This study investigated the effects of an explicit individualized phonemic awareness intervention administered by a speech-language pathologist to 4 prekindergarten children with phonological speech sound disorders. Research has demonstrated that children with moderate-severe expressive phonological disorders are at-risk for poor literacy development because they often concurrently exhibit weaknesses in the development of phonological awareness skills (Rvachew, Ohberg, Grawburg, & Heyding, 2003). The research design chosen for this study was a single subject multiple probe design across subjects. After stable baseline measures, the participants received explicit instruction in each of the three phases separately and sequentially. Dependent measures included same-day tests for Phase I (Phoneme Identity), Phase II (Phoneme Blending), and Phase III (Phoneme Segmentation), and generalization and maintenance tests for all three phases. All 4 participants made substantial progress in all three phases. These skills were maintained during weekly and biweekly maintenance measures. Generalization measures indicated that the participants demonstrated some increases in their mean total number of correct responses in Phase II and Phase III baseline while the participants were in Phase I intervention, and more substantial increases in Phase III baseline while the participants were in Phase II intervention. Increased generalization from Phases II to III could likely be explained due to the response similarities in those two skills (Cooper, Heron, & Heward, 2007). Based upon the findings of this study, speech-language pathologists should evaluate phonological awareness in the children in their caseloads prior to kindergarten entry, and should allocate time during speech therapy to enhance phonological awareness and letter knowledge to support the development of both skills concurrently. Also, classroom teachers should collaborate with speech-language pathologists to identify at-risk students in their classrooms and successfully implement evidence-based phonemic awareness instruction. Future research should repeat this study including larger groups of children, children with combined speech and language delays, children of different ages, and ESOL students

Please read the abstract in the section 00front of this document / Thesis (DPhil (Communication Pathology))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology / DPhil / Unrestricted

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The regular behavior of sound sources helps us to make sense of the auditory environment. Regular patterns may, for instance, convey information on the identity of a sound source (such as the acoustic signature of a train moving on the rails). Yet typically, this signature overlaps in time with signals emitted from other sound sources. It is generally assumed that auditory regularity extraction cannot operate upon this mixture of signals because it only finds regularities between adjacent sounds. In this view, the auditory environment would be grouped into separate entities by means of readily available acoustic cues such as separation in frequency and location. Regularity extraction processes would then operate upon the resulting groups. Our new experimental evidence challenges this view. We presented two interleaved sound sequences which overlapped in frequency range and shared all acoustic parameters. The sequences only differed in their underlying regular patterns. We inserted deviants into one of the sequences to probe whether the regularity was extracted. In the first experiment, we found that these deviants elicited the mismatch negativity (MMN) component. Thus the auditory system was able to find the regularity between the non-adjacent sounds. Regularity extraction was not influenced by sequence cohesiveness as manipulated by the relative duration of tones and silent inter-tone-intervals. In the second experiment, we showed that a regularity connecting non-adjacent sounds was discovered only when the intervening sequence also contained a regular pattern, but not when the intervening sounds were randomly varying. This suggests that separate regular patterns are available to the auditory system as a cue for identifying signals coming from distinct sound sources. Thus auditory regularity extraction is not necessarily confined to a processing stage after initial sound grouping, but may precede grouping when other acoustic cues are unavailable.

