present research provide support for the viability of a speech motor control deficit account of CAS, when interpreted in a developmental context. As such, they highlight the importance of the prelinguistic period and longitudinal investigations in examining the underlying core deficit in CAS, and suggest important implications for theoretical and clinical conceptualisations of the disorder.
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Creer, Sarah M. "Personalising synthetic voices for individuals with severe speech impairment." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 2009. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.522463.
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Whybrow, Jonathan James. "Experiments relating to the tactile perception of speech." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2002. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.269739.
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Johnson, Earl E., and Dan Bell. "The Diagnosis and Rehabilitation of Listeners with Hearing Impairment." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2011. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/1714.
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Flynn, Allison R. B. S. "The Relationship among Oral Motor, Fine Motor, Simple, and Complex Speech Skills in Childhood Apraxia of Speech." University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2011. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1306500102.
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Clark, Charlotte. "Joint-Reminiscing between Parents and Their Preschoolers with Language Impairment." Thesis, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, 2019. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10844764.
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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.
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Forsyth, Aimi Louise. "Flexed Truncal Posture in Parkinson’s Disease: Associations with Motor and Non-Motor Impairments and Relationships with Activity." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/19005.
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Flexed posture is twice as common people with Parkinson’s disease (PD) than in the general older population. Little is known about the mechanisms responsible for this high incidence, or the association with activity limitations in people with PD. In the general older population, flexed posture is known to be associated with poorer performance of several activities of daily living, reduced quality of life and increased mortality. The two studies in this thesis explored the associations between flexed posture and the motor and non-motor impairments of PD. They revealed that axial motor impairment, age, gender, spinal proprioception and postural fatigue make significant contributions to flexed truncal posture, although a large proportion of the variance in flexed posture remains unexplained. None of the cardinal motor impairments of PD (tremor, rigidity, bradykinesia and postural instability) or the additional non-motor features of cognition, pain, depression, and overall fatigue demonstrated a significant association with flexed posture. Additionally, greater flexed posture demonstrated a significant association with poorer performance of several balance and mobility tasks, upper limb task performance and restrictive lung dysfunction. Given the negative influence of flexed posture on these activities, clinicians should consider assessing and monitoring truncal posture in people with PD. The C7 to wall measure of truncal posture was found to have high test-retest reliability, making it a suitable method to use in this population. Interventions to improve flexed posture may include exercise, education and interventions targeting spinal proprioception.
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Pelissari, Isadora, Themis Maria Kessler, and Saravanan Elangovan. "Prevalence Of Infant Hearing Impairment: International Multicenter." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2014. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/1568.
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This review of scientific literature was performed in Brazillan and North American studies about the prevalence and assessment procedures of Infant Hearing Loss. Fourteen Brazilian articles and 12 American publications of prevalence between 2000 and 2012 were reviewed. The prvalence of infant hearing loss in Brazilian papers was between 0.2% and 10.2% and American papers from 0.22% to 3.61%. As or the procedures used for diagnosis there was a high similarity in the choice of methods.
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Ferpozzi, V. "THE NEURAL NETWORK UNDERLYING SPEECH IN HUMANS: INTRAOPERATIVE INVESTIGATION OF MOTOR CONTROL OF SPEECH IN BROCA, VENTRAL PRE-MOTOR AND PRIMARY MOTOR CORTICES." Doctoral thesis, Università degli Studi di Milano, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/2434/488181.
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The language, as form of verbal communication –and of thought-, is a unique human ability. It is complex form of communication, consisting of different levels of representation (phonological, syntactic and semantic), translated into words by a sensory-motor system controlling the phono-articulatory apparatus. The loss of language ability, as a result of injury, is an intolerable disability with, at present, very little chance of functional recovery. In order to design efficient rehabilitation actions, the knowledge of the functional organization of neural circuits that underlie language is mandatory.
The aim of PhD project was to investigate the functional properties of the cortical areas involved in sensory-motor control of speech by acting on the phono-articulatory apparatus. The phono-articulatory apparatus is innervated by the motor nuclei of the cranial nerves receiving, with few exceptions, bilateral input from the Primary Motor cortex (M1). At present, however, it remains unclear which other cortical areas in the frontal lobe are actually involved in shaping the motor program to be executed by M1 to allow verbal production and which is their precise functional role in sensory-motor control of the phono-articulatory gestures. Main focus of the project were the three frontal area classically considered involved in motor control of speech: Broca's area, vPM and M1.
A putative direct role of Broca’s area in motor control of speech must be exerted either in shaping the activity of M1 or through its independent control of bulbar motoneurons. In both cases, Broca’s area is expected to significantly affect, either directly or indirectly via M1, the motoneuronal excitability and, in turn, the activity of phono-articulatory muscles. However, the observation that injuries of sole Broca’s area do not result in a motor deficit of speech, but rather in improving mutism (see Introduction), raised doubts on its significant role in control of speech motor output. Interestingly, the “apraxia of speech”, a clear phono-articulatory dysfunction (see Introduction), follows to lesions of the ventral Pre-Motor cortex (vPM), suggesting to be involved in motor programming of speech. However, all these issues remained unresolved for many years, due to the lack of appropriate experimental tools to study these areas in humans, in ecological conditions.
