The level of agreement proxy-caregivers have with individuals with aphasia (IWAs) on a measure of perceived stress has yet to be systematically investigated. According to the extant literature, there is less agreement on psychosocial domains between proxy-caregivers and IWAs. In addition, high levels of mutuality have been strongly associated with low levels of stress in stroke survivors; however, these studies are not been specific to IWAs. The proposed study sought to examine the degree of agreement between proxy-caregiver reports and IWAs' perceived stress using a modified stress scale specifically for IWAs. This study also examined the relationship between perceived stress and mutuality of the relationship between the caregiver and IWAs. The modified Perceived Stress Scale (mPSS), a proxy version of the mPSS, and the Mutuality Scale (MS) were administered to 12 dyads. An independent sample t-test was conducted to determine if there were significant differences in perceived stress and mutuality as reported by the caregiver, proxy-caregiver and IWA. A Pearson correlation was performed to determine the level of agreement across questionnaires. Results show a moderate correlation on mPSS ratings between the proxy-caregiver and IWA. On average, proxy ratings on the mPSS were significantly higher than reports from IWAs. There was strong agreement on mutuality among the dyads and a moderate correlation between mutuality agreement and proxy agreement. Finally, there was a moderate correlation between the caregiver's mPSS score and increased disagreement between the proxy-caregiver and the IWA's mPSS score. These findings suggest a moderate agreement on perceived stress among caregivers and IWAs. Differences in agreement on perceived stress for proxy-caregiver and IWAs were minimized when perceived mutuality between the dyads were high. Further, caregivers were more likely to overestimate the perceived stress of IWAs when their own mPSS ratings were high. Study limitations and future directions are also discussed.

There has been limited research done in the Philippines in the area of aphasia, a frequent concomitant symptom of strokes and presents as impairment in any area of the input and output of language. Diagnosis is generally conducted by clinicians based on sites of lesion of speakers with aphasia and clinical observations of language symptoms and unpublished translation of the WAB. The lack of relevant research and formal assessment tools in the Philippines motivated this current study. The development of this type of assessment battery for the Tagalog (pronounced /təˈɡɑːlɒɡ/ in English) speaking population will provide a means for differential diagnosis of acquired neurogenic communication disorders. The goal of this study is to develop a Tagalog version of the Western Aphasia Battery – Revised (WAB-R; Kertesz, 2006). The WAB-R was chosen as the basis for the development of the T-WAB-R due to the researched, validated and standardized nature of the battery for use with assessing the severity and type of aphasia through score profiles. This battery provides clinicians with a comprehensive evaluation of language skills in English and is projected to do the same in Tagalog. Given the lack of normative data on the Tagalog speaking population on this test, the current study establishes the normative data of the T-WAB-R from native speakers of Tagalog, encompassing external factors of gender (e.g. male and female) and stratified into three age groups (e.g., 20-39; 40-60; 61+ years old). A full-scale development of the battery will provide a means for differential diagnosis of acquired neurogenic communication disorders in the Tagalogspeaking population.

The intent of this thesis is to examine and provide insight into how speech-language pathologists and speech-language therapists (SLP/SLT) in Australia (AUS), the United Kingdom (UK), and the United States of America (USA) work with youth in the Juvenile Justice System (JJS). Currently, many youth involved in the JJS struggle with language barriers and need proper services to overcome them. Studies have shown that an SLP/SLT positively affects young people in the system. This study aimed to examine the demographic, educational, and occupational backgrounds of SLPs/SLTs working with youth in the JJS and the services provided to these youth by SLPs/SLTs. Additionally, this study seeks to understand the perspective of SLP/SLTs in their role within the JJS and identify any differences between countries. Finally, the study aims to understand the importance of the SLP/SLT role in working with youth in JJS and assess whether there are any differences in the characteristics and themes of their responses among countries. After conducting the study across AUS, the UK, and the USA, it was evident that SLPs/SLTs collectively believed that youth in the JJS were not receiving adequate support. Work still needs to be done to help adolescents in this environment, and SLPs/SLTs are constantly advocating for and educating those working within the JJS.

This study analyzes quantitative and qualitative differences in errors made during a nonword repetition task between children with dyslexia (n = 75) and their typically developing (TD) peers (n = 75). Participants were auditorily presented with 16 nonwords based on a CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) pattern; nonwords varied from two to five syllables in length. Verbal responses were recorded, transcribed, and consonant phonemes were analyzed according to the following error types: substitutions, omissions, insertions, and transpositions. Analyses found that children with dyslexia perform more poorly on nonword repetition as compared to their TD peers. Specifically, during this nonword repetition task children with dyslexia differed from their TD peers in overall accuracy and omission errors. Groups did not differ in the quantity and quality of substitution, insertion, or transposition errors. Findings from this study may provide insight into mechanisms underlying phonological processing in children with dyslexia. Implications for future research and clinical work are also discussed.

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<p>This Master’s thesis presents results from two clinical hearing aid studies. Wide dynamic range compression (WDRC), a hearing aid amplification algorithm widely used in the hearing aid industry, is compared against a novel hearing aid called the Neuro-Compensator (NC), which employs a neural-based amplification algorithm based on a computational model of the auditory periphery. The NC strategy involves preprocessing an incoming auditory signal, such that when the signal is presented to a damaged cochlea, auditory nerve output is reconstructed to look similar to the auditory nerve output of a healthy cochlea for the original auditory signal. The NC and WDRC hearing aid technologies are compared across a multitude of auditory domains. Objective measures of speech intelligibility in quiet and in noise, music perception, sound localization, and subjective measures of sound quality are obtained. It was hypothesized that the NC would restore more normal auditory abilities across auditory domains, due to its proposed strategy of restoring more normal auditory nerve output. Results from the clinical hearing aid studies quantified domains in which the NC was superior to WDRC, and vice versa.</p> / Master of Science (MSc)