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  • About
  • The Global ETD Search service is a free service for researchers to find electronic theses and dissertations. This service is provided by the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations.
    Our metadata is collected from universities around the world. If you manage a university/consortium/country archive and want to be added, details can be found on the NDLTD website.
91

A Comparison of Developmental Sentence Score Patterns in Three Groups of Preschool Children

Riback, Michelle Lynn 01 December 1992 (has links)
Researchers have successfully labeled specific patterns of expressive language development as it appears in children developing language normally. Little research has identified particular patterns of expressive language in children who display expressive language disorders or delays. Longitudinal studies of expressively language impaired children indicate that linguistic, educational and social impairments exist long after the language impairment was first identified (Aram, Eckelman and Nation, 1984; Aram and Nation, 1980; Fundudis, Kolvin and Garside, 1979; Stark, Berstein, Condino, Bender, Tallal and Catts, 1984). If patterns of delayed or disordered language development are researched and possibly labeled in the early stages of language development, strategies for assessment and intervention can be made more efficient and the effects of early language impairment on later academic achievement may be prevented. The present study was part of the Portland Language Project, a longitudinal study of early language delay. Lee's Developmental Sentence Scoring (DSS) was used to attempt to identify syntactic patterns used by children exhibiting early language delay. The DSS is a standardized measure for analyzing children's standard English expressive language abilities in the following eight grammatical categories: 1) indefinite pronouns; 2) personal pronouns; 3) main verbs; 4) secondary verbs; 5) negatives; 6) conjunctions; 7) interrogative reversal; and 8) Wh-Questions. Using the DSS, specific syntactical areas of deficit can be identified by analysis of an audiotaped speech sample. A comparison of expressive language in the eight subcategories in the DSS was completed among three groups of preschool children; 1) children developing language normally (the NL group); 2) children who did not meet criteria for normal language development at 20 months, but later fell within the normal range of language development as measured by the DSS (Lee, 1974). This is referred to as the history of expressive language delay group (HELD); and 3) children who did not meet criteria for normal language development at 20 months and again, did not meet criteria for normal language development as measured by the DSS (Lee, 1974) at later ages. This is referred to as the expressive language delay group (ELD). The purpose of this study was to determine if significant differences exist in each of the eight subcategory group scores from the DSS between those children identified as expressively language delayed and those identified as developing language normally at ages three and four. At age three, significant differences were found among the three groups in all eight subcategory scores of the DSS. By age four, the significant differences were found between the delayed group and the normal developing group in the main verb category and the personal pronoun category only. There were no significant differences between the normal developing and the history of delay groups on any of the eight categories at age four. The delayed group exhibited marked improvement and narrowed the deficits in expressive language to a specific area of language. The present study suggested that children with early language delay appear to "catch up" with normal peers in most areas of syntactic production by age four. The DSS (Lee, 1974) provides information about specific areas of syntactic development. Due to the length and complexity of the DSS, it is not a tool that practicing clinicians often use. A study such as this may help the practicing clinician quickly screen a preschool child in a specific syntactic category, such as verb marking, in order to check for possible early language delay. In addition to providing clinical assistance, this study has opened up the door for future research in syntactic development. This study could be expanded to examine the specific verb markers that are being used by the delayed subjects. This may lead to more efficient identification and remediation of early language delays.
92

An Intercultural Analysis of Differences in Appropriateness Ratings of Facial Expressions Between Japanese and American Subjects

Peschka-Daskalos, Patricia Jean 28 April 1993 (has links)
In 1971 Paul Ekman posited his Neuro-Cultural Theory of Emotion which stated that expressions of emotion are universal but controlled by cultural display rules. This thesis tests the Neuro-Cultural Theory by having subjects from two cultures, Japan and the United States, judge the perceived appropriateness facial expressions in social situations. Preliminary procedures resulted in a set of scenarios in which socially appropriate responses were deemed to be either "Happy", "Angry" or "Surprised". Data in the experimental phase of the study were collected using a questionnaire format. Through the use of a 5-point Likert scale, each subject rated the appropriateness of happy, anger and surprise expressions in positive, negative and ambiguous social situations. Additionally, the subjects were asked to label each expression in each situation. The responses were analyzed statistically using Analysis of Variance procedures. Label percentages were also calculated for: the second task in the study. No support was found for two of the three research hypotheses, and only partial support was found for a third research hypothesis. These results were discussed in terms of the need for greater theoretical and methodological refinements.
93

Second Grade Academic Performance in Normal Children, Children with a History of, and Children with Expressive Language Delay

