Vocal warm-up exercises are believed to contribute to the prevention of vocal fold injury in professional voice users. Professional singers and students of singing consider a regular vocal warm-up regimen essential. There is conflicting information in the vocal pedagogy literature about the most effective and widely used vocal warm-up exercises and the optimal frequency and duration of vocal warm-up sessions. The goal of this current study was to investigate the characteristics of vocal warm-up regimens in the singing community using a survey. One hundred seventeen participants completed the survey. Participants included voice students from undergraduate, masters, and doctoral music programs and professional singers. All participants reported using vocal warm-up prior to singing. Vocal cool-down was used following singing in 22.2% of the participants. The majority of participants (78.6%) used warm-up sessions of 5-20 minutes in duration. Despite using vocal warm-up, 25.6% of participants reported experiencing voice problems. The investigation of gender and education on frequency and duration of vocal warm-up sessions revealed that females warmed up significantly more frequently than males. There was no significant difference in duration of warm-up sessions between males and females. However, females tended to employ longer warm-up sessions than males. Education of the participants did not appear to have any significant effect on the vocal warm-up practices. The most commonly used singing warm-up exercises were ascending/descending 5-note scales, ascending/descending octave scales, legato arpeggios, and glissandi. Findings suggested a belief among singers that warming up improves voice quality and assists in prevention of vocal injury. Future studies are planned to investigate the effect of voice classification and singing styles on vocal warm-up practices.

Children, like adults, use referring expressions to refer to specific objects, events, or people. Research has provided insights into how children use referring expressions and the appearance of forms developmentally (Radford, 1990; Abu-Akel, et al., 2004; Pine & Lieven, 1997). This study examined how three, four, and five year-old children use referring expressions across increasingly more decontextualized tasks as defined by the Situational-Discourse-Semantic (SDS) Model (Norris & Hoffman, 1993, 2002) . The participants included 4 three-year-old, 12 four-year-old, and 20 five-year-old children. Language samples were elicited using seven tasks of increasing difficulty. The referring expressions produced for each task were categorized based on their usage, and then analyzed for similarities and differences in the frequencies and types of referring expressions used within and between contextualized and decontextualized levels, tasks, and age groups. A significant difference was found in how participants across the three different ages used referring expressions in the contextualized tasks versus the decontextualized tasks. The relationship between the task and category also revealed that the task significantly affected the number of referring expressions found in a given category across all of the participant age groups. Lastly, the difference between the participants in the three different age groups and the tasks was examined. Tasks 3, 6, and 7 all showed a significant group difference for performance on these tasks. Through this study, we have gained insights into referring expressions, including what they are and how they are used in contextualized and decontextualized language samples. In examining the language samples, we have started to explore how children use referring expressions, including the use of cohesive ties and types of errors children produce. Although looking at the language samples from this syntactic perspective is useful, this study also considers the effects of context and meaning and how these semantic-pragmatic variables affect the use of referring expressions. In addition, this study provides some early insights into effects of changing context and how this interacts with age.

Using a response to intervention framework, this study investigates the efficacy of a classroom-based intervention for struggling readers with decoding deficits in the upper elementary grades. Twenty two students in the fourth and sixth grades from four classrooms in low-performing schools received either a short 20-minute intervention delivered by their teacher or access to the lessons for an equivalent amount of time but no teacher instruction. Using three orthographic patterns, the 24 lessons consisted of a series of ten minimally contrasted words differing by one letter. The students in the experimental group decoded the words using a visual alphabet (Phonic Faces) and then spelled each word to reinforce the orthographic connections. Practice with word cards and contextual reading with the words in a short story were also included in the lesson. The experimental group receiving the teacher instruction made significant gains in nonword reading compared to the control group and these gains were not based on verbal ability or performance on a particular orthographic pattern. These results indicate that following intervention, the experimental group was beginning to more fully decode each letter of a word.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate caregivers perceptions of their childrens literacy experiences and determine if their perceptions differed as a function of whether their children presented with speech and language impairment or with typical language development. Participants were caregivers of children, between the ages of 24 and 54 months. Eleven children presented with speech and language impairments (S/LI) and 14 children presented with typically developing (TD) language. Caregivers perceptions about early home literacy experiences were collected through a questionnaire. Results showed that there were no statistically significant differences between the two groups of caregivers responses to the questionnaire items as a function of their childrens clinical status. These findings were inconsistent with findings from previous studies and warrant additional study to determine if the null results of the current study were related to specific attributes of the caregivers, specific attributes of the children, or the validity of the questionnaire that was used to evaluate the caregivers perceptions of their children.

