Historically, spelling has been considered an academic skill that relies primarily on visual memory. Recent research indicates that spelling skill is also dependent on linguistic knowledge. However, the contribution of linguistic knowledge to spelling skill is not well understood. The purpose of Study 1 in this investigation was to explore systematically the relation of phonological processing, morphological knowledge, and orthographic knowledge to spelling performance independent of visual memory in elementary school children. After controlling for age, nonverbal intelligence, articulation, and visual memory, orthographic knowledge and morphological knowledge contributed unique variance to spelling performance for children with typical language. To understand the nature of spelling difficulties in children with SLI, it is important to elucidate the areas of linguistic knowledge that influence childrens spelling. The purpose of Study 2 in this investigation was to (a) to evaluate the contribution of linguistic knowledge to spelling in children with SLI and (b) to compare the linguistic knowledge predictors of spelling by children with SLI to those of children with typical language. After controlling for age, nonverbal intelligence, articulation, and visual memory, only morphological knowledge contributed unique variance to spelling performance of children with SLI; the contributions of phonological processing and orthographic knowledge, despite explaining approximately 10% of the total variance each, were not statistically significant. Interaction effects of linguistic variables and language group status were not statistically significant, although examination of the individual models for children with SLI and children with typical language revealed differences in the types of knowledge that predicted spelling in each group. The results indicate that spelling instruction should take into account childrens linguistic knowledge and explicitly relate their linguistic knowledge to spelling and that it likely is necessary to teach spelling to children with language impairment using approaches that may differ in some ways from those used to teach children with typical language.

The brain is continuously processing many sources of sensory information. One of the key strategies it uses to determine what stimuli are associated with one another is the temporal delay between multisensory inputs. When stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) are sufficiently short, multisensory signals are highly likely to be bound. Extensive research in adults has characterized the temporal structure of audiovisual integration and the alterations in behavior and perception induced by such interactions. However, no prior work has investigated developmental changes in multisensory temporal processing in the period between infancy and adulthood. Here, we present a series of studies detailing maturational changes in the temporal window of audiovisual integration for basic stimuli and speech. Results of our early work revealed age-related differences in 10 and 11 year olds and adults on a nonspeech audiovisual simultaneity judgment task, which suggested that processing alterations persist beyond the first decade of life for basic stimuli. These findings provided the foundation for follow-up studies which sought to characterize the trajectory of multisensory temporal processing maturation from early childhood to early adulthood. To that end, the simultaneity judgment measure previously employed was administered to a group of participants ranging in age from 6 to 23 years. Comparison of responses across subjects indicated that multisensory temporal binding windows were larger in children and adolescents than adults, suggesting that the younger groups were more likely to bind asynchronous audiovisual pairings. To examine whether this developmental effect was generalizable to speech, subjects completed an audiovisual identification task wherein incongruent auditory and visual speech tokens were presented at a range of SOAs. Surprisingly, findings indicated that the temporal binding window for audiovisual speech matures earlier; window sizes were comparable in children, adolescents and adults. Overall, results suggest that the trajectory to realization of adult-like multisensory temporal processing differs for nonspeech and speech stimuli. The role of experience in mediating faster window contraction for speech is speculated upon and the implications of delayed maturation of multisensory processing on overall development are reviewed.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess attention problems and intratest scatter (variability) of responses to standardized tests of expressive language by preschool-age children who do (CWS) and do not stutter (CWNS). Method: Participants were 40 preschool-age CWS (30 males) and 46 CWNS (32 males). Between-group comparisons of attention were made using attention subscales of the Child Behavior Checklist for Ages 1 ½ - 5 (CBCL; Achenbach & Rescorla, 2000). Likewise, between-group comparisons of intratest scatter were based on participant responses to the Expressive subtest of the Test of Early Language Development 3 (TELD-Exp; Hresko, Reid, & Hamill, 1999) and the Expressive Vocabulary Test 2 (EVT-2; Williams, 2007). Furthermore, within-group assessment of the relation between CWS scatter and their stuttering frequency was conducted. Results: Results indicated no significant between-group differences in intratest scatter on the TELD-Exp and EVT-2, nor significant correlations between scatter and Attention Problems on the CBCL. Findings did indicate that for CWS, categorical scatter on the EVT-2 was positively correlated with their stuttering frequency. Conclusions: Consistent with earlier findings, variability in speech-language performance appears to be related to CWS stuttering, suggesting that perhaps some other underlying cognitive-linguistic variable (e.g., cognitive load) may be common to both variables and salient to a better understanding of developmental stuttering.

