Children with dysarthria due to cerebral palsy (CP) often face barriers to accessing speech research participation and clinical speech services. Utilizing at-home online videoconferencing may be a practical solution to these accessibility barriers if the speech signal yielded from online recordings is valid. This study aimed to determine the validity of acoustic and perceptual measures obtained from speech data collected (remotely) online from children with dysarthria due to CP. The speech of 17 children with dysarthria was recorded by means of two data collection methods performed simultaneously: 1) via Zoom video communications and 2) via a professional audio recording device sent to the children's parents. A calibration procedure permitted the children’s original vocal sound pressure level (SPL) to be represented in the speech signal. Acoustic and perceptual measures extracted from the two recordings were compared in order to determine the validity of speech data collected online from the children. The acoustic measures, obtained from 1,690 tokens of words and 605 tokens of sentences, were the second formant (F2) range of diphthongs, F2 slope of diphthongs, fricative-affricate duration difference, word duration/articulation rate, mean fundamental frequency (F0), F0 variation, SPL, shimmer, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and cepstral peak prominence (CPP). Perceptual measures were 187 adult listeners’ orthographic transcription accuracy and visual analog scale (VAS) ratings of the children’s speech, collected via an online crowdsourced platform. Acoustic measures of F2 range of diphthongs, fricative-affricate duration difference, word duration, and mean F0 reached the validity criterion of rrm-value .75 and demonstrated good agreement within the predetermined clinical criterion at both word and sentence levels. Moreover, SPL met the validity criterion and exhibited good agreement at the word level; however, it failed to meet the validity criterion and demonstrated agreement outside the clinical criterion at the sentence level. The F2 slope of diphthongs showed a strong correlation between online and audio-device recordings and reached the validity criterion; however, it did not show agreement within the clinical criterion at either word or sentence level. Perturbation-based, noise-based, and cepstral measures (i.e., F0 variation, shimmer, SNR, CPP) showed a wide range of correlation and agreement outside of clinical criteria between online and audio-device recordings. Both perceptual measures showed strong correlations between the two recording methods, reaching the validity criterion. Findings suggest that measures that reflect physiological aspects of speech production may be valid and appropriate to extract from online recordings. However, measures capturing noise and variability within the signal may not be valid when obtained from online recordings. Additionally, the results suggest that perceptual measures of listeners’ transcription and ratings from online recordings may be valid to use for research and clinical purposes. Therefore, careful consideration of the appropriate measures and their limitations is essential to obtaining accurate results when extracting measures from online recordings. These findings provide a valuable foundation of evidence supporting the use of online videoconferencing platforms for several acoustic and perceptual measures commonly implemented in speech research, clinical assessment, and treatment.

The primary purpose of this study was to determine whether commercially available software, modified with enhanced dialogue from instructors, could improve discourse skills in Head Start students over improvements obtained without enhanced instructor dialogue, and over improvements of ordinary classroom instruction. Additional information about modifying software or designing new software to improve discourse skills was investigated. Ninety-three students in five Head Start classes of 4- year-olds were tested on the Preschool Language Assessment Instrument (PLAI) and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test- Revised (PPVT-R). Students within each of the five classes were matched on scores from the PLAI and the PPVT-R and then randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (a) software with enhancement, (b) software alone, or (c) control condition. Five student speech-language clinicians worked with the students assigned to the computer-aided conditions. The third group of students received normal instruction from the Head Start staff. Following a treatment period of 3 months, a repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to analyze pretest/posttest PLAI and PPVT-R scores of the Head Start students (N=78). No significant group differences were found for treatment. Significant group differences were found for time. Qualitative analysis from anecdotal records and a user response survey provided additional information about the computer-assisted program and the speech and language of the students in the two computer conditions. The records and clinician survey also suggested how the software could be modified or new software designed to improve discourse skills in young children. The concept of scaffolding was applied to the two computer-aided conditions used in this study. Selected examples from the spontaneous speech of students during computer training sessions demonstrate the relationship between scaffolding instruction and the computer-assisted condition, software with enhancement (CAI+). A theoretical framework which follows from this relationship is suggested. Implications for the use of software with enhancement by non-communication specialists with the speech-language clinician in the role of consultant are provided. / Ed. D.

No description available.

