The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of training preschool-aged children to support the communication of their peers with autism spectrum disorder. Four typically developing peers participated in a 12-week training study that consisted of video models, social narratives, and practice opportunities. The peers were taught to implement the strategies "show, wait, and tell" with a classmate with autism during play. Peers were also provided with instruction to make them more aware of communication via augmentative modalities and to understand the Pragmatically Organized Dynamic Display (PODD) that the classmate with autism used to communicate. A second child with autism served as a control subject to measure generalization of the training to other children with autism. The study also included a group of four control peers who received no training in order to distinguish the effect of the training from normal communicative and social developmental that one might see over the time of the study. All play sessions were video recorded and coded utilizing a coding system that identified verbal and non verbal behaviors of the peers and the children with autism. 3 of the 4 trained peers demonstrated the ability or willingness or implement the targeted strategies with the target child with autism. A single trained peer generalized the use of the trained strategies when interacting with to the control subject . Peers performed best when provided with clinician cues to implement strategies. Both children with autism increased their communication and interaction with trained peers during play when compared with their interactions with the control peers. Furthermore, the children with autism interacted maximally during sessions in which the trained peers utilized the communication strategies These results provide preliminary evidence of the effectiveness of preschool peer training to support the communication of children with autism.

Background: Limited access of oral language caused by hearing loss poses a risk for the development of reading problems. A functional overlap in outcomes between children fit with hearing aids (HAs) and children provided with cochlear implants (CIs) results in a gray area in pediatric CI candidacy criteria. This gray area makes it more difficult to determine which device will provide the best developmental outcomes for children with borderline CI eligibility. Objective: In an effort to gain outcome data that could inform decision-making regarding CI versus HA candidacy, the question posed in this study concerned the speech intelligibility index (SII) levels of children with HAs that were comparable to children with CIs based upon reading outcomes of both groups. Methods: The study sample comprised of 77 children between the ages of 6;10 and 9;6 with hearing loss: 58 children with HAs and 19 children with CIs. Reading performance data was obtained using the Word Attack and Passage Comprehension subtests of the Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests. SII information was obtained for the HA group. To allow a comparison of reading performance relative to SII between children with CIs and children with HAs, multiple imputation was used to estimate a functional SII for the CI group based off the available reading information. Results: Children in the HA and CI groups demonstrated overall similar reading performance. The relationship between aided SII and reading in the HA group was found to be three times as large as that found for unaided PTA and reading. Children in the CI group were found to have reading abilities similar to children in the HA group with known SIIs of 0.73. Functional SII was imputed for the CI group with strong relative efficiency, but because confidence intervals were rather large, more data is needed in order to make statements with greater levels of confidence regarding implications for CI candidacy criteria.

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The current study examined two methods of language sampling (interview and the Dixit Method) in early adolescents with typical language development. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of the two procedures in eliciting lexical diversity in spoken language samples in the early adolescent population. To examine lexical diversity, traditional methods of analysis (type token ratio, average type token ratio, and mean length of utterance) were applied. However, because literature historically alludes to flaws in these traditional methods, the researchers also applied an ecological approach to analysis of lexical diversity proposed by Scott Jarvis (2013). Student participants (n = 22) in the sixth grade (11:0 -12:11 years of age) were recruited through a local middle school. Both methods of language sampling were compared in a within-subject design for diversity of spoken language samples by applying the previously mentioned analysis procedures. The data was evaluated using a pairedsamples two-tailed t test. Although the sample size was small, evidence from this study indicates the Dixit Method provides a more holistic view of lexical diversity than the traditional method by considering six ecological components that are reflected in typical language use.

Individuals in certified nursing facilities (CNF) often experience social isolation and have limited opportunities to exercise. Bingocize®, an evidence-based healthpromotion program, is a combination of exercise and Bingo and provides opportunities for CNF resident interaction. Limited tools are available to quantify social engagement displayed by nursing home residents. Research suggests that intergenerational programming can positively affect social engagement. The present pilot study focused on the implementation of the Fun and Social Engagement (FUSE) evaluation to measure social engagement displayed by nursing home residents during Bingocize® sessions. The FUSE combined observation and self-report measures to yield a total social engagement score. Social engagement data were collected during Bingocize® sessions with university students interacting with residents and without student presence. Participants (M age = 82) included 35 residents from certified nursing facilities in Kentucky that receive funding from the Civil Money Penalty grant by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The purpose of this study was to determine if participants display increased positive social engagement during Bingocize® sessions when students are present versus when they are not, as well as if there is a difference between the participants’ self-report measure of engagement versus the observational report. Data were collected across four Bingocize® sessions, two with intergenerational programming and two without. Paired t-tests were conducted to determine overall participant engagement scores with and without student presence. Because of absenteeism, only two of the comparisons had a sufficient number of participants to analyze the effect of student presence. Comparing scores of the same residents, FUSE scores were higher in sessions with students present versus when students were not (p < .05). A two-sample t-test revealed that residents who reported happiness had higher observational scores than those who reported they were not happy. The results of this pilot study are tentative due to limited number of participants at some of the sessions. Future studies are needed to determine reliability of the FUSE. Nevertheless, this study suggests that the FUSE is a feasible tool for measuring fun and social engagement during Bingocize® and that university students have a positive effect on resident social engagement.

Radiation treatment for head and neck cancer has devastating effects on swallowing ability. Prophylactic swallowing exercises are often recommended. However, the evidence for these exercises is equivocal and information regarding critical components of an exercise program is lacking. The purpose of this systematic review was to examine the evidence regarding lingual strengthening exercises as a component of a prophylactic swallowing program.

The questions posed in this study were: l) Is there a significant difference in the prevalence of behavioral problems between speech and/or language impaired children and normal children as reported by parents and teachers? and 2) Is there a significant difference in the types of behavioral problems between speech and/or language impaired children and normal children, as reported by parents and teachers?

This research examined the validity of videotaped analyses of clinical sessions in comparison to direct (live) observations. The subjects were eleven student clinicians and their respective clients, enrolled Fall Term, 1979, in Portland State University's Speech and Hearing Sciences Articulation and Language and Urban Language Clinics. The Boone-Prescott Interactional Analysis System, a numerically coded system, was used to record clinician/ client interactions. Data were obtained for a randomly selected five-minute period from each of thirty clinical sessions.

The purpose of this investigation was to determine if performance on a language comprehension task, varying in number of syntactical units (i.e., grammatical complexity) was affected by altered rates of speech. A total of twenty-four language disordered children, aged 7 years, 8 months, through 9 years, 8 months, who were enrolled in language/learning disorders classrooms in the Portland Public Schools served as subjects. The Assessment of Children’s Language Comprehension (Foster et al., 1972) test was administered to each subject via audio-tape at one expanded (100 wpm), one normal (150 wpm), and two compressed rates (200, 250 wpm) of speech. The results of this investigation showed significant differences between performances at varying rates of speech. The normal speaking rate produced significantly better comprehension scores than the other rates. The fast speaking rate (200 wpm) produced the next best scores, while the slow speaking rate (100 wpm) produced significantly lower scores. The results also indicated a normal speaking rate appears to be the best overall rate to use among language disordered subjects, regardless of grammatical complexity.

The primary purpose of the present study was to compare the quality of spontaneous language samples elicited from twelve low socioeconomic, normally developing, migrant Spanish-speaking subjects by their mothers in the home and by this investigator in the clinic. The subjects ranged in age from three years, one month to six years, nine months.