PUPRPOSE: Individuals with disabilities, who do not have reliable motor control to manipulate a standard computer mouse, require alternate access methods for complete computer access and for communication as well. The Camera Mouse system visually tracks the movement of selected facial features using a camera to directly control the mouse pointer of a computer. Current research suggests that this system can successfully provide a means of computer access and communication for individuals with motor impairments. However, there are no existing data on the efficacy of the software’s communication output capabilities. The goal of this case study is to provide a comprehensive evaluation of Camera Mouse as a computer access method for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) for an individual with cerebral palsy, who prefers to use her unintelligible dysarthric speech to communicate her desires and thoughts despite having access to a traditional AAC system. METHOD: The current study compared the Camera Mouse system, the Tobii PCEye Mini (a popular commercially available eye tracking device) paired with speech generating technology, and natural speech using a variety of tasks in a single dysarthric speaker. Tasks consisted of two questionnaires designed to measure psychosocial impact and satisfaction with assistive technology, two sentence intelligibility tasks that were judged by 4 unfamiliar listeners, and two language samples designed to measure expressive language. Each task was completed three times—once for each communication modality in question: natural speech, Camera Mouse-to-speech system, and Tobii eye tracker-to- speech system. Participant responses were recorded and transcribed. RESULTS: Data were analyzed in terms of psychosocial effects, user satisfaction, communication efficiency (using intelligibility and rate), and various measures of expressive output ability, to determine which modality offered the highest communicative aptitude. Measures showed that when paired with an orthographic selection interface and speech-generating device, the Camera Mouse and Tobii eye tracker resulted in greatly increased intelligibility. However, natural speech was superior to assistive technology options in all other measures, including psychosocial impact, satisfaction, communication efficiency, and several expressive language components. Though results indicate that use of the Tobii eye tracker resulted in a slightly higher rate and intelligibility, the participant reported increased satisfaction and psychosocial impact when using the novel Camera Mouse access system. CONCLUSION: This study is the first to provide quantitative information regarding the efficiency, psychosocial impact, user satisfaction, and expressive language capabilities of Camera Mouse as a computer access system for AAC. This study shows promising results for Camera Mouse as a functional access system for individuals with disabilities and for future AAC applications as well. / 2018-08-28T00:00:00Z

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM: This study was designed to test the hypothesis that the expressed problems of adolescent stutterers are not significantly different from the expressed problems of adolescent non-stutterers. It was postulated also that published problem inventories developed for the general population may be inadequate for research with atypical groups. The individual with a stuttering handicap may have the usual kinds of problems tapped by various problem inventories. In addition, he may have unique kinds of problems associated with the stuttering handicap. RESEARCH PROCEDURES: A thorough research of the literature indicated that no problem inventory had been developed from research with stutterers. Hence, it was necessary to develop a problem inventory as part of this study. Thirty-six secondary-school stutterers and 164 secondary-school non-stutterers were asked to express their problems in ten areas: 1) My Personality; 2) My Speech; 3) My School Life; 4) My Personal Appearance; 5) My Home and Family; 6) My Abilities and Talents; 7) My Future; 8) My Friends; 9) Other People; and 10) Other Things I Want to Write About. Content analysis of the compositions in which they told of their problems resulted in the construction of a problem inventory containing 220 problem items [TRUNCATED] / 2031-01-01

PURPOSE: The quantity and quality of maternal language input in early childhood carry long-term implications for children's language development. This includes not only the quantity (e.g., total number of words) but also the quality of maternal language input (e.g., complexity and diversity of vocabulary and grammar use). One central qualitative aspect of maternal language use involves prosody. Prosody is a perceptually salient aspect of spoken language that conveys meaning, emphasis (i.e., via linguistic stress patterns), and emotion through changes in pitch (fundamental frequency (fo) modulation) and timing (rate, pausing). Prosody of a child’s main communication partner, often mothers, has been shown to play an important role in the language development of the child. There are numerous contexts in which language interactions can take place between a mother and child. Mother-child shared book reading (hereafter referred to as “shared reading”) is known to provide especially rich opportunities for language input and exposure, yet the contributions of oral reading expressiveness have yet to be specified. Initial evidence suggests that more expressive presentation of a storybook (through digital manipulation of fo mean) has a positive impact on children’s comprehension of the storybook text. Yet, it remains unclear whether maternal oral reading expressiveness is associated with children’s emerging language abilities in early childhood, particularly in toddlerhood, a critical developmental window for the early identification of late talkers. This work seeks to delineate the associations of maternal oral reading expressiveness on a child’s overall concurrent and subsequent language abilities. PROCEDURE: 44 mother-child dyads with children classified as either late talkers (n = 21) or typical controls (n=23) were selected from an ongoing larger longitudinal study of language delay in collaboration with researchers at Northwestern University. Maternal oral reading expressiveness during shared reading of the same children’s book was quantified through prosodic transcription and acoustic analysis in Praat yielding mean fundamental frequency (fo) and rate of speech as primary variables. Child language abilities were measured concurrently at the two-year time point and subsequently at the three-year time point using the Mullen Scales of Early Learning. Maternal socioeconomic status (SES) variables were assessed via family income-to-needs ratio and maternal education level. First, independent two sample t-tests were employed to determine whether late talker and typical control groups significantly differed in maternal oral reading expressiveness (as indicated by mean fo and speech rate) or SES. Thereafter, correlation analyses were employed to examine maternal oral reading expressiveness in relation to concurrent child language abilities at age two, and subsequent child language abilities at age three. Finally, multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine the extent to which maternal oral reading expressiveness may predict subsequent child language abilities approximately one year later (at age three) when controlling for SES. RESULTS: Preliminary findings revealed no group differences in measures of maternal oral reading expressiveness (i.e., mean fo, speech rate) between mothers of late talkers versus controls. However, at the whole-group level (among all dyads), correlational analyses revealed that maternal oral reading expressiveness (e.g., mean fo) is positively associated with child receptive and expressive language abilities at both two and three years. Furthermore, through a multiple regression model, maternal oral reading expressiveness was found to significantly contribute to the variance in child language abilities at both two years and longitudinally at three years when SES factors (i.e., parent education level, income-to-need ratio) were held constant. CONCLUSIONS: Preliminary results suggest that maternal oral reading expressiveness is significantly associated with children’s emerging language abilities in toddlerhood. These findings highlight the need for further investigation into the variable of maternal oral reading expressiveness as a possible modifiable environmental factor with the potential to facilitate positive language outcomes for children. Future and ongoing work will be necessary to obtain a more fine-grained characterization of variation in maternal oral reading expressiveness and examine maternal oral reading expressiveness in conjunction with other quantitative and qualitative indicators of maternal language input. Findings of this work carry implications for targeting reading expressiveness in parent-focused early intervention programs.

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