It was the purpose of this study to obtain nasalance values using the Nasometer and a resonance evaluation created at the Louisiana State University (LSU) Speech and Hearing Clinic. The Nasometer was used to measure the amount of nasal acoustic energy in the speech of 40 normal young adults during sustained vowel production, consonant vowel reduplications, and connected speech using the Rainbow Passage. Means and standard deviations are presented for the individual speech tasks and according to gender. Nasalance values for the sustained vowels were significantly higher for the high front vowel /i/ than any other vowel, and the lowest nasalance value was obtained by the high back vowel /u/. The vowels in order of highest to lowest nasalance values were as follows: /i, ae, a, u/. No significant gender differences were found for sustained vowel production or the Rainbow Passage. Correlation values indicated that three phonemes /u, k, g/ from the resonance protocol were the best predictors of nasalance for the reading passage. The results are discussed with regard to potential reasons why minimal gender differences were found, why the phonemes were found to be the best predictors of nasalance, and how the LSU protocol can be modified to provide a more effective and efficient resonance evaluation.

The purpose of the current study was to examine the effectiveness of group-based language-literacy training for child care workers. The first phase of the study followed a pre-post single group comparison design and involved 23 child care providers. The independent variable was the teacher training and the dependant variable was scores from a questionnaire. The second phase of the study involved a sub-group of four child care workers who received one-on-one follow up training after the group sessions. The questionnaire was administered a third time to the follow-up group. An analysis of the questionnaire items at pretest indicated that the teachers felt most knowledgeable and skilled with childrens speech and language development and less knowledgeable and skilled with their development of reading, although differences between items were not significant. Post-test scores were significantly higher than pretest scores, but scores did not continue to increase after the one-on-one training. The results of the current study suggest that group-based, language-literacy training can increase the knowledge and skill of child care providers.

The present research involves two studies. Twenty hearing-impaired participants were divided into two groups depending on their audiometric data and binaurally fit with the Starkey Endeavour 3211 hearing instruments. Experiment I was designed to determine if the use of expansion technology affected objective and subjective benefit in hearing-impaired listeners. Probe microphone measures were obtained at 40, 50, and 60 dB SPL and with the speaker deactivated to ensure that the expansion feature was functioning. Listener performance was measured in quite using the Connected Speech Test (CST) and in noise using the Hearing in Noise Test (HINT) at 40, 50, and 60 dB SPL with expansion activated and deactivated. Participants were also asked to participate in a subjective portion of the experiment. They filled out a rating form twice a day in two settings: quiet and in noise, with expansion activated and deactivated. Results indicated that expansion negatively affected user performance, but participants significantly preferred the feature. Experiment II, very similar in design, examined expansion time constants and their effects on objective and subjective benefit in hearing-impaired listeners. Experiment II examined four different expansion time constants (128 ms, 512 ms, 2048 ms, 4056 ms) to determine their role on speech intelligibility in quiet and in noise with two levels of hearing-impaired subjects (one group was worse than the other). The CST and the HINT were administered at 65 dB SPL to determine listener performance. A similar subjective rating form was used in Experiment II. Participants were asked to rate the speed of the gain and/or reduction of gain in quiet and in noise while speaking and listening. Results indicated that as expansion time constants lengthened performance decreased. Results indicated that there was no preferred time constant and that as the time constant lengthened performance decreased.

The purpose of the current study was to compare the conflict resolution skills and beliefs of children with Language and Learning Disorders (LLD) to those with typically developing language (TDL). All of the participants were drawn from a rural middle school in southeastern Louisiana. The independent variable was linguistic ability and it included two groups of children, thirteen with LLD and a comparison group of eight controls with TDL. The childrens conflict resolution skills and beliefs were collected by giving the children a hypothetical scenario of conflict and then asking them about resolution through an interview format. Conflict resolution measures from these interviews were: the number of strategies the children produced to resolve conflict, the complexity level of the strategies the children produced, and the cognitive level of the childrens beliefs about conflict. Differences were not found in the number of strategies produced by children with LLD and the controls. However, the children with LLD produced a lower level of strategy to resolve conflict and a lower level of cognitive belief about conflict than did the controls, with the latter resulting in a statistically significant group difference.