This studys purpose was to examine the acquisition and use of BE, DO, and modal auxiliaries by African American English (AAE)-speaking children. The impetus for this work was the lack of information regarding the developmental trajectory of these auxiliary types and their use, in AAE relative to what is known about auxiliary acquisition and use in Mainstream American English (MAE). The study used two datasets of language samples: one that contained 48 language samples from 3 ½-year-old children and one that contained 36 longitudinal language samples of five children who were between 18 and 51 months of age. Results from Dataset 1 indicated that young AAE-speaking childrens auxiliary systems contain BE, DO, and modal contexts. Overt marking of auxiliaries within these contexts was related to type of auxiliary and the childrens dialect densities. Of the three auxiliary types, overt marking was most variable for BE followed by DO, and least variable for modals. Overt marking of BE was influenced by succeeding verbal element and grammatical type of BE form. Overt marking of both BE and DO was influenced by syntactic construction. In contrast, overt marking of modals was high in all contexts. Results from Dataset 2 revealed that initial production of auxiliary contexts occurred between 19 and 24 months. For BE, DO, and modals, the range of forms produced was initially restricted but expanded as the children aged. Percentage of overt marking did not increase by age. Instead, overt marking was variable across the developmental period for BE and DO, but high in all contexts for modals. Also, from very young ages, the overt marking of BE and DO was influenced by the same linguistic variables examined with Dataset 1. Together the findings indicate that young AAE-speaking childrens use of BE, DO, and modals is consistent with what has been documented for adult AAE in the amount and nature of their overt marking; however, the childrens dialect density influenced the degree to which the childrens use of BE, DO, and modals aligned with the adult AAE literature. Nevertheless, AAE-speaking childrens BE, DO, and modals emerged at the same ages and in the same general developmental sequence as MAE-speaking children.

This study examined African American (AA) caregivers beliefs about their childrens language-literacy development and their book reading behaviors with their children as a function of socioeconomic status (SES). Caregivers behaviors were examined before, during, and after a three-day caregiver training program that targeted four behaviors (i.e., tracking print, reference to print, text to life, and interpretations). Participants were 20 caregiver-child dyads classified as Low-SES (LSES) or Middle-SES (MSES) based on the caregivers level of education. Children were typically developing girls between the ages of four and five years. At pre-test, the two groups of caregivers differed in some of their beliefs about childrens language-literacy development. They also were similar in the length of their book reading sessions, in their use of tracking print, text to life, and reference to print behaviors, but the MSES group produced more interpretations and other book reading comments than the LSES group. During training and at post-test, both groups increased the length of their book reading sessions and their use of all targeted behaviors. Nevertheless, the MSES groups book reading sessions were longer and they produced more target behaviors than the LSES group. The MSES group also incorporated more facilitative language behaviors that were not targeted in the training into their book reading sessions than the LSES group. Correlations between the caregivers behaviors and beliefs at pre-testing were positive but low in magnitude. Correlations were higher at post-test, but did not reach a level of statistical significance. Findings demonstrate the appropriateness of book reading as a caregiver training target for AA caregivers because both groups were able to increase the length of their book reading sessions, and within these sessions, increase their ability to use a number of behaviors that are known to facilitate child language-literacy development. Nevertheless, the findings show that variability exists within AA caregivers as a function of SES. This variability is related to some of their beliefs about childrens language-literacy development and their ability to utilize training to enrich their book reading with their children. Clinicians should consider this variability when designing caregiver training programs for diverse groups of AA caregivers.

Students are placed under increasing demands for more complex syntax and discourse structure in oral and written language as they age. Children with language and learning disabilities struggle to grasp the organization and relationships between the facts of the topic, making writing an increasingly daunting task. In addition, these students must also master conventions such as vocabulary, spelling, punctuation, and syntax to produce a written essay (Schumaker & Deshler, 2003). This study explored the efficacy of graphic organizers as a strategy to facilitate higher complexity of syntactic and discourse structures in sentence and story formation. After seven weeks of intervention, the impact of graphic organizers was assessed by comparing spontaneously written stories to scaffolded stories as well as comparing sentence combining skills from pre- to post-test. The results suggest that graphic organizers can be an effective tool used in the writing process to generate sentences and narratives containing more complex structure of syntax and discourse.