The purpose of this paper was to evaluate the possible benefit of hearing aids for reducing listening effort in quiet and in noise. An additional purpose was to investigate the possible relationship between the magnitude of listening effort benefit and individual listeners working memory capacity or lipreading skill. Thirty-six participants with bilateral sensorineural hearing loss were fitted with linear behind-the-ear hearing aids and tested using a dual-task paradigm. The primary task was monosyllable word recognition and the secondary task was a visual reaction time task. In addition, participants rated their perceived effort after each condition. The test conditions varied by hearing aids (unaided, aided), visual cues (auditory-only, auditory-visual), and background noise (present, absent). For all participants, the signal-to-noise ratio was set individually so that speech recognition performance in noise was approximately 50% in both the auditory-only and auditory-visual conditions. In addition to measures of listening effort, lipreading ability and working memory capacity were measured. In general, the effects measured using the objective measure of listening effort were small. The results of this study suggest that, on the average, hearing aids improve objective listening effort; however, this only occurs after a period of acclimatization. Also, people who are not good lipreaders may derive hearing aid benefit when using auditory-visual stimuli, generally because people who are good lipreaders expend less listening effort. Therefore, it is speculated that the addition of the hearing aid provides little, if any, additional benefit. Good lipreaders were also more likely to derive benefit from the presence of visual cues than people who are not good at lipreading. Background noise increased objective listening effort, but neither working memory capacity nor lipreading ability predicted susceptibility to noise. Finally, it should be noted that the magnitude of listening effort was generally small in this study, potentially obscuring the effects of the predictive variables. Further investigation is needed to determine if other methods, which might include more complex secondary tasks, result in greater measured listening effort effects.

The purpose of the study was to examine the developmental effects of duration cues by comparing the phonetic boundaries and slopes of typically-developing (TD) children to adults on a stop-glide continuum, to examine the effects of duration cues in children with cochlear implants (CIs) on a stop-glide contrast (i.e., [ba] [wa] and [da]-[ja]) as they relate to the auditory temporal deficit hypothesis (Tallal, 2000) and, to explore the impact of auditory sensitivity (i.e., hearing loss versus normal hearing) by comparing the slopes and phonetic boundaries of children with CIs to TD children on a stop-glide continuum. Three groups of participants participated in the study: eight adults, eight five- to eight-year-old TD children, and seven five- to eight-year-old children with CIs. The participants were presented with two nine-step stop-glide continua (i.e., [ba] [wa] and [da]-[ja]) with each step presented ten times for a total of 180 stimuli. The presentations of the stimuli were blocked for place of articulation and were randomly presented within each continuum. The results of the study revealed developmental effects in the perception of duration cues between the adults and TD children. The performance of children with CIs did not support the prediction of auditory temporal processing deficit in that there were no differences in the ability to label the endpoints of the continua. The auditory temporal deficit predicted that the children would have improved performance at the glide end compared to the stop end of the continua. However, the children with CIs have phonetic boundaries that are significantly shifted to the glide end of the continuum compared to the TD children. This finding suggests that children with CIs require longer duration cues to make the phonetic shift compared to TD children, which supports the auditory sensitivity hypothesis. The children with CIs had significantly shallower slopes and shifted phonetic boundaries compared to the TD children. This suggests that degraded auditory sensitivity such as hearing loss adversely impacts speech perception on a stop-glide continuum.

For this dissertation, primary aims included investigating the effects of musical training on attention, working memory, and auditory stream segregation as they relate to music perception and speech understanding in noise. Specifically, an evaluation of performance was conducted for musicians and non-musicians using tests of attention (dichotic listening task), working memory (automated operation span task), and auditory stream segregation (i.e., melodic schema-based task, music achievement test, and speech-in-noise tests). By assessing participant performance on specific aspects of attention, working memory, and auditory stream segregation, critical information about the impact of musical training on these factors was gathered.