Clancy, Kathleen Ann 01 November 1994 (has links)
Interest in children who are diagnosed with expressive language delay has increased over the years. This has resulted in follow-up studies which have suggested that these children would have difficulties in academics during their elementary school years (Hall & Tomblin, 1978; Weiner, 1974) The current study sought to determine if children with a history of and children with continued expressive language delay would have problems with academics once they reached the second grade. The Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT) was used to measure academic performance. It was chosen for it's reliable standardization and use of five different subtest areas to determine overall academic achievement. The purpose of this study was to determine if there are significant differences in academic performance on PIAT between three groups of second grade children with different language histories. The three groups are: 1) children with normal language history 2) children with a history of expressive language delay (HELD) who were identified as late to talk between 20 and 34 months of age, but who received a score at or above the tenth percentile in the second grade on the DSS (Developmental Sentence Scoring, Lee 1974), and 3) children with chronic expressive language delay (ELD) who were identified as late to talkers between 20 and 34 months of age, and received a score below the tenth percentile in the second grade on the DSS. Significant differences were found between the ELD group and the Normal group in the areas of Math and General Information as well as the Total Test Score. The ELD group also performed significantly lower than the HELD group in the areas of Math and the Total Test Score. There were no significant differences found between the HELD group and the Normals or between the ELD and HELD groups on the General Information subtest. These results were consistent with the most recent research article by Whitehurst and Fischel (1994) which looked at three longitudinal studies and found that by five years of age most children diagnosed with specific expressive language delay were performing within the normal range in ·various areas of language development.
94

The Concepts of Capitalism and Democracy in Implied Power Relations: Fractionation Philosophy and Theory

Baker, Randy 26 May 1993 (has links)
This research proposes that it is possible to meaningfully examine the differences between subjects' perceptions of concepts at two different levels of analysis. The central theory, called "fractionation", is derived from structuration theory. The theory suggests that there is an important and particular difference between subjects' perceptions of key concepts at the value (abstract) level, as differentiated from the policy (action) level. The key concepts provided here are capitalism and democracy. Three major stages of data gathering and analysis were conducted. The first stage, carried out in several phases, surveyed 337 college students to gather words commonly associated ·with two key concepts: capitalism and democracy. These words were then used as items in a multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis. The results were used to represent the relationship between the two key concepts at the value level of analysis. The second stage consisted of gathering policy fragments from two mainstream newspapers. Television advertising was selected as the focal point of this search, to represent one area where democracy and capitalism co-exist. Fragments were taken from the newspapers and compiled into "fragment topics", or pieces of argument about the relationship between capitalism and democracy in television advertising. Stage III was carried out by surveying seventy-three subjects who were presented with the argumentative statements developed in each fragment topic. An assessment was made of the relationship between capitalism and democracy at the policy level based on the argument choices made by the subjects. Stage I resulted in a clear distinction between the two key concepts of capitalism and democracy at the value level, while Stage III resulted in a conflict between the two at the policy level. The comparison of results between the first stage of the research and the third stage represents the fractionation that was being sought.
95

A Comparison of Two Kindergarten Screening Instruments in One Population

Westrup, Therese Marie 05 May 1992 (has links)
The purpose of this study was to compare thirty-two childrens' performances on the Daberon-2 Screening for School Readiness and the Early Screening Inventory , as well as determine whether there was a correlation between the tests. This study responded to the needs of the local Portland, Oregon area schools, some of which use these tests, to investigate the tests, and explore the possibility of using the shorter ESI over the longer Daberon. The reasoning behind the goal of the study was to determine that if the two tests showed a strong, positive correlation and identified the same children as needing further assessment, then perhaps the test which was shorter to administer could be used with confidence as a faster, but equally reliable 2 pre-kindergarten screening tool. In other words, if a child "passes" the Daberon, one could assume that the child would most likely "pass" the ESI as well. Based on the results of this study, one can make this assumption with a reasonable amount of confidence. The subjects in this study included 16 males and 16 females. All were preschool students, ranging in age from 4-6 to 5-6 with a mean age of 5-1 years. The subjects were given the two tests in a counterbalanced order, which also varied as to sex so that not all of one sex received one test first. The standard scores and whether or not each subject "passed" or "failed" each screen was determined. The correlation between the two tests was also determined. The Pearson product moment correlation coefficient was used to determine the degree of relatedness between the tests. A high positive correlation of .73 was found between the Daberon and the ESI, with a shared variance
96

Occurrence of Phonological Processes Within Two Pragmatic Categories in Normal and Speech-Delayed Children