Students with English as second language (ESL) are typically behind monolingual peers in reading comprehension even when phonemic awareness skills, phonics and word recognition are at grade level. The lack of syntactic awareness is one of the reasons cited in multiple studies (August & Shanahan, 2010; Da Fountoura & Siegel, 1995; Lesaux & Siegel, 2003; Lesaux et al., 2006; Chong, 2009). This study investigated the effects of a six week intervention designed to increase syntactic awareness, including meta-awareness of key structures of English for young ESL students in the upper elementary grades. Twenty typically developing ESL students in the fourth and fifth grade participated in an intervention program that consisted of 35-minute training in syntactic awareness (SA) or phonemic awareness (PA) for three times per week. The ability to produce embedded and conjoined structures, including changes in both oral language and reading, were examined. Results revealed significant gains in sentence combining skills for the syntactic awareness group after six weeks of treatment. Both groups increased their performance scores for the dependent measures word ordering, word reading in context, and comprehension. Levels of second language proficiency, specifically listening proficiency, had a significant influence on gain scores for measures of oral and written syntax, as well as reading. The results suggested that the time spent on higher level language was not at the expense of word recognition skills, consistent with an interactive model of reading that suggests that an interaction between higher level language (i.e., top-down) and decoding print (i.e., bottom-up) occurs to result in word recognition (Seidenberg and McClelland, 1989). Future studies are needed to further evaluate the effect of syntactic awareness training for English as second-language learners.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the embedded language approach is effective in teaching the traditional language arts curriculum, and whether it holds any advantages over the more traditional approach. Twelve teachers in ten different schools taught language skills using the embedded language approach, while twelve matched teachers explicitly taught the same skills using traditional workbook practice activities for six weeks. Treatment efficacy was assessed using gain scores between pretest and posttest using a battery of informal and standardized measures. In addition, weekly comprehension probes were administered to examine whether language arts skills taught during the week generalized to the target context of reading. Results of the mixed design Analyses of Variance (ANOVA) indicated that scores for classes receiving the embedded language lessons were statistically different from scores of the classes receiving the explicit language lessons for the informal pre and posttest measurements, but not for the standardized subtests measurements. Also, findings revealed that the embedded language group and the explicit language group performances were similar and did not favor either group for the comprehension probes.

The Reflux Symptoms Index (RSI), a nine-item self-rated questionnaire, has been suggested as a way of monitoring severity of laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR) symptoms during treatment. However, limited research has been conducted to assess the validity of the RSI as a way of identifying severity of laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR) symptoms as differentiated from gastroesophageal reflux (GER) symptoms. Twenty-five post-pubescent female vocalists participated by completing a one-hour voice evaluation, including a Voice Handicap Index (VHI), an RSI, a Reflux Finding Score (RFS) completed with videostroboscopy for visualization of the laryngeal cavity, and analysis of an acoustic sample with the Multi-Dimensional Voice Profile for noise to harmonic ratio (NHR) and perceptual ratings of hoarseness and breathiness. The investigation placed each participant into one of three groups based upon symptoms reported in her case history form. In an effort to evaluate the validity of the RSI as a tool for differentiating LPR from GER and the absence of reflux, these scores were analyzed for correlations or group relationships. Predictions were that, if the RSI were an indicator of severity of LPR, the RSI raw score would correlate with type of symptoms, RFS raw score, NHR, and/or perceptions of hoarseness. Results failed to reveal statistically significant group differences; however, informal inspection of the data indicated that the RSI scores were generally higher for the GER group than the LPR and asymptomatic groups. Also, RSI scores correlated with VHI raw scores, as both were self-rated items, and the NHR values and the perceptual ratings of hoarseness correlated with the VHI raw scores.