Voice rest is frequently prescribed for patients following vocal fold surgery; however, patient compliance with voice rest has been found to be relatively low. This study examined the impact of text-to-speech (TTS) communication on amount of patient self-reported voice use during voice rest. Seven vocal fold surgery patients prescribed up to seven days of voice rest were randomized to receive either the standard of care treatment or the standard of care treatment plus a TTS augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) device. Amounts of post-surgical voice and TTS use were measured via participant self-report on 100 mm visual analogue scales (VAS). Participants mean VAS scores for voice use ranged from .5 52.4 mm; however, six participants reported mean VAS scores of 8 mm or less, suggesting that TTS access was not a factor in compliance with voice rest. In a comparison of voice use and TTS use within the TTS group, the two participants with the lowest mean VAS scores for voice use had substantially higher mean VAS scores for TTS use than the other members of the TTS group, suggesting that for some patients on voice rest, access to a TTS device may improve or support compliance by decreasing voice use. Additional data must be collected to allow for extensive group comparisons and analyses for a treatment effect associated with the TTS device. Limitations of the present study and considerations for enhancing continued and future research are discussed.

Background/Purpose: Despite its widespread use, limited research exists exploring compliance with prescribed voice rest. The current study explored the relationship between personality and level of patient compliance with voice rest. We hypothesized that Extraversion and Neuroticism has a negative relationship with compliance to voice rest, and that Conscientiousness has a positive relationship with compliance to voice rest. Method: Case study of seven patients (mean age of 42; 5 males, 2 females) undergoing surgical excision of benign vocal fold lesions prescribed up to 7 days of voice rest following surgical intervention. Participants completed the following self-report instruments: NEO-FFI-3, pre-surgical questionnaire, post-surgical questionnaire, and the VHI. Results: Descriptive analysis revealed that similar to medication adherence, Conscientiousness and Neuroticism seem to play at least a partial role in compliance with voice rest, a treatment that requires behavioral adherence. Less clear is the relationship between Extraversion and adherent behavior, leaving us unable to provide support in favor of or against Roy and Bless (2000) hypothesis. Discussion: Further understanding of the role that personality plays in compliance may lead to the development of more evidence-based and individualized protocols for voice rest and foster increased success with this treatment.

Mother-infant attachment is a connection between a child and his/her mother that is dependent upon maternal sensitivity and accessibility. This relationship is well studied in children with typical development as well as in those with special needs. However, our knowledge of attachment in children with hearing loss is minimal compared to other mother-infant dyads. To confound this issue, most of this knowledge was collected prior to the implementation of newborn hearing screenings, a process that leads to earlier diagnosis of hearing loss in children. The attachment development in 21 young children (i.e., 2-6 years-old) with hearing loss was evaluated using the Attachment Q-Set (AQS; Waters, 1985; 1995). Results of this study support the conclusion that children with hearing loss can develop attachment security similarly to typical peers. Furthermore, there was some evidence to suggest that age of diagnosis of hearing loss might not be an influencing factor in attachment development. In summary, even with early knowledge of hearing loss, the attachments of children and their mothers are consistent with attachment development in the typical population.

The purpose of this study was to assess whether sympathetic (i.e., skin conductance level, SCL) and parasympathetic (i.e., respiratory sinus arrhythmia, RSA) activity differs between preschool-age children who do (CWS) and do not stutter (CWNS). Participants were 20 preschool-age CWS (15 male) and 21 preschool-age CWNS (11 male). Participants were exposed to two emotion-inducing child video clipsnegative and positivewith neutral clips used to establish pre- and post-arousal baselines, and then performed age-appropriate narrative tasks. Respiratory sinus arrhythmia and SCL were measured while participants listened to/watched the audio-video clip presentation and performed the narrative task. Findings indicated that CWS, compared to CWNS, displayed lower RSA (i.e., physiological regulation) at baseline as well as greater SCL (i.e., physiological reactivity) during the speaking task following the positive, compared to the negative, condition. Lastly, CWS displayed a positive relation between SCL and RSA during speaking, whereas CWNS did not display a significant relation between the two variables. In conclusion, during environmental challenge, preschool-age CWS, when compared to their CWNS peers, differed in physiological reactivity and regulation. These differences may divert CWSs resources away from attentional, cognitive, and speech-language processes needed to fluently initiate and/or maintain communication, a possibility that must await further empirical study.