Bergman, Betsy Ann 11 February 1993 (has links)
Research into the eventual suppression of phonological processes among children has centered on the influence of phonetic context and semantic-syntactic factors. Researchers have described various factors that would account for the variability found in normal and speech-delayed children's use of phonological processes. Researchers have found associations between phonological process use and language form and content, although there is a paucity of information pertaining the effect of language use on phonological performances. This study examined the phonological process use within two pragmatic functions-assertiveand responsive utterances-used by 15 normally developing and 15 speech-delayed 3-year-olds. These groups were matched for age, sex, and socioeconomic status, all passed a hearing screening at 25 dB and scored at least 85 on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development or the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale. A 10-minute parent/child speech sample of each 3-year-old was orthographically and phonetically transcribed. Each first occurrence utterance was coded as either assertive or responsive, depending on the particular. pragmatic function it served. Percentage of phonological process use was determined for both groups within each pragmatic category, after analysis in the Pepper Program. Data were analyzed for significant differences between the two groups in the percentage of phonological processes used within the assertive and responsive categories. Results indicated that the speech-delayed group used more processes in both categories, although pragmatic function of the utterances did not have a significant effect on percentage of phonological processes used by either group. It was noted that children in the speech-delayed group were only mildly delayed, thus making them fairly intelligible to their listeners. Both groups were more assertive than responsive and used longer utterances during assertive speech acts; however, neither factor appeared to have any bearing on their phonological performances. It was concluded that the two groups appeared to show no significant difference in their phonological performances when comparing one pragmatic category to the other. Results indicated that the assertive speech acts examined held no motivation factors that influence the phonological performance of normal or mildly speech-delayed 3-year-old when compared to responsive speech acts.
97

Correlations Between the School Situations Questionnaire-Revised and Speech and Language Disorders

Comerford, Geraldine Teresa 25 June 1993 (has links)
Many children with emotional and/or behavioral disorders also present with speech and language disorders (Baker & Cantwell, 1982; Prizant et al., 1990). Children with attention deficits, in particular, have shown a much higher incidence of speech and language disorders than does the general population (Camarata et al., 1988; Cantwell & Baker, 1987) . Traditionally, school speech-language pathologists have been responsible for conducting mass screenings to determine which children should be further evaluated for speech and language disorders. An increasing number of school districts are relying on teacher referrals to determine which children require speech-language evaluations. It was hypothesized that if teachers were able to identify children with attention deficits, these children may be appropriate for referral to speech-language pathologists for speech and language evaluation. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of the School Situations Questionnaire-Revised {SSQ-R) {Barkley, 1991) in identifying children in the second grade, aged 7:0 to 8:11, who are speech and/or language disordered. This study sought to answer the following primary question: is there an association between the diagnosis of speech and/or language disorders {SLD), and detection by the SSQ-R as at risk for attention and behavior disorders {ABD)? The sample population consisted of 91 students from six second-grade classrooms who met the selection criteria. The SSQ-R, a rating scale designed for teachers to rate behavior related to attention and concentration, was used by classroom teachers to evaluate the subjects to determine if they were at risk for attention and behavior disorders. These results were tabulated along with the number of children diagnosed with speech and/or language disorders in this population. Chi Square analysis showed no significant association for the two measures. It was found that of the 11 SLO subjects, 3 of them, or 27%, were also ABO. Only 3 of the 17 ABO subjects (18%) were also SLO. The 18% of SLO subjects in the ABO population and the 27% of ABO subjects in the SLO group represent a higher percentage of ABD and SLO than is expected in the general population. The higher than average incidence of SLO in the ABO population warrants an awareness of this relationship and the realization that this will impact service delivery. The results of this study indicate that the SSQ-R is not an appropriate measure for teachers to use in determining which children in their classroom would benefit from an assessment for speech and/or language disorders. The high number (82%) of children identified by the SSQ-R as ABD who were not SLD would identify many children who did not require speech and language evaluation. Conversely, the high number (73%) of children not identified as ABD who were SLD by the SSQ-R would neglect many children who require speech/language intervention. The results of this study are not to discount previous research that has suggested an association between attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and speech and language disorders. It is likely that an association exists, but the present study was not able to demonstrate a significant correlation.
98

1989 Chinese Pro-democracy Movement and U.S. News Media

Sun, Jie 31 July 1992 (has links)
This thesis explores three aspects of the relationship between U.S. news media and the Chinese pro-democracy movement in 1989. These three aspects are: How much attention did u.s. newspapers give to the Chinese pro-democracy movement in 1989? How did u.s. newspapers portray the power struggle in the Chinese government during the time when the Chinese pro-democracy movement took place? Has there been any change in the image of China during and after the Chinese pro-democracy movement in 1989? Research data are drawn from the following three U.S. newspapers: The New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times. Content analysis is adopted as the research method in this study. This research method is carried out in three parts targeting the three research questions mentioned above. The first part shows the total front-page space and number of news stories in the three u.s. newspapers. The front-page space and number of news stories in each newspaper is utilized to measure the degree of attention that each newspaper gave to the Chinese pro-democracy movement in 1989. The second part illustrates the power struggle in the Chinese government. Top Chinese officials are presented as either losing or gaining power based on the treatment they received from the three u.s. newspapers. The third part demonstrates the change in the image of China during and after the Chinese pro-democracy movement in 1989. Both positive and negative changes in the image of China are determined by the use of ideological and non-ideological symbolic representations of China in news stories. Research findings on the first research question show that both front-page space and number of news stories related to events in China increased dramatically in all three u.s. newspapers. Research findings on the power struggle in the Chinese government showed that, in general, all three u.s. newspapers viewed the three top Chinese officials as losing power before military troops were used to control the situation in Beijing on June 4, 1989. Finally, research findings showed a negative change in the image of China during and the Chinese pro-democracy movement, especially after the Chinese government regained control of Tiananmen Square by using military force on June 4, 1989. Implications for future research in mass communication are discussed and, finally, the thesis concludes with suggestions for further research in mass media and communication.
99

