The purpose of this thesis was to determine if stutterers monitor speech production differently than nonstutterers while in a state of oral sensory deprivation. The specific questions asked were: 1. Does an imposed oral somesthetic feedback deficit hinder articulation proficiency more in a nonstuttering sample than in a stuttering sample? 2. If the articulation proficiency is deficient in both samples, does the nature of the errors differ between the two samples?

The focus of this study was the Developmental Sentence Scoring (DSS), developed by Lee and Canter (1971) and Lee (1974). The DSS is used to analyze a corpus of 50 utterances according to eight grammatical categories. Once a DSS score is determined for an individual child, that child's performance can be compared to that of his/ her peers, using the normative data provided by Lee (1974), and reported by Koenigsknecht (1974). This normative data has been widely used both clinically, and in research projects with little regard for the validity of the norms when applied outside the Midwest, where it was originally normed.

To effectively implement an occupational hearing conservation program, employers must know the amount of attenuation (noise reduction) provided by the hearing protective devices used by their employees. Currently standardized test methods, performed under laboratory conditions, cannot be easily implemented in industrial settings, and previously proposed field methods have depended upon the use of special headphones which are not typically available in the workplace. These problems have led many occupational hearing conservationists to use standard audiometric headphones to evaluate the attenuation provided to employees using insert-type hearing-protective devices. There has, however, been little research into the validity of using standard audiometric headphones to determine attenuation values. The purpose of this study was to describe a procedure for determining the attenuation of insert-type hearing-protective devices using standard audiometric earphones, typical industrial audiometric equipment, and other easily obtainable materials.

In the clinical management of voice clients, it is important to measure accurate pitch ranges in order to determine if a client has a normal range or is speaking at an optimum pitch. It is not clear from the literature which vowel should be used in determining these pitch ranges. The purpose of this investigation was to determine the phonational frequency ranges in adults with no vocal training when phonating the cardinal vowels of /i/, /u/, and /a/. The investigation sought to answer the following question: Does the phonational frequency range in vocally untrained adults vary significantly when phonating the cardinal vowels of /i/, /u/, and /a/?

Prepositions are important for the syntactical structure of the sentence and also to relate meaning, particularly meaning associated with concepts of place and time (Washington and Naremore, 1978). Expressive acquisition of function words, including prepositions, is significantly delayed in the hearing impaired population (Cooper and Rosenstein, 1966). Yet, acquisition sequence for expressive prepositions has not been determined for this population. The purpose of this study was to investigate the oral expressive acquisition of locative and directional single word prepositions in severely-to-profoundly hearing impaired children. The question this study sought to answer was: At what age levels are seventeen locative and directional single word prepositions expressively acquired by severely- to-profoundly hearing impaired children?

As a result of the surgical removal of the larynx, the laryngectomee is no longer able to speak and must choose to learn a new method of oral communication if he wishes to communicate orally. Laryngectomees, speech clinicians and physicians need to be provided with information which will assist in the selection of the most appropriate type of alaryngeal speech for each individual. Social acceptability is one criterion which may be an important consideration. This study, therefore, compared three modes of alaryngeal speech: Asai, esophageal, and artificial larynx, on the parameter of social acceptability.

The aim of this study was to examine how providing functional information affects three year olds’ word learning. Previous work has demonstrated that children use perceptual or functional information about an object to aid in word learning. That is, they tend to base word meaning on the shape of the item (e.g., Jones, Smith, & Landau, 1991) or on its function (e.g., Kemler-Nelson et al, 2000). The authors asked whether there were additive effects of functional and perceptual cues on word learning and generalization,either immediately after training, or one to two days later. Thirteen typically developing children were taught four novel words in a play paradigm. They were provided with functional and perceptual information for two of the objects, and given perceptual information only for the other two. The children were exposed to multiple exemplars of each object taught, and allowed to manipulate the items. The children were tested for receptive and expressive knowledge of the words seven to eleven minutes after teaching, and one to two days later.Children did not perform better than chance levels on receptive tasks in any condition, nor did they perform above floor levels on expressive tasks. It is concluded that additional functional information does not enhance word learning for young children in this paradigm.

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.

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 examined comprehension of verb particle constructions in persons with aphasia (PWA) and young and older typical adults according to the semantic classes by Jackendoff (2002). The experimental task focused on the following three classes of verb particle constructions: idiomatic, directional, and aspectual verb particles. Movement of the object NP also was examined. The study involved a picture-matching task counterbalanced for each participant. The results revealed that PWAs showed slower than normal overall processing, slower processing of aspectual verb forms, and slower processing of syntactic form regardless of movement. Error analysis revealed a bias toward the meaning of the verb, particularly on aspectual verb constructions for all three groups. Accuracy data revealed no significant differences between groups although the aphasic group was less accurate in idiomatic verb forms. The results support current literature on the processing of syntactic structures in PWA.