The purpose of this study was to examine the usefulness of the MacArthur- Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI) as an assessment tool for low-income, African American (AA) children. The data were from eighty-seven typically developing AA children, aged 8 to 30 months; these children were recruited from childcare centers that served low-income populations in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Each participants primary caregiver completed a biographical sketch and a CDI inventory. Two analyses were completed. The first analysis examined the distribution of the CDI scores relative to the childs age, gender, birth order, and level of maternal education. The second analysis involved examination of the subsections and items of the vocabulary checklist sections of both versions of the CDI. For the first analysis, the childrens percentile scores were found to be normally distributed. Raw scores on the CDI were also found to increase with the children's ages, and a moderate correlation between CDI raw scores and age was identified. First-born children exhibited higher levels of expressive language than their later-born peers. Additionally, significant group differences were found between males and females on sections of the CDI Words and Gestures inventory, but the direction of the main effects varied across sections. Group differences were not significant for level of maternal education, but a restricted range of educational levels may have contributed to this finding. For the second analysis, results indicated that every item (except basement) from each of the vocabulary sections was comprehended and/or produced by one or more of the children. Sections with the greatest number of marked items included the Sound Effects and Animal Sounds and Games and Routines. Together, these results indicate that the CDI can be considered a useful tool for assessing the early language development of low-income, AA children.

In the current study, the past tense systems of children reared in poverty were examined. Guiding the study was Rice and Wexlers (1996) Extended Optional Infinitive (EOI) account, which makes a number of predictions about the past tense systems of children with specific language impairment (SLI). The goal of the current study was to determine if these predictions apply to other children with weak language systems, such as those reared in poverty. The participants included 15 six-year-olds from low-income backgrounds (LSES), 15 age-matched peers from middle-income backgrounds (AM), and 15 language-matched peers from middle-income backgrounds (LM). All were African American and speakers of African American English (AAE). Data were generated from spontaneous language samples, two productivity probes, an elicitation probe, and a grammaticality judgment probe. These tasks allowed for examination of 11 aspects of the childrens past tense systems. For eight of the 11 aspects of past tense marking examined, children reared in poverty performed differently than what has been documented for children with SLI. For example, children in the LSES group performed similar to the controls on the past tense task but lower than the controls on the past participle task. Children with SLI have been documented to present the opposite pattern, with more difficulties on past tense than on past participle forms. On the elicitation probe, the children in the LSES group also favored the regular form, while children with SLI are known to favor the irregular form. The findings support the specificity of the EOI model for children with SLI. The results also help illuminate some of the ways in which children reared in poverty and children with language impairments differ. This is important because both groups of children frequently score low on standardized language tests and thus are indistinguishable from one another when decisions about service eligibility are made. Finally, the findings of the study provide much needed detail about the language systems of typically developing AAE speakers as a function of social class. Specifically, social class differences between the AAE speakers studied here were found to be minimal and primarily limited to past participle use.

This studys purpose was to examine the use of auxiliary BE forms in African American English (AAE)-speaking children with and without language impairment. The impetus for this work was a lack of information in the literature about BE use in AAE as a function of form, language status, and tasks, and the relevance of this type of data for testing one theoretical model of childhood language impairment, the Extended Optional Infinitive account (EOI; Rice, Wexler, & Cleave, 1995). Thirty African Americans participated: 10 six-year-olds with specific language impairment (SLI); 10 age controls (AM); and, 10 language controls (LM). All of the participants were classified as speakers of AAE through listener judgments. Production of the auxiliary BE forms was examined through language samples and an elicited probe. A grammaticality judgment task, which measured the participants marking preference and reaction time of three BE forms, was also administered. Analyses were hindered by limited tokens in the language samples, high variability, and a bimodal distribution for the AM group in the elicitation probe. When steps were taken to address these issues, the following results were found. A significant group difference was revealed between the SLI and AM groups in the language samples for are, with a marginally significant difference for is. For the elicitation probe, a group difference was found between the SLI and LM groups across all three BE forms. The results of the grammaticality judgment task were inconsistent with those for production. For this task, SLI and LM groups accepted standard-marked am at higher rates than the AM group. No group differences were revealed for the reaction times in this task. However, the participants accepted items containing are more quickly than those containing is and am. The results of this study neither fully support nor refute the EOI account, but do suggest the need for more research regarding the nature of child language impairment as it relates to dialect variation across different tasks and different age groups.