In the last two decades, the introduction of the intraoperative brain mapping technique allowed a direct investigation of the functional properties of M1, vPM and Broca’s area, adding new elements to the debate regarding the role of these areas in speech. However, the absence of a careful analysis of phono-articulatory activity during the brain mapping, highlights confounding evidence regarding the actual role of three areas in motor control of speech.
This study was performed by analysing data collected intraoperatively in 70 patients during surgical removal of gliomas performed with the aid of the brain mapping technique by a high skilled neurosurgical team. The instrumental setup and the methodology used to perform the brain mapping technique gives the unique opportunity to investigate human circuits underlying language with a direct approach (see Introduction). During resection of gliomas located within or in proximity to the cortical areas and tracts involved in language neural network (at level of frontal, temporal or insula lobes), Broca’s area, vPM and M1 are exposed and electrically stimulated as essential part of the clinical procedure. During the intraoperative phase, the patient is awakened and asked to perform different types of language tests assisted and evaluated online by neuropsychologists. During the language tests (object picture naming and counting tests), the Direct Electrical Stimulation (DES) is applied on the exposed areas (M1, vPM and Broca’s area), in order to identify the eloquent cortical sites, i.e. the sites where DES actually “interferes” with the language function inducing a deficit in performance.
To perform a reliable mapping procedure, at the beginning of surgery the precise site onto the three areas expected to control the phono-articulatory apparatus and therefore to be likely involved in speech must be identified. It is indeed known in literature that both M1 and vPM host the representation of both oro-facial and hand-arm muscles (M1 controls also foot-leg muscles). Thus, during procedure first it is mandatory to identify, during each area the hand-arm and the oro-facial, the latter to be then exposed to stimulation during speech tasks. Once the oro-facial representation in the areas was disclosed, DES was applied on the areas during language tasks and the performance was compared with the performance of the same task without DES (natural performance). During all the surgical procedure, the electrical activity (EMG) of some of the muscles involved in the phono-articulation has been recorded. The EMG signal was analysed offline with a quantitative approach allowing to investigate the pattern of motor units voluntarily recruited during the language tasks performed by the patient in absence of stimulation (natural performance) to be then compared to the pattern of recruitment recorded when DES was applied on the three different cortical areas in the same conditions. This analysis was designed to disclose the specific pattern of specific alteration in motor unit recruitment in phono-articulatory muscles due to the DES-induced “transient inactivation” of the three areas. These data, interpreted in light of the animal studies and human studies, were used to infer the putative specific role of M1, vPM and Broca’s area in motor control of phono-articulatory muscles in the attempt to shed light on the cortical network underlying the executive branch of language network.
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Singh, Sameer. "Computational analysis of conversational speech of dysphasic patients." Thesis, University of the West of England, Bristol, 1996. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.319255.
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Deshmukh, Richa. "Motor Speech Characteristics of Children with Autism." The Ohio State University, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1337956015.
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Fogarty, Jennifer Noelle. "Cognitive and motor skills differ in sensitivity to alcohol impairment." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2001. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp05/NQ65238.pdf.
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Volpe, Alessandra G. "Predicting neurological impairment with the Dean-Woodcock Sensory Motor Battery." Virtual Press, 2004. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/1292040.
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An integral part of neuropsychological assessment is the measurement of sensory-motor performance. Many studies have been conducted on the effectiveness of neuropsychological batteries to assess neurological impairment, however examination of only the sensory-motor portion of those measures has been limited. Investigations of tests of sensory and motor functions have often limited their analysis to single tests. The present study assessed the ability of the Dean-Woodcock Sensory Motor Battery (DWSMB), part of a new neuropsychological measure, the Dean-Woodcock Neuropsychological Battery (DWNB), to distinguish between normal subjects and neurologically impaired individuals as diagnosed by a neurologist. Scores from the subtests of the DWSMB from an existing data set for 250 normal and 250 neurologically impaired individuals were randomly assigned to two equal groups to allow for cross validation. Results indicated that the DWSMB was able to correctly identify 92.8% of the cases, identifying 94.4% of the normal population and 91.2% of the neurologically impaired subjects. An additional discriminant analysis was conducted to establish the accuracy of the DWSMB to identify individual diagnoses within neurologically impaired and normal subjects. The DWSMB correctly identified the following cases: 44.9% cardio-vascular accidents, 66.7% multiple sclerosis, 40% seizures, 42% traumatic brain injuries, 62.7% dementia, and 54.5% Parkinson's disease. Results indicated the usefulness of the DWSMB in identifying neurological damage and specific diagnoses in a relatively quick assessment. The utility of the DWSMB and the use of standardized administration procedures, behavioral information for evaluation, and measures of subcortical functions was discussed in light of future research. The potential use of the DWSMB in clinical and educational settings was also considered.Department of Educational Psychology
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Zeszut, Shannon L. "A Survey of Speech Sound Production in Children with Visual Impairment." Cleveland State University / OhioLINK, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=csu1470410459.