A Study of the Narrative Skills in 6-year-olds with Normal, Impaired, and Late Developing Language

Johnson, Karen Elaine 25 October 1993 (has links)
Proficiency in various higher level language skills is necessary to integrate and organize units of meaning beyond the sentence level. Examining narratives has become a useful tool for assessing these language abilities. Narrative skills are considered by many researchers to be a strong link between oral language and literacy, and related to academic performance (Westby, 1991; Roth & Spekman, 1991). The present study was part of the Portland Language Development Project, a longitudinal study of early language delay. The purpose of this study was to assess higher level language abilities by examining the stories of 6-year-olds with normal, impaired, and late developing oral language. The specific objective was to determine whether there were differences on 9 measures of narrative skill in first graders that could be related to their pattern of language acquisition. The original group size was 24 children with normal expressive vocabulary size at age 20-34 months, and 30 children whose expressive vocabulary size fell below the normal range at 20-34 months referred to as "late talkers." These two groups of children were re-evaluated when in first grade. Each child was audiotaped producing a narrative and a spontaneous language sample. The Bus Story (Renfrew, 1977), a story retelling procedure, was administered for the narrative measure. When the spontaneous, conversational language samples were scored for syntactic complexity with Lee's (1974) Developmental Sentence Score (DSS), 22 (73°/o) of the original L T had scores in the normal range and were reclassified as "History of Expressive Language Delay" (Hx). The remaining 8 (27°/o) who continued to fall below the normal range were now classified as "Expressive Language Delayed" (ELD). The narrations produced by all of the children were scored on nine measures: narration length in T-units, mean length perT-unit in morphemes, type-token ratio, average number of morphemes in the five longest sentences, information retold, lexical richness, cohesion, percentage of new propositions produced, and narrative stage assignment. No significant differences were found among the three diagnostic groups on the following seven measures: narration length in T-units, mean length perT-unit in morphemes, type-token ration, information retold, lexical richness, cohesion, or percentage of new propositions produced. Significant differences were found among groups on the average number of morphemes in the five longest sentences. Both the normal group and the Hx group scored significantly higher than the ELD group. Significant differences were found between the normal group and both the Hx group and the ELD group on the measure of narrative stage assignment. The present study suggested that children with early language delay appear to "catch up" with normal peers in most areas of narrative ability by age 6. Of the variables examined in this study, the production of an overall mature narrative was the primary deficit noted in children with a history of expressive language delay. Language intervention should focus not only on morphology and syntax, but also on basic story grammar knowledge. Children with an expressive language delay as well as children with a history of language delay may need additional teaching and training of narrative skills in order to succeed with literacy.
100

Expressive Communication and Socialization Skills of Five-Year Olds with Slow Expressive Language Development

Midford, Nicole Anne 08 July 1993 (has links)
Beginning at birth, a child's receptive and expressive language skills are developing in stages. Likewise, the child's socialization skills are progressing in stages. However, it does not seem that communication and socialization are developing independently of each other. Rather, it seems that their development is interrelated.Children learn to speak in a social context, and social situations are necessary for the development of a variety of language structure~ On the same note, in order for those language structures to develop normally, it is necessary for the child to participate in different social situations. Social interactionists have theorized for some time that human language develops out of the social-communicative functions that language serves in human relations. Vygotsky (1962) theorized that language development, social development, and cognitive development all overlap. He stated that a child's social means of thought is language and referred to this as "verbal thought." This verbal thought process serves a major social function. It is through this verbal thought process that children have the ability to be socialized by others and to socialize with others: If, in fact,Expressive language skills and socialization skills do develop together, it would then seem logical that the child who is late to begin talking would also experience initial deficits in the development of socialization Subsequently, it would seem that the late-talking child (L T) who has persistent deficits in language would, in turn, maintain chronic deficits in socialization. Results of a study which set out to investigate the differences between two and three-year old subjects with a history of LT and their normal language peers indicated that subjects with a history of LT are, in fact, at risk for persistent delays in both expressive language and socialization (Paul, Spangle Looney, and Dahm, 1991). The purpose