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In vielen Kommunikationssytemen wird Information durch die zeitliche Struktur von Signalen kodiert. Ein neuronales System, welches rhythmische Signale verarbeitet, sollte davon profitieren, seine inhärenten Filtereigenschaften den Frequenzcharakteristika dieser Signale anzupassen. Die Grille Gryllus bimaculatus stellt ein einfaches biologisches System dar, für welches nur wenige, spezifische Modulationsfrequenzen verhaltensrelevant sind. Ich habe einzelne Neuronen im peripheren und höheren auditorischen System der Grille hinsichtlich einer möglichen Anpassung auf diese Frequenzen untersucht. Hierfür habe ich extrazelluläre Elektrophysiologie mit verschiedenen Stimulationsparadigmen kombiniert, welche auf amplitudenmodulierten Tönen basierten. Die Analyse der experimentellen Daten ergab, dass bereits in der auditorischen Peripherie einige der untersuchten Neurone Bandpasseigenschaften aufwiesen, da sie verhaltensrelevante Modulationsfrequenzen mit den höchsten Feuerraten beantworteten. Anhand einfacher mathematischer Modelle demonstriere ich, wie weitverbreitete, zellintrinsische und netzwerkbasierte Mechanismen die beobachteten Feuerratenresonanzen erklären könnten. Diese Mechanismen umfassen unterschwellige Resonanz von Membranströmen, aktivitätsabhängige Adaptation, sowie das Zusammenwirken von Exzitation und Inhibition. Ich zeige, wie eine serielle Kombination solcher elementarer Filter die deutliche Selektivität im Verhalten der Grille erklären könnte, ohne dabei auf ein dediziertes Filterelement zurückzugreifen. Allgegenwärtige neuronale Mechanismen könnten demnach eine dezentralisierte Filterkaskade in einem hochspezialisierten und größenbeschränkten neuronalen System begründen. / In many communication systems, information is encoded in the temporal pattern of signals. For rhythmic signals that carry information in specific frequency bands, a neuronal system may profit from tuning its inherent filtering properties towards a peak sensitivity in the respective frequency range. The cricket Gryllus bimaculatus is a simple biological system for which only a narrow range of modulation frequencies is behaviorally relevant. I examined individual neurons in the peripheral and higher auditory system for tuning towards specific temporal parameters and modulation frequencies. To this end, I combined extracellular electrophysiology with different stimulation paradigms involving amplitude-modulated sounds. Analysis of the experimental data revealed that—even in the auditory periphery—some of the examined neurons acted as tuned band-pass filters, yielding highest firing-rates for behaviorally relevant modulation frequencies. Using simple computational models, I demonstrate how common, cell-intrinsic or network-based mechanisms could account for the experimentally observed firing-rate resonances. These mechanisms include subthreshold resonances, spike-triggered adaptation, as well as the interplay of excitation and inhibition. I present how a serial combination of such elementary filters could explain the strong selectivity evident in the cricket’s behavior—without the need for a dedicated filter element. Pervasive neuronal mechanisms could therefore constitute an efficient, distributed frequency filter in a highly specialized, size-constrained neuronal system.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T18:23:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Cynthia Fernanda Ferreira Cesar.pdf: 689185 bytes, checksum: 766642c93bef193349d713a6bb4e6288 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-12-04 / The aim of this study is to describe and interpret the phenomenon the living experience of students with auditory processing disorder in the teaching-learning context, considering the perspective of the people who lived this experience: the teacher-researcher and three students diagnosed with auditory processing disorder. The theoretical foundations of this study lie on: (a) Vygotsky s learning and development view (1930/1998 e 1934/2005); (b) the relation between affective aspects and the teachinglearning process according to Wallon (1979, 1986 e 1941/2007) and followers, such as Mahoney (2007), Almeida (1999) Leite e Tassoni (2002); (c) the concept of special needs and inclusion according to Glat (2004), (2004), Mitler (2003) Gonzáles (2007) and others; (d) the concept of learning disabilities according to Garcia (1998), Weiss e Cruz (2007) and others; and (e) types of learning disabilities and the concept of auditory processing disorder as stated by Smith e Strick (2001), Machado (2003), Pereira (1997) and others. This study was conducted in a Primary/Secondary Education private regular school in a town in the state of Sao Paulo. The collection of textual registers occurred in the English classes taught by this teacher-researcher. The instruments used were: field notes, interviews and questionnaires. This research was carried out based on the Hermeneutic Phenomenological Approach (van Manen, 1990) to describe and interpret the phenomenon in question, using the process of thematization systematized by Freire (2007), based on the proposal of van Manen (1990). My interpretation of the textual registers revealed that the phenomenon the living experience of students with auditory processing disorder in the teaching-learning context may be seen as consisting of four themes: Aspects of Learning, Educational Action, Affection and Inter- Personal Relationships / O objetivo desta pesquisa é descrever e interpretar o fenômeno a vivência do aluno com distúrbio do processamento auditivo no contexto de ensino-aprendizagem, considerando para isso a perspectiva de quem o vivenciou: a professora-pesquisadora e três alunos com diagnóstico de distúrbio do processamento auditivo. A fundamentação teórica deste estudo está ancorada: (a) na visão de aprendizagem e desenvolvimento de Vygotsky (1930/1998 e 1934/2005); (b) na relação entre afetividade e o processo de ensino-aprendizagem segundo Wallon (1979, 1986 e 1941/2007) e seus seguidores, dentre eles Mahoney (2007), Almeida (1999) e Leite e Tassoni (2002); (c) no conceito de necessidades educacionais específicas e a inclusão escolar segundo Glat (2004), (2004), Mitler (2003) Gonzáles (2007) e outros; (d) no conceito de dificuldades de aprendizagem segundo Garcia (1998), Weiss e Cruz (2007) e outros; (e) nos tipos de dificuldades de aprendizagem e no conceito de distúrbio do processamento auditivo conforme Smith e Strick (2001), Machado (2003), Pereira (1997) e outros. Esta pesquisa foi realizada em uma escola regular da rede privada de Ensino Fundamental e Médio em uma cidade no interior do Estado de São Paulo. A coleta dos registros textuais ocorreu nas aulas de Língua Inglesa desta professora-pesquisadora. Os instrumentos de coleta utilizados foram: notas de campo, entrevistas e questionários. Apoiei-me na Abordagem Hermenêutico-Fenomenológica (van Manen, 1990) para descrever e interpretar o fenômeno em questão, utilizando o processo de tematização sistematizado por Freire (2007), com base na proposta de van Manen (1990). Minha interpretação dos registros revelou que o fenômeno a vivência do aluno com distúrbio do processamento auditivo no contexto de ensino-aprendizagem se constitui por quatro temas: Aspectos da Aprendizagem, Ação Pedagógica, Afetividade e Inter-Relações Pessoais

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T18:12:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Fernanda Camargo Geribola.pdf: 1547941 bytes, checksum: 063b4de26b3cbb4c88109ec3946d7674 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-04-30 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Objective: to investigate sound localization, motor-acoustic organization and auditory discrimination performance in 7 to 11 year-old children and to describe results according to gender and to answers of teachers and parents to a questionnaire. Method: 60 children were evaluated: 30 2nd or 3rd grade students and 30 4th or 5th grade. The distribution of the students according to age was: 26,7% were 7, 21,7% were 8, 15% were 9, 35% were 10 and 1,6% were 11 years old. They were submitted to visual inspection of external acoustic meatus, pure tone audiometry, timpanometry (as an inclusion criteria). The study had three phases: screening questionnaire answered by parents, learning difficulties questionnaire answered by teachers and sound localization, motor-acoustic organization and auditory discrimination performance. Results: there was no statistically significant difference between level of scholarship and tests performance; teachers answers for the learning difficulties questionnaire and tests performance. Students who performed poorly in the tests were oral respirators, presented more ear ache and throat infection episodes, frequently asked repetition of what was said, loud speakers and had familiar history of hearing loss, according to the comparison of parents answers to a questionnaire and tests performance. Conclusions: 1. it was not possible to establish a relationship between age and tests performance; 2. learning difficulties questions for the teachers did not allow detecting students who needed auditory processing evaluation; 3. the questionnaire answered by parents allowed identifying students at risk for poor performance in the applied auditory abilities tests / Objetivo: O objetivo deste trabalho foi investigar o desempenho de crianças entre 7 e 11 anos para os testes de localização da fonte sonora, organização acústico motor e discriminação auditiva, descrevendo os resultados do desempenho das crianças nos diferentes testes em função do sexo e das respostas dos pais ao questionário. Método: Foram avaliadas 60 crianças, sendo 30 matriculadas na 2 ªou 3 ª e 30 na 4 ª ou 5 ª série, distribuídas segundo a faixa etária em : 7 anos (26,7%), 8 anos (21,7%), 9 anos (15%), 10 anos (35%) e 11 anos (1.6%). As crianças foram submetidas a inspeção visual do meato acústico externo, audiometria tonal liminar, timpanometria (como critério de inclusão). A coleta foi realizada em três fases: questionário de triagem auditiva com os pais, questionário com os professores sobre a presença de dificuldade de aprendizagem e desempenho das crianças nos testes: Teste de Localização da Fonte Sonora, de Teste de Organização Acústico-Motora e Teste de Discriminação Auditiva com as crianças. Resultados: a análise da relação entre nível de escolaridade e desempenho nos testes de não mostrou diferença estatisticamente significante. Para a questão desempenho das crianças nos diferentes testes segundo a resposta do professor para a questão ter ou não queixa de dificuldade de aprendizagem, os resultados não foram estatisticamente significantes. A análise descritiva em valores de porcentagem do desempenho das crianças nos testes aplicados em relação com às respostas dos pais ao questionário aplicado e a análise por agrupamento, mostraram que as crianças que não apresentaram desempenho adequado eram as que os pais informaram que: eram respiradores bucais, tiveram muitos episódios de dor de ouvido e infecção de garganta , falam muito Hãm e o quê; fala muito alto e devagar e que tem antecedentes familiares de perda auditiva. Conclusões: os dados obtidos nessa pesquisa permitem concluir: 1. que não foi possível estabelecer relação entre faixa etária e desempenho nos testes; 2. que a pergunta sobre dificuldade de aprendizagem feita ao professor não permite detectar crianças que necessitariam de avaliação diagnóstica de transtorno de processamento auditivo; 3. que o questionário aplicado aos pais permitiu identificar os riscos para bom desempenho nos testes de habilidades auditivas aplicados

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