Our project was designed to determine if there was a difference in vocal parameters, including mean fundamental frequency, mean amplitude, and total phonation time, between individuals diagnosed with Parkinsons disease (PD) and age-and gender-matched individuals without a diagnosis of any neurologic or neurodegenerative diseases (NO PD) using the Ambulatory Phonation Monitor (APM: KayPENTAX, Lincoln Park, New Jersey). The APM was designed to gather objective data in a naturalistic environment by having participants wear the device over the course of three 8-hour days. The APM measured total phonation time, mean amplitude, and mean fundamental frequency throughout that time. The participants wore the APM on what they deemed typical days where similar routines were observed and out of the ordinary activities did not occur. Data collection was repeated three times to establish the reliability of the data collected. Descriptive statistics and two-way repeated measure ANOVA were computed using SPSS. NO PD group exhibited significantly higher mean amplitudes in comparison to the PD group. The two groups did not differ in mean fundamental frequency or phonation time. When asked to estimate the amount of talking time, the PD group overestimated their talk time significantly more than the NO PD group. These data suggest that variability of vocal parameters exist among individuals diagnosed with PD and age matched individuals with no diagnosis of neurologic or neurodegenerative disease.

Parkinsons disease (PD) is characterized by a degeneration of the substantia nigra, resulting in a loss of dopaminergic neurons. Cognitive impairments, evident in 72% of people with PD (PWP) are indicated by deficits in visuospatial capacity, memory, executive functioning, and attention (Cooper, Sagar, Jordan, Harvey, & Sullivan, 1991; Duffy, 2005). Unfortunately, to date, there is little research that demonstrates improvement of these cognitive processes, particularly those affecting memory recall and attentional skills. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of utilizing Attention Process Training (APT; Sohlberg & Mateer, 2005), a therapeutic protocol designed for individuals who have sustained a traumatic brain injury (TBI), on a person with Parkinsons disease to determine if improvement of various attentional processes and memory recall could be improved. The protocol set forth by Sohlberg & Mateer (2005) was administered to a PWP in 12 hours of treatment, targeting sustained, selective, and alternating attention. Evidence for treatment effect could not be determined. However, the participant did reach criteria on sustained and selective attention tasks of increasing complexity. Due to the studys time constraints, the participant received only three sessions of alternating attention and no divided attention training. From visual inspection of baseline probes for alternating and divided attention, it appeared that the participant was able to stabilize performance on percent correct and decrease his response time after receiving just sustained and selective attention training. Similar findings appeared for divided attention tasks. Changes in functional attention everyday attention measured by the Test of Everyday Attention (Robertson, Ward, Ridgeway, & Nimmo-Smith, 1994) were minimal. The most significant improvement in attentional processes was noted on the APT II Attention Questionnaire (Sohlberg, Johnson, Paule, Raskin, & Mateer, 2001), a self-report measure. The literature points toward the notion that training attention is foundational, and leads to improvement in working memory. Our results seem to bear this out, in that the participant improved on OSPAN and RSPAN automated working memory tasks (Unsworth & Spillers, 2010).

This research was designed to gain information that could be used in the future to improve quality of life measures for people with aphasia. Aphasia is a language disorder resulting from stroke or traumatic brain injury. People with aphasia exhibit difficulty producing and understanding verbal and written language. Existing quality of life measures, while valid and reliable for those with mild to moderate aphasia, are often unable to be used for those with severe aphasia. The written text is too complex for them to comprehend. Other studies have been done supporting the idea that pictures aid in the comprehension of written text. This study was intended to determine if a set of pictures from the Life Interests and Values (L!V; Haley, 2010) Cards are a good representation of the text questions from the Stroke and Aphasia Quality of Life Scale-39 (SAQOL-39; Hilari, 2003). A healthy older adult population rated the relationship of 31 picture and text combinations using a 5-point Likert Scale as well as offered suggestions to modify the pictures resulting in a closer relationship between the picture and text. The projects objective was to determine if pictures could be used to reflect text, as judged by an older adult population without neurologic disorders. It was necessary to conduct this study with healthy older adults to ensure that an unaffected individual perceives a strong symmetrical relationship between the text and pictures before attempting to use this research with individuals with aphasia. Results indicated a high agreement rate (≥ 60%) for 18 of the 31 text and picture combinations. Seven of the 18 items were judged symmetrical (ratings 4 & 5 ≥ 60%). Nine of the 18 items were judged not symmetrical. On two of the 18 items, ≥ 60% of participants agreed the picture somewhat represented the text. The remaining 13 survey items demonstrated a low agreement rate (< 60%); therefore no relationship could be determined on these items.