Hearing & Speech Sciences Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2776
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Item Verb Comprehension and Use in Down Syndrome(2009) Michael, Sarah Elizabeth; Ratner, Nan B.; Hearing and Speech Sciences; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study examined verb and argument structure retrieval in 18 individuals, nine with Down syndrome (DS), ages 11 years, 11 months (11;11) to 32;10 and nine language age-matched typically-developing (TD) children ages 3;2 to 13;6. It was hypothesized that individuals with DS would exhibit a specific deficit in verb and argument structure retrieval. Results from verb and noun comprehension tasks, verb and noun naming tasks, grammaticality judgments, and narrative tasks were compared between groups. Neither single verb comprehension nor single verb naming differentiated the DS and TD groups. Individuals with DS performed significantly worse than TD individuals when asked to judge sentence grammaticality. Individuals with DS omitted verbs in elicited narratives significantly more often than TD individuals, specifically when productions of two-place and three-place verbs were attempted. Individuals with DS also omitted other necessary elements of argument structure, such as subjects, in sentences containing two-place and three-place verbs significantly more often than TD individuals.Item The Development of Syntactic Complexity and the Irregular Past Tense in Children Who Do and Do Not Stutter(2009) Bauman, Jessica; Ratner, Nan B; Hearing and Speech Sciences; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study examined spontaneous language samples and standardized test data obtained from 31 pairs of children who stutter (CWS), ages 25-59 months, and age-matched children who do not stutter (CWNS). Developmental Sentence Scores (DSS; Lee, 1974) as well as the relationships among age, DSS, and other standardized test scores were compared for both groups. No substantial differences were found between groups in the syntactic complexity of spontaneous language; however, the two groups show different relationships between age and DSS and between test scores and DSS. Additionally, observed differences between CWS and CWNS in patterns of past-tense errors and usage are discussed in light of a recent theoretical model of language performance in populations with suspected basal ganglia involvement (Ullman, 2004).Item Verb naming treatment for individuals with agrammatic aphasia: Efficacy data(2009) Graham, Lauren Elaine; Faroqi-Shah, Yasmeen; Hearing and Speech Sciences; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Some individuals with aphasia present with agrammatism, which is characterized by short, syntactically ill-formed utterances and a paucity of verbs. These patients demonstrate marked difficulty with verb production both in confrontation naming and sentence production tasks. However, previous studies of syntax-based verb treatments have failed to show generalization to naming of untrained verbs. Therefore, the present study investigated the efficacy of a verb naming treatment that focused on purely semantic features of verbs. This research examined whether training semantic features of a verb class would facilitate within- and between-class generalization. Two male patients with agrammatic aphasia participated, with treatment aimed at training cut and contact verb classes. While only one participant (Participant B) improved in naming accuracy of trained cut verbs, neither participant displayed within-class generalization to untrained cut verbs. Only Participant B received training with contact verbs and demonstrated a trend of within-class generalization. Both participants improved on two standardized measures of aphasia performance, indicating that this treatment may have provided a generalized retrieval strategy for verb features. These results have implications for verb naming treatments, including stimuli-specific factors (i.e., number of verb features, verb frequency) and participant-specific factors (i.e., premorbid education, phonological vs. semantic deficit). Implications for future treatment research are also discussed.Item Infant speech perception in noise and early childhood measures of syntax and attention abilities(2008) Blayney, Elizabeth Sarah Sanford; Newman, Rochelle; Hearing and Speech Sciences; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Childhood outcomes in syntactic and attention abilities were measured for 23 children (mean age = 5:3) who, as infants, had either succeeded or failed at identifying their name in the presence of multitalker background noise. Children from the unsuccessful infant group were rated by parents as having significantly more difficulty with attention-related behaviors than children from the successful infant group. The two groups did not perform significantly differently on standardized measures of morphosyntactic ability, but the unsuccessful group was found to have significantly lower MLUs on narrative language samples than the successful group.Item Infant speech perception in noise and vocabulary outcomes(2008) Singer, Emily R.; Newman, Rochelle; Hearing and Speech Sciences; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study attempted to investigate the relationship between infant speech perception in noise and vocabulary outcomes. Newman (2005) conducted a series of studies to determine if infants were able to perceive their own name in the context of background noise. It was found that at five months, infants could perceive their own name when the signal-to-noise ratio was at least 10 dB and at thirteen months, infants were able to perceive their own name with a signal-to-noise ratio of at least 5 dB. Children who had participated in this study as infants returned to be assessed in terms of vocabulary and non-verbal intelligence at approximately five years of age. Children were divided into two groups depending on their success as infants and compared on these measures. No significant relationship was found between any of the measures of vocabulary or non-verbal intelligence and initial performance on the speech perception task.Item Nasometric Assessment of Bilingual Spanish/English Speakers(2008) Doetzer, Ruthanne; Tian, Wei; Hearing and Speech Sciences; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of native language on speech tasks requiring velopharyngeal closure, particularly the standardized Nasometric assessment of voice resonance. Comparison of ten native-English-speaking adults (N) and ten bilingual Spanish/English speakers (B) indicates that native language did not significantly influence standardized assessment scores, although the effect of gender remains ambiguous, with female participants generally producing higher nasalance scores. Within-subject comparison of the bilingual speakers' individual scores on the English and Spanish stimuli indicated significant differences in the scores obtained on the nasal sentence sets and the oro-nasal paragraphs. Highly fluent bilingual English/Spanish speakers, like the participants of this study, can be accurately assessed using the standardized English nasometry passages. Nevertheless, future researchers and diagnosticians investigating velopharyngeal movement and voice resonance