Hearing & Speech Sciences Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2776
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Item Supportive Messages Perceived and Recevied in a Therapeutic Setting(1994) Barr, Jeanine Rice; Freimuth, Vicki S.; Speech Communication; University of Maryland (College Park, Md); Digital Repository at the University of MarylandThis study examines how communication of social support influences the behavioral change process in a particular environment. Specifically, the research question is: How is social support related to commitment to recovery from alcoholism/addiction? A one group pre-test/post-test research design was used with subjects in two addictions treatment centers. Questions were designed to measure changes that took place in individual's perception of supportiveness of messages received, the network support available to them, changes in uncertainty and self-esteem. Finally, how these variables predict commitment to recovery was examined. Results showed no relationship between strength of network at time 1 and the supportiveness of messages received. Strength of network support, self-esteem, and uncertainty reduction improved from time 1 to time 2. The major predictor of a patient's commitment to recovery was the level of self esteem at time 2. However, a strong correlation was found between self-esteem and strength of network at time 2.Item Tongue-Palate Interaction in Discrete and Sequential Swallowing(1996) Chi-Fishman, Gloria; McCall, Gerald N.; Stone, Maureen; Hearing & Speech Sciences; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)Historically, swallowing motor control was thought to involve a central mechanism that generated patterned responses with little use of sensory input. Although increasing evidence of peripheral modulation has altered this concept, our knowledge about the flexibility in deglutitive motor control and performance is incomplete. This study sought to gain a better understanding by examining lingual motor strategies in light of changing bolus properties (volume, consistency) and task demands (discrete vs. sequential swallowing). Specifically, the timing and patterns of tongue-palate contact and the associated changes in tongue shape and action were examined in five normal adults using simultaneous electropalatography (EPG) and ultrasound. Tasks for discrete swallowing included 5 and 30 cc of water, 5 and 30 cc of gelatin, and saliva. Tasks for sequential swallowing involved drinking 200 cc of water at normal and fast rates. Two analysis schemes were used to make timing and percent-contact measurements: segmentation of the EPG time series into four stages (prepropulsion, propulsion, full contact, withdrawal), and compartmentalization of the pseudopalate into six bins (front, central, back, lateral, medial, midline). Results showed little variation in contact pattern as a function of bolus property or subject, suggesting considerable stereotypy in lingual motor strategies for movement sequencing. However, unlike the conventional description, tongue-palate contact during propulsion was multidimensional with two distinct degrees of freedom in the front-to-back and the lateral-to-midline continua. Significant (Q<. 0 I) timing differences were found in that larger and thinner boluses were propelled faster than smaller and thicker ones, and dry swallows had longer full contact than water. For sequential swallowing during continuous drinking, the tongue used faster movement speed and overlapping gestures to meet the task demands, while propulsive contact pattern remained invariant. Thus, the change was not in motor strategies per se but in the timing coordination of the "drink" and "swallow" sequences. A 3-D model of oral lingual action for swallowing was proposed. Clinical implications were discussed. In sum, results of this study support the theory that swallowing motor control includes a peripheral mechanism capable of modulating centrally generated responses, and that the deglutitive motor program has both invariant and variant parameters.Item A Study of Factors Influencing Improvement in Speech Reading Ability(1954) VanBebber, Mary Lillian; Hearing and Speech Sciences; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)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.