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Garner, Briel Francis. "Measuring Speech Perception in Children With Speech Sound Disorders Using the Wide Range Acoustic Accuracy Scale." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2021. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/9109.
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The purpose of this study was to measure the speech perception of children with speech sound disorders and compare it to that of adults and typically developing children. A secondary purpose was to determine if an adaptive-tracking tool, the Wide Range Acoustic Accuracy Scale (WRAAS) equalized task demands across participants independent of perceptual ability. The participants included 31 adults, 15 typically developing children, and 15 children with speech sound disorders. Children with speech sound disorders all had difficulty producing /r/ correctly. Each participant completed perceptual testing discriminating differences in three syllable contrast pairs: /bɑ/-/wɑ/, /dɑ/-/gɑ/, and /rɑ/-/wɑ/. Results indicated that children with speech sound disorders had significantly poorer perception than the adults for /bɑ/-/wɑ/ and /dɑ/-/gɑ/ and significantly poorer perception than their typically developing peers for the /rɑ/-/wɑ/ contrast. Adults and typically developing children did not differ in their perception of any contrast. Results also indicated that WRAAS equalized the number of trials across all participants irrespective of perceptual ability. We discuss clinical implications of these results and how WRAAS may be used in future research and in clinical work to efficiently and effectively determine perceptual abilities of children with speech sound disorders.
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Graves, Tracey A. "Etiologies of specific language impairment." Columbus, Ohio : Ohio State University, 2003. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=osu1061396940.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2003.Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xi, 122 p.; also includes graphics (some col.). Includes abstract and vita. Advisor: Robert A. Fox, Dept. of Speech and Hearing Science. Includes bibliographical references (p. 116-122).
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Oriti, Taylor. "Narrative Abilities in Preschool Children with Childhood Apraxia of Speech, Speech Sound Disorder, and Language Impairment." Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies / OhioLINK, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1586948079666208.
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Willet, Holly. "Effects of treatment on finite morphemes in children with specific language impairment /." abstract and full text PDF (UNR users only), 2001. http://0-gateway.proquest.com.innopac.library.unr.edu/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:1404975.
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Spaulding, Tammie J. "Attentional Control in Preschool Children with Specific Language Impairment." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/194819.
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This research was guided by a theoretical framework positing that children with typical language apply general cognitive resources, such as attention, to facilitate language acquisition, and limitations in these processes may contribute to poor language skills. From this perspective, studying the attentional functioning of children who exhibit difficulty with language would have value for both informing this theory and understanding the nature of the disorder. However, research on the attention of children with specific language impairment (SLI) is limited, as only a few subdomains have been addressed to date. In addition, although school-age children with SLI have been studied, the assessment of attentional functioning in preschool children with this disorder has been minimal. This is likely the result the limitations inherent to the methods used for evaluating attentional skills at younger ages. The purpose of this research was to extend a method previously used successfully with preschool children to study selected aspects of attentional control including susceptibility to distraction, inhibitory control, and updating skills. The research questions were: (a) Do children with SLI exhibit increased susceptibility to distraction relative to their typically-developing peers, and if so, does it vary according to the type of distracter (visual, nonverbal-auditory, linguistic) presented? (b) Do children with SLI exhibit poor inhibitory control relative to their typically-developing peers? (c) Do children with SLI and their typically-developing peers display evidence of updating? Thirty-one preschool children with SLI and 31 controls participated in two computer tasks designed to assess these mechanisms of attentional control. The susceptibility to distraction task involved resisting distracters presented in different stimulus modalities (visual and auditory-linguistic/nonlinguistic). Inhibition and updating skills were assessed using a stop signal paradigm. In comparison to typically-developing children, the children with SLI exhibited increased susceptibility to distraction and poor inhibitory control. Unlike the controls, they exhibited no evidence of updating. The results of this investigation will contribute to a long-term goal of addressing how attention may affect language acquisition in children with SLI. In addition, the successful methodology employed in this study may offer an improved procedure for diagnosing attentional difficulties at an early age, regardless of language status.
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Abdalla, Fauzia Ahmed. "Specific language impairment in Arabic-speaking children : deficits in morphosyntax." Thesis, McGill University, 2002. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=82810.