This study examined factors related to how the interactive behaviors of a group of Black kindergarten children, as demonstrated within the social organization of the classroom, may be related to reading readiness achievement outcomes. Cultural differences in language use, the demands for cooperation in mainstream schools, and established patterns of social interaction were examined as reasons for differential outcomes among blacks. Verbal and non-verbal forms of expression and social interactions, as displayed by students and teacher in the classroom, are related to whether students gain access to participation structures and, therefore, learning opportunities. In this ethnographic study participant observation was the method used to collect data. In the research classroom, linguistic form was not a factor in gaining access to participation strucures. This study suggests, however, that access to reading information was limited to competent students who complied with social and academic demands to gain access to participation structures operating in crucial lesson segments and, therefore, learning opportunities. / Ed. D.

There is a paucity of research regarding language use among bilingual clients, particularly with Latino children. In order to provide culturally sensitive counseling for bilingual, Spanish-speaking, Latino children it is important to understand their experience of language use. The purpose of this study was to investigate how second generation, bilingual, Mexican American, 5th grade students experience language use in the two languages with which they communicate. I employed a phenomenological method to data collection and analysis and conducted semi-structured individual and group interviews with three boys and five girls (N = 8). Analysis of the individual and group interviews yielded four main structures: (a) dominant language determined perception of developing dual selves, (b) speaking two languages useful in language brokering and upward mobility, (c) dominant language determined experience of language use, and (d) language use and aspects of the complementarity principle. Findings from this study suggest that bilingual Latino children experience language brokering for their parents as difficult, speaking two languages as useful regarding upward mobility, and that their dominant language influences various aspects of their daily experiences such as with whom and where they use each language. Limitations to this research include insufficient time building rapport with participants and challenges related to unexplored dimensions of bilingualism in the counseling research literature. An overarching implication for future research, clinical practice, and counselor education is that bilingualism, language use, and the depth of experience of Latino children are largely understudied topics.

We evaluated the effects of an instructional package on the emergence of novel intraverbals in children diagnosed with autism. Participants were two boys with a diagnosis of autism who had tact and listener repertoires for common objects and events, some intraverbal responses, and showed an ability to learn new intraverbal responses through direct instruction prior to participating in the study. Tact training, listener training, sorting training, and mixed training (listener and tact training) were conducted with each participant, with a probe to test for emergent intraverbals following each training step. If some emergence was seen during a probe following a training step, probes were conducted with the remaining sets to test for emergence in those sets as well. Multiple-exemplar training was conducted following the training steps if all targets within a set did not meet the criterion for emergence during probes. Results showed that for one participant, all four training steps, in addition to multiple-exemplar training, were needed to see emergence in all targets during probes for two sets, with the last two sets requiring only tact training before all targets had emerged during probes. The second participant required only tact training during three sets, with listener training required for one target in one set before all targets in all sets emerged during probes.

This study reports on the investigation of the educators teaching methods at Grade 4 First Additional Language. The study focused on selected schools in Moretele APO. It took into consideration the teaching methods and the challenges of the environment educators found themselves in teaching FAL. The study used a qualitative method to investigate the teaching of FAL. The experiences and the qualifications of educators were taken into consideration during the empirical study when the observations and the interviews were conducted. The empirical investigation revealed that educators did not know how to teach reading in FAL. They knew less about new approaches to teaching reading and that reading was treated as a separate entity from speaking and writing. The conditions that they found themselves were appalling due to lack of motivation, overcrowding in classes, lack of resources and lack of support from the Department of Education. / Language Education, Arts and Culture / M.Ed. (Curriculum Studies)

Thesis (MAud (Interdisciplinary Health Sciences. Speech-Language and Hearing Therapy)--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / Individuals are increasingly undergoing bilateral cochlear implantation in an attempt to benefit from binaural hearing. The main aim of the present study was to compare the speech recognition of children fitted with bilateral cochlear implants, under binaural and monaural listening conditions, in quiet and in noise. Ten children, ranging in age from 5 years 7 months to 15 years 4 months, were tested using the Children’s Realistic Index for Speech Perception (CRISP). All the children were implanted with Nucleus multi-channel cochlear implant systems in sequential operations and used the ACE coding strategy bilaterally. The duration of cochlear implant use ranged from 4 years to 8 years 11 months for the first implant and 7 months to 3 years 5 months for the second implant. Each child was tested in eight listening conditions, which included testing in the presence and absence of competing speech. Performance with bilateral cochlear implants was not statistically better than performance with the first cochlear implant, for both quiet and noisy listening conditions. A ceiling effect may have resulted in the lack of a significant finding as the scores obtained during unilateral conditions were already close to maximum. A positive correlation between the length of use of the second cochlear implant and speech recognition performance was established. The results of the present study strongly indicated the need for testing paradigms to be devised which are more sensitive and representative of the complex auditory environments in which cochlear implant users communicate.