should be aware of the possible gender effect and its potential interaction with native language.Item Emotion & Prosody: Examining Infants' Ability to Match Subtle Prosodic Variation with Corresponding Facial Expressions(2008-12-04) Haszko, Sarah Elisabeth; Newman, Rochelle; Hearing and Speech Sciences; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Emotions are conveyed largely through facial expressions and prosody. One important part of language development is learning to express and comprehend these features of emotion. This study examined infants' ability to pair facial expressions with corresponding prosody for "happiness" and "fear". These emotions differ in valence but contain similar prosody. Sixteen-month-olds viewed a single video screen displaying either a happy or fearful facial expression. Simultaneously they heard a series of phrases containing either fearful or happy intonation. During some trials the voice and face expressed the same emotion; during other trials there was a mismatch. Infants' looking time was measured during each condition; they were expected to look longer when both the face and voice matched in emotion. Sixteen-month-olds did not look significantly longer during any particular condition. This suggests that infants may have a limited understanding of the manifestations of "fear" and "happiness" at 16 months of age.Item Infant Speech-in-Noise Perception and Later Phonological Awareness: A Longitudinal Study(2008-10-20) Stimley, Sarah Elizabeth; Newman, Rochelle; Hearing and Speech Sciences; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)While differences have been found in the ability of infants on a variety of speech perception skills including speech perception in the presence of background noise, the implications of these differences on later language skills are currently unknown. This study examines the relationship between a specific measure of infant speech perception in noise and later phonological awareness outcomes. In order to test this relationship, individuals who participated in Newman's (2005) study on infant speech perception in the presence of background noise were administered a battery of language, phonological awareness, and intelligence tests. Scores from these tests were analyzed to see if performance differences existed between those who had performed well as infants in the original study and those who had not. No significant differences between these two groups were found on the phonological awareness measures. Potential reasons for these findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.Item Development of an Evidence Based Referral Protocol for Early Diagnosis of Vestibular Schwannomas(2008-09-03) Barrett, Jessica Ann; Gordon-Salant, Sandra; Hearing and Speech Sciences; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this investigation was to identify the presenting symptoms and testing outcomes that were most suggestive of a potential vestibular schwannoma and to propose an audiological referral protocol for MRIs. To that end, a retrospective chart review was conducted to examine radiologic, audiometric, and case history information from patients at Walter Reed Army Medical Center who were referred to the Department of Radiology to rule out retrocochlear pathology. Charts of 628 patients were reviewed from their electronic medical records, although the final patient sample was 328 patients who had complete audiologic data. Analyses were conducted to compare the unaffected and affected ears of the positive MRI group to the better and poorer ears of the negative MRI group. Results were significant between the affected ear of the positive group and the poorer ear of the negative group for pure tone thresholds, speech discrimination scores, and acoustic reflex thresholds. Significant differences between the groups were not generally seen for the comparison of the unaffected ear to the better ear, with the exception of acoustic reflex thresholds. The interaural difference between ears was significant between the two groups for pure tone thresholds and speech discrimination scores; however, the difference was not significant for acoustic reflex thresholds. For all significant differences between the groups, the positive MRI group evidenced poorer audiological results. Additionally, three symptoms/outcomes that led to the patients' referral were significantly different between the two groups: unilateral tinnitus, asymmetrical word recognition, and positive rollover in speech recognition scores. Logistic regression was applied to the audiological tests and symptoms to determine the most predictive set of variables that differentiated between the patients with a positive and negative MRI. The most predictive model yielded a sensitivity of 81.25% and a specificity of 82.59% when applied to the current patient sample. The audiological profile identified may be useful for clinicians in deciding whether their patient should be referred for an MRI to rule out the presence of a vestibular schwannoma.Item Predicting the loudness discomfort level from the acoustic reflex threshold and growth function(2008-08-18) Cannavo, Justine Marie; Gordon-Salant, Sandra; Hearing and Speech Sciences; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the relationship between several measures of the acoustic reflex [acoustic reflex threshold (ART), dynamic range of the acoustic reflex growth function, the 50% point along the acoustic reflex growth function, and the maximum intensity value of the acoustic reflex growth function] and behavioral measurements of loudness [loudness discomfort level (LDL) and the loudness contour (LC)]. The underlying objective was to determine if any of these measures can be used to predict the LDL. A finding of a strong relationship between these measures could potentially assist in the creation of an objective method to measure LDLs, which may have implications for hearing aid fittings. Prior research in this area has yielded conflicting results. However, very few studies examined measures of loudness growth and the dynamic range of the acoustic reflex. Twenty young adults ranging from 22-35 years of age (Mean age = 25.85, s.d. 3.07) with normal hearing participated in this study. Participants were required to provide a subjective loudness rating to warbled-tone stimuli in accordance with a categorical loudness scaling procedure adapted from Cox et al. (1997), as well as an LDL rating. Additionally, an ART was obtained from each participant, as defined by a 0.02 mmho change in admittance. Following identification of the ART, the acoustic reflex growth function was obtained by increasing the stimulus until the termination point. Experimental measures were obtained over two test sessions. Results revealed no significant relationship between measures of the acoustic reflex and loudness. Analysis of test-retest measures revealed moderate to very high positive (0.70 - 0.92) correlations for the acoustic reflex and LDL measures over a period of 1 day to 2 weeks. Test-retest performance on the majority of loudness categories on the LC did not reveal stable results. Implications for these findings are that the ART cannot be used to reliably predict the LDL. Additionally, the LC may not be a reliable clinical measurement to assess loudness.