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Four areas of morphosyntax in Arabic-speaking children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) were investigated: tense, subject-verb agreement, determiners, and prepositions. Spontaneous production data were analyzed for accuracy and error types in using these morphemes. Two groups of typically-developing Arabic-speaking children served as Mean Length Utterance (MLU)-matched and chronological age-matched controls. The results indicate that Arabic-speaking children with SLI were significantly different from the two control groups of children on percentage correct use of tense and subject-verb agreement. Furthermore, when an error in verbal inflection occurred, the substitute form was usually an underspecified/default form, namely the imperative.The findings of the study are discussed in light of existing theoretical accounts of SLI. Three positions are examined: (a) tense marking constitutes the locus of SLI grammatical difficulties (Extended Optional Infinitive hypothesis, Rice & Wexler, 1996); (b) morphosyntactic problems stem from deficits in agreement relations (Grammatical Agreement Deficit account, Clahsen, 1989; Clahsen, Bartke, & Gollner, 1997); and (c) trouble with inflectional morphology is less pronounced in children with SLI acquiring richly inflected languages (Sparse Morphology account, Leonard, Bortolini, Caselli, McGregor, & Sabbadim, 1992). Special characteristics of Arabic such as its intricate morphological system and null subject properties make it particularly valuable in determining universal versus language-specific aspects of SLI. Clinical implications for SLI in Arabic and directions for future research are also explored.
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Allevi, Davide. "Speech Analysis for Automatic Identification of Mild Cognitive Impairment through Autoencoders." Master's thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2019. http://amslaurea.unibo.it/19611/.
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Nowadays, cognitive decline is unfortunately a non-curable disease which, due to an alteration in brain function, causes the progressive decline of memory, thought and reasoning abilities, so much so that in its most severe state patients reach the complete loss of autonomy.
Being able to identify the first signs of cognitive decline in a "pre-symptomatic" phase certainly becomes fundamental in trying to respond significantly to the disease. To succeed in this, the researchers focused on one of the most evolved abilities of the human mind: the language.
In this thesis we proposed a method to classify audio files to detect subjects suffering from cognitive decline. In particular we used the Autoencoder method that is a type of artificial neural network used to learn efficient data codings in an unsupervised manner. The specific use
of the autoencoder is to use a feedforward approach to reconstitute an output from an input. In our case we have used the software auDeep that is software for unsupervised feature learning with deep neural networks (DNNs), which trains an autoencoder for the extraction of features from spectrograms and their classification.
In addition, the SpecAugment method was used to increase the number of data to be analyzed.
This method involves cutting some frequency and time bands into the spectrograms and using them as new data.
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Tuomainen, O. T. "Auditory and speech processing in specific language impairment (SLI) and dyslexia." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2009. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/19058/.
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This thesis investigates auditory and speech processing in Specific Language Impairment (SLI) and dyslexia. One influential theory of SLI and dyslexia postulates that both SLI and dyslexia stem from similar underlying sensory deficit that impacts speech perception and phonological development leading to oral language and literacy deficits. Previous studies, however, have shown that these underlying sensory deficits exist in only a subgroup of language impaired individuals, and the exact nature of these deficits is still largely unknown. The present thesis investigates three aspects of auditory-phonetic interface: 1) The weighting of acoustic cues to phonetic voicing contrast 2) the preattentive and attentive discrimination of speech and non-linguistic stimuli and 3) the formation of auditory memory traces for speech and non-linguistic stimuli in young adults with SLI and dyslexia. This thesis focuses on looking at both individial and group-level data of auditory and speech processing and their relationship with higher-level language measures. The groups of people with SLI and dyslexia who participated were aged between 14 and 25 and their performance was compared to a group of controls matched on chronological age, IQ, gender and handedness. Investigations revealed a complex pattern of behaviour. The results showed that individuals with SLI or dyslexia are not poor at discriminating sounds (whether speech or non-speech). However, in all experiments, there was more variation and more outliers in the SLI group indicating that auditory deficits may occur in a small subgroup of the SLI population. Moreover, investigations of the exact nature of the input-processing deficit revealed that some individuals with SLI have less categorical representations for speech sounds and that they weight the acoustic cues to phonemic identity differently from controls and dyslexics.
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Sugden, Eleanor, Elise Baker, Natalie Munro, A. Lynn Williams, and Carol M. Trivette. "How Are Speech Pathologists Involving Parents in Intervention for Phonological Impairment?" Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2016. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/4448.
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Research has suggested that speech pathologists (SPs) in Australia involve parents in intervention when working with children with phonological impairment. However, details of what this practice entails are unknown. If parents are considered integral to meeting service delivery challenges regarding recommended intervention intensities, there is a need to better understand how parents are involved and trained to provide intervention. This study addresses that need.
An anonymous, voluntary online survey was completed by 335 SPs in Australia who work with children with phonological impairment. Participants answered questions about how they involve and train parents, and the type of home practice activities provided. In addition, SPs were asked to identify barriers they faced when involving parents in intervention for children with phonological impairment.
Overall, 96.36% of SPs involved parents in intervention. SPs reported involving parents in a range of intervention tasks, including goal planning, observing sessions, and completing home practice activities. Sixty-eight percent reported training parents to provide intervention, of whom 87.77% indicated that they do not follow a structured training program or approach when working with parents. Of note, 83.9% of SPs strongly agreed that parent involvement is essential for intervention to be effective; however, most SPs reported barriers to involving parents in intervention, notably compliance with completion of home practice activities.
Although SPs consider parent involvement to be valuable, they identified several barriers to this practice. This poster will offer practical suggestions for how parent training and parent involvement could be implemented for children with phonological impairment.
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Johnson, Earl E. "Listening with Normal Hearing, Hearing Impairment, and Hearing Aids: An Audiologic Perspective." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2011. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/1712.
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Dailey, Natalie S. "Talker Discrimination in Preschool Children with and without Specific Language Impairment." Thesis, The University of Arizona, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/301664.
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Variability inherently present between multiple talkers can prove beneficial in the context of learning. However, the performance during learning paradigms by children with specific language impairment (SLI) remains below typically developing peers, even when multiple talkers are used. Preschool children with typically developing language (n = 17) and SLI (n = 17) participated in a talker discrimination task. Five different pairings of talkers (same male, different males, same female, different females, male + female) were used to present 50 spoken words. Children with SLI were significantly poorer in discriminating same and different male speakers compared to their typical peers. The present findings demonstrate that preschool children with SLI can experience difficulty distinguishing between talkers. Poor sensitivity to variation in talkers may contribute to poor learning in SLI for contexts where multiple talker input should benefit the learner.
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Adams, C., Kelli Morgan, Julie Phillips, Emilee Rehm, Brianna Stampler, and Kerry Proctor-Williams. "The Narrative Skills of Children with Specific Language Impairment and Typical Language." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2018. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/1815.
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Phillips, Julie, Courtney Adams, Kelli Morgan, Emilee Rehm, Brianna Stampler, and Kerry Proctor-Williams. "The Narrative Skills of Children with Specific Language Impairment and Typical Language." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2017. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/1818.
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Purpose. The purpose of this research project was to compare the narrative content organization (macrostructure) of young children with specific language impairment (SLI) and those with typical language development (TL). While it is well-known that young children with SLI display poorer use of grammar (microstructure) than their TL language similar peers (Leaonard, 2014; Rice et al., 1998) less is known about their use of macrostructure. Thus, the research question was: What are the narrative skills of children with SLI as compared to their language similar peers with development TL? Based on research with older children (Gillam et al., 2016), it was hypothesized that children with SLI will have poorer narrative macrostructure of narratives than those with TL. Method. The experiment compared 6 children with SLI (mean age: 5 years, 2 months) and 8 language similar children with TL (mean age: 4 years, 8 months). Language equivalency was determined based on administration of the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-Preschool-2 and the Rice/Wexler Test of Early Grammatical Impairment. As well, all the participants passed a hearing screening and performed in the average range on the Preschool Test of Nonverbal Intelligence. Researchers read two books, Gossie and Gossie & Gertie (Dunrea, 2002, 2002) to each child. After reading each book, the child retold the story while looking through the pictures as a guide, yielding 12 SLI samples and 16 TL samples. The stories were audio-recorded and transcribed using a consensus method of reliability. Researchers then coded the stories for presence and quality of the following components: Character, Setting, Initiating Event, Internal Response, Plan, Action/Attempt, and Consequence. Once coded, the components were then scored on a 3-point scale using Gillam et al. (2012) narrative development progressmonitoring tool. Results and Conclusions. First, outcomes of the two stories were compared using an ANOVA design with Story Components and Story as within group factors. Because Gossie & Gertie had one more character than Gertie, it naturally scored significantly higher on Characters. Otherwise, the stories did not reliably differ and were combined for further analysis. Next a mixed model ANOVA design with Story Components as a within group factor and Group as a between group faction was conducted. The results indicated no statistically significant main effects or interactions. The findings did not support the hypothesis, suggesting that the narrative skills of children with SLI are equivalent to their language similar peers with TL. It may be as children get older and their narratives become more complex, children with SLI begin to fall further behind yielding the differences reported in the literature. This project prompts future questions about narrative macrostructure skills of young age-matched children with SLI and TL and use of macrostructure skills in more complex stories.
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Hodgson, Jessica Charlotte. "Cerebral lateralisation of speech production and motor skill." Thesis, University of Lincoln, 2016. http://eprints.lincoln.ac.uk/24206/.