Thesis(MEd)--University of Stellenbosch, 2003. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Traditionally, schools for Deaf learners taught the language arts within a behaviouristic model with the result that language was broken down into parts and sub-skills and presented in a de-contextualised way. This approach to teaching was sequentially building from the simplest to the most complex form. In contrast to this, the Whole Language approach focuses on a holistic and integrated approach where all language forms are contextualised. Deaf learners need to acquire language as well as develop language before actively engaging in oracy and literacy. With the acceptance of Sign Language as part of the Total Communication philosophy, the medium of instruction is English/Afrikaans/Xhosa in the printed and written form. This necessitates a move towards an approach in which the teaching and learning of language is meaningful, as well as functional such as the Whole Language approach which includes aspects of constructivist theory, appropriate beliefs and effective practice. This research focused on the factors influencing teachers' acceptance and problems experienced as well as the literacy development of the Deaf learner during implementation and facilitation of the Whole language approach. The qualitative design accommodated the exploratory contextual nature of this type of research. The research methodology was a qualitative case study, consisting of three experienced teachers of the Deaf and twenty Deaf learners with varying degrees of hearing losses and mixed language abilities. The methods used during data collection were interviews, journal entries, workshops, and observations. Data analysis was done by using the procedure of open coding where manageable units of data were coded into categories and themes. These themes and categories were interpreted and correlated with the literature. The researcher facilitated the implementation of the Whole Language approach by providing the resource material, building trusting relationships and continuously consulting with the teachers involved in the study. The findings of the study shows that learners abilities such as confidence, risk taking, interest, power sharing, trust, motivation and active learning contributed to learners engaging in the language system - oracy and literacy whilst it extended and enriched the teachers' practices and teaching strategies. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Tradisioneel het skole vir Dowe leerders taal binne 'n behaviouristiese raamwerk onderrig wat tot gevolg gehad het dat taal in kleiner eenhede en subvaardighede, sonder 'n bekende konteks, aangebied is. Hierdie benadering is stapsgewys aangebied vanaf die eenvoudigste tot die mees ingewikkelde vorm. Hierteenoor staan die Geheeltaalbenadering waar klem geplaas word op 'n holistiese, geïntegreerde benadering waar alle taalfasette gekontekstualiseer word. Die verwerwing en ontwikkeling van taal is 'n voorvereiste vir die Dowe leerder se kommunikasie ("oracy") - en geletterdheidsvaardighede (lees en skryf). Met die aanvaarding van Gebaretaal as deel van die Totale kommunikasie filosofie, word Engels/Afrikaans/Xhosa die onderrigmedium ten opsigte van lees en skryf. Gevolglik is dit noodsaaklik om 'n benadering te volg waar klem gelê word op betekenis om sodoende aan die taalbehoeftes van die Dowe leerder te voldoen. Die Geheeltaalbenadering voldoen aan hierdie vereistes ten opsigte van die teoretiese begronding, die konstruktivistiese filosofie, toepaslike geloofsisteme asook die effektiewe praktyk. Hierdie navorsing is toegespits op die geletterdheidsontwikkeling van die Dowe leerder en die faktore wat die onderwysers se aanvaarding tydens implementering en fasilitering van die Geheeltaalbenadering 'n rol gespeel het. Die kwalitatiewe aard van die navorsingsontwerp het In verkennende en kontekstueel-beskrywende vorm aangeneem. Die navorsingsmetodologie het gebruik gemaak van 'n enkel gevallestudie waaraan drie ervare onderwysers en twintig Dowe leerders deelgeneem het en verskillende grade van gehoorverlies en taalvaardigheidsvlakke openbaarhet. Die metode van data-insameling wat gebruik is, is onderhoude, joernaalinskrywings, werkswinkels en observasie. Die data-ontleding was gedoen deur gebruik te maak van 'n cop koderingsprosedure, waar hanteerbare data-eenhede gekodeer is in temas en kategorieë. Laasgenoemde is met behulp van literatuur geïnterpreteer en gekorreleer. Die navorser het die Geheeltaalbenadering geïmplementeer en gefasiliteer, deur hulpmiddels te voorsien, sowel as om betroubare verhoudings en effektiewe samewerking tussen kollegas te bewerkstellig. Die bevindinge van hierdie studie het gedui dat leerders se vaardighede soos motivering, bereidheid om te waag, belangstelling, wedywering en vertroue 'n bydrae gelewer het tot h/sy inskakeling as aktiewe leerder ten opsigte van die taalsisteem (kommunikasie en geletterdheid) terwyl die onderwysers se onderwyspraktyk en onderrigstrategieë uitgebrei en verryk is.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education