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The association between praxis and language is longstanding in neuropsychology, with evidence revealing that left hemisphere lesions often lead to combined impairments in motor control and speech (Rasmussen and Milner, 1975; Goldenberg, 2013). Strong left hemisphere asymmetry for language is a robust finding at the population level (e.g. Knecht et al 2000a) and similarly the cortical activation patterns of manual praxis for skilled tasks also reveal a left hemisphere bias (Buxbaum et al, 2005; Haaland et al, 2004). As such, common neural mechanisms are thought to underlie both speech and motor skill, especially actions involving fine motor control of the hands. However, evidence for a clear causal relationship between handedness and speech laterality has proven somewhat weak and inconsistent, due to the wide variation in measurement and classification approaches used (Groen, et al, 2013). A suggestion by Flowers and Hudson (2013) is that motor and speech laterality are related where they involve a common feature of motor output, namely the co-ordination of sequences of movements or utterances to execute a plan or intention so as to achieve a goal; either limb movement or expression of an idea (e.g. Grimme, et al, 2011). The research conducted here investigates speech and motor lateralisation from the hypothesis that sequencing based tasks will be best able to elicit the predicted left hemisphere activation patterns. Five empirical chapters are presented detailing a number of studies involving healthy adults, typically developing children and adults with Developmental Coordination Disorder. The research uses an emerging technique in cognitive neuropsychology; functional Transcranial Doppler (fTCD) sonography, to explore hemispheric laterality of speech and motor skill. Measurements of the degree of activation in each of the hemispheres during language tasks, and the use of a skill-based motor task to determine handedness, are the primary indicators of lateralisation used throughout this thesis. Results from the first 3 chapters 4 reveal that 1) atypical patterns of speech laterality are linked to greater performance differences on motor skill tasks; 2) that whilst hand preference is established early on in childhood the relative performance ability between the non-preferred and preferred hands develops linearly with age; 3) adults with developmental coordination disorder display atypical patterns of laterality of speech networks. The final 2 empirical chapters employ novel neuroimaging paradigms to investigate the mechanisms underlying the links between speech and motor sequencing. Results show that the pegboard task elicits left hemisphere dominant activation regardless of the hand used, unlike other motor tasks with similar properties. Finally a dual task paradigm demonstrates that speech production suffers greater impairments than motor skill when performed simultaneously, providing support for theories proposing a gestural origin to speech. The data are discussed in terms of the specialisation of the left hemisphere for higher order sequential processing, in the context of a lateralised speech-praxis centre model.
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Simmonds, Anna Jane. "Investigating the motor-sensory learning of foreign speech." Thesis, Imperial College London, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/10922.
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This thesis presents an investigation of bilingualism as a motor learning skill, with success ultimately measured in terms of strength of a foreign accent, in contrast to the many studies of bilingualism in terms of linguistic competence. My research used functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) imaging to investigate feedforward (motor) and feedback (auditory and somatosensory) systems involved in the production of foreign speech and how these systems are modulated by proficiency levels. I investigated the function of the frontal operculum and the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) – planum temporale (posterior auditory association cortex) and parietal operculum (somatosensory association cortex) – during speech. The frontal operculum, strongly lateralised to the left, has been associated with speech since Broca performed his classic post mortem lesion-deficit analysis. Interest in the TPJ has arisen because of recent publications proposing the posterior half of the left planum temporale (± adjacent parietal operculum) as a ‘sensorimotor interface’ for speech production. My research compared activity within the frontal operculum and the TPJ during overt and covert speech. A second fMRI study examined retrospective proficiency based on existing language skills in people with English as a foreign language who were scanned during speech production in their native language and in English. A third fMRI study manipulated proficiency by training monolingual native English participants in the production of foreign speech sounds, with scanning pre- and post-training. This allowed measures of changes in activity (indicating rapid plasticity) following a short period of behavioural training in articulating novel foreign speech sounds. Training effects were observed predominantly in the striatum, and further analyses indicated that striatal activity in vocal learning is modulated by proficiency.
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Cahill, Louise Margaret. "Motor speech function following childhood traumatic brain injury /." [St. Lucia, Qld.], 2002. http://www.library.uq.edu.au/pdfserve.php?image=thesisabs/absthe16948.pdf.
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Boyce, Kelsey Lewis. "Effects of Syntactic Complexity on Speech Motor Performance." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2013. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/3417.
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This study evaluated the possible influence of linguistic demands on speech motor control by measuring articulatory movement stability during conditions of increasing grammatical complexity. There were 60 participants in three age groups: 20-30 years, 40-50 years, and 60-70 years, with equal numbers of men and women in each group. These speakers produced 10 repetitions of five different sentence or phrase conditions. These five conditions included two baseline measurements and three sentences of varying complexity. Each complexity condition had an MLU count of 23, word length of 17, syllable length of 25, and contained the phrase open boxes of pompoms. Complexity was measured by node-count and grammatical structure. Lower lip movements during production of the target phrase were used to compute the spatiotemporal index (STI), a measure of lip movement stability over 10 repetitions. It was predicted that STI would be lower (indicating greater stability) in the baseline and low complexity conditions. Comparison of complexity conditions against the baseline-counting condition demonstrated significant differences in the upper lip's STI, displacement, and velocity, as well as in vocal intensity. Speech motor differences between the grammatical complexity levels were minimal and could be attributed to several factors, such as speaking rate or semantic differences. An unexpected finding of this study was the influence of age on speech production. Participants from the 60 year-old group had significantly longer utterance duration, while those from the 20 year-old group had the highest lower lip and jaw STI values. These findings suggest that speech motor control matures even beyond young adulthood and that linguistic complexity does not appear to have a consistent effect on speech movement variables.
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Lallini, Nicole. "Neighbourhood density and phonotactic probability as determinants of speech production accuracy in people with speech output impairment." Thesis, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, 2007. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.446193.
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Oram, Janis. "Anaphoric reference in the narratives of individuals with developmental language impairment." Thesis, McGill University, 1994. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=55518.
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Previous investigations of a single family aggregate with developmental language impairment have suggested that the impaired members are disabled in their ability to use anaphoric pronouns. The present thesis sought to investigate further the use of anaphoric reference in this family using detailed, discourse-oriented analyses. Oral narratives were elicited from eight mature-language users, four language-impaired and four unimpaired. Discourse analysis was accomplished using procedures taken from normal acquisitional studies in which both the form (pronominal or nominal) and the function served by each form (switching or maintaining reference) are considered. The analysis revealed some differences between the language-impaired and unimpaired subjects in their use of pronominals in their narratives. However, three of the four language-impaired subjects used the same nominal-pronominal reference tracking strategies as their unimpaired relatives. The implications of these findings for the general ability of the language-impaired subjects to use pronouns anaphorically as well as future research directions are discussed.
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Musgrave, Jane Ann. "The Effectiveness of the Otago Screening Protocol in Identifying School-aged Students with Severe Speech-Language Impairments." Thesis, University of Canterbury. Communication Disorders, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10092/1433.
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This study examined the effectiveness of the Otago screening protocol in identifying school-aged children with severe speech and language impairments. In order to do so, the results of the Otago screening protocol were compared with those of comprehensive language assessment as determined by best practice protocol (Gillon & Schwarz, 1998, Kennedy, 2002). Following the completion of the screening and the comprehensive assessments, an evaluation of the true positives and false positives was calculated, and an analysis of the false negative outcomes made. Findings indicated that fourteen of the twenty participants were true positives, three were true negatives, three were false positives, and none were false negatives. The Positive Predictive Value and Negative Predictive Value of the screening protocol was 100%. Test Sensitivity and Specificity were very high at 82% and 100%. Inter-rater reliability was very high, generally ranging from 92-100%. Adding a standardised measure of phonological awareness would improve efficiency of the screening protocol. Consideration of alternative screening tools, such as the GAPS test (Gardner et al, 2006) and the CELF-4 screening test (Semel, Secord & Wiig, 2004), should be made. Additional factors which could influence a screening protocol are discussed. The Otago screening protocol is a valid procedure to detect severe speech and language impairments in school-aged students referred to Special Education.
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Fey, Marc E., Hugh W. Catts, Kerry Proctor-Williams, J. Bruce Tomblin, and Xuyang Zhang. "Oral and Written Story Composition Skills of Children With Language Impairment." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2004. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/1776.
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In this study 538 children composed 1 oral and 1 written fictional story in both 2nd and 4th grades. Each child represented 1 of 4 diagnostic groups: typical language (TL), specific language impairment (SLI), nonspecific language impairment (NLI), or low nonverbal IQ (LNIQ). The stories of the TL group had more different words, more grammatical complexity, fewer errors, and more overall quality than either language-impaired group at either grade. Stories of the SLI and LNIQ groups were consistently stronger than were those of the NLI group. Kindergarten children with language impairment (LI) whose standardized test performance suggested normalization by 2nd grade also appeared to have recovered in storytelling abilities at that point. By 4th grade, however, these children's stories were less like the children with TL and more like those of children with persistent LI than they had been in 2nd grade. Oral stories were better than written stories in both grades, although the greatest gains from 2nd to 4th grade were generally made on written stories. Girls told stronger stories than did boys at both grades, regardless of group placement. It is concluded that story composition tasks are educationally relevant and should play a significant role in the evaluation of children with developmental LI.
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Fagelson, Marc A. "Priorities for Tinnitus Management in Cases with Co-Morbid Injury or Impairment." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2013. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/1653.
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Fernandes, N., M. Garcia, and Saravanan Elangovan. "The Occurrence of Hearing Impairment in Brazilian Children : A Systematic Review." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2013. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/1566.
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Pesco, Diane. "Peer talk : children with specific language impairment in dyadic and group interactions." Thesis, McGill University, 2005. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=85951.
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The research for this dissertation focused on how children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) use language in their interactions with peers. The study had three broad objectives: (1) to ascertain patterns of language use by the children with SLI in different contexts, (2) to evaluate the relationship of those patterns to difficulties in peer interaction reported in the literature, and (3) to explore the ramifications of groups composed uniquely of children with SLI for peer talk and peer interaction.The participants were several children (mean age 4 years, 10 months) enrolled in a preschool language program designed specifically for children with SLI. These children were observed in a number of contexts over a period of several weeks.
The children with SLI were first observed in dyadic play with different conversational partners. Initiating and responding, communicative acts, and communication breakdowns were examined. Dyads composed of two children with SLI were more successful in some aspects of conversation, while mixed dyads, composed of one child with SLI and one with TLD, were more successful in others. The conversational behaviours of the children with SLI were, however, generally quite similar to their peers with TLD.
The same children with SLI were observed during recess and during free play in their classroom. There were no significant differences in interactional patterns across the two group play contexts. In both contexts, the children with SLI spent significantly more time in interactive activity than in solitary activity, and most of that interaction was verbal. They tended, even during recess when other interlocutors were available, to talk and interact among themselves, and there was evidence of stable friendships within the SLI group.
Snack, circle time, and pretend play sequences were also observed. A schema for the analysis of children's discourse was piloted. The analysis showed that the children with SLI used language for a variety of instrumental and interactional purposes, and did so in ways that were consistent with those reported in the literature for children with TLD.
The combined results indicated pragmatic strengths and successful peer interaction in this group of children with SLI. These results can be explained by characteristics of the children and of the program in which they were enrolled.
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Kuvalja, Martina. "Self-regulation and self-directed speech in children with specific language impairment." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2015. https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.709006.
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Barnish, Maxwell Scott. "Relationships between cognitive status, speech impairment and communicative participation in Parkinson's disease." Thesis, University of East Anglia, 2013. https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/48388/.
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Aim: To assess the relationships between cognitive status, speech impairment and communicative participation in Parkinson’s disease. Introduction: Speech and communication difficulties, as well as cognitive impairment, are prevalent in Parkinson’s. The contributions of cognitive impairment and acoustic speech characteristics remain equivocal. Relationships between Impairment and Participation levels of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) have not been thoroughly investigated. Methods: 45 people with Parkinson’s and 29 familiar controls performed read, mood and conversational speech tasks as part of a multimethod investigation. Data analysis formed three main parts. Depression, cognition and communication were assessed using questionnaires. Phonetic analysis was used to produce an acoustic characterisation of speech. Listener assessment was used to assess conveyance of emotion and intelligibility. Qualitative Content Analysis was used to provide a participant’s insight into speech and communicative difficulties associated with Parkinson’s disease. Results: Cognitive status was significantly associated with certain read speech acoustic characteristics, emotional conveyance and communicative participation. No association was found with intelligibility or conversational speech acoustic characteristics. The only acoustic speech characteristics that predicted intelligibility were intensity and pause in the read speech condition. The contribution of intelligibility to communicative participation was modest. People with Parkinson’s disease reported a range of psychosocial, cognitive and physical factors affecting their speech and communication. Conclusions: I provide evidence for a role for cognitive status in emotional conveyance and communicative participation, but not necessarily general speech production, in Parkinson’s disease. I demonstrate that there may not be a strong relationship between ICF Impairment level speech measures and functional measures of communication. I also highlight the distinction between measures of communication at the ICF Activity and Participation levels. This study demonstrates that reduced participation in everyday communication in Parkinson’s disease appears to result from a complex interplay of physical, cognitive and psychosocial factors. Further research is required to apply these findings to contribute to future advances in speech and language therapy for Parkinson’s disease.
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Newbury, Dianne F. "A genome wide screen for loci involved in specific language impairment." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2002. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:2b30517a-cecd-49f3-8a5d-556cef6d6723.
Full textAbstract:
Approximately 4% of English-speaking children are affected by Specific Language Impairment (SLI); a disorder in the development of language skills despite adequate opportunity and normal intelligence. Several studies have indicated the importance of genetic factors in SLI; a positive family history confers an increased risk of development, and monozygotic concordance consistently exceeds that of dizygotic twins. However, like many behavioural traits, SLI is assumed to be genetically complex with several loci contributing to the overall risk. This thesis aims to clarify the genetic mechanisms underlying Specific Language Impairment by the exploitation of recent advances in technological, genetic and statistical techniques. This goal is achieved, for the main part, through the completion of the first-ever, systematic genome-wide screen for loci involved in the disorder. A collection of 98 families was drawn from both epidemiological and clinical populations, all with probands who display severe deficits in language skills. Genome-wide linkage analyses were completed for three language-related measures and identified two regions which may harbour susceptibility gene variants for SLI, one on chromosome 16 and a second on chromosome 19. Both of these loci yielded maximum LOD scores of 3.55 and exceeded the threshold for suggestive linkage under all types of analysis performed. Fine mapping of the chromosome 19 locus with a high-density map of microsatellite markers provided further support for the role of this region in SLI but failed to narrow the area of linkage. The second section of the thesis therefore explores alternative genetic strategies that may facilitate the localisation of susceptibility variants from the genomic regions identified. Mutation screening and association analyses were performed for two candidate genes within a subset of 48 families affected by SLI. The first ⎼ numblike (NBL), or numb-related (NUMB-R) (MIM 604018) ⎼ was selected from the region of linkage on chromosome 19q and the second ⎼ Forkhead-bOX domain P2 (FOXP2) (MIM 605317) ⎼ has recently been shown to be mutated in a family with a severe speech and language disorder. Finally, I describe the mapping of a translocation breakpoint within a child affected by a severe language impairment and orofacial dyspraxia. This breakpoint lies on chromosome 2q and coincides with a putative region of linkage in both language impairment and autism. In the long-term it is hoped that techniques similar to those described here will allow the identification of the gene variants which underlie SLI allowing to the development of better diagnosis and treatment for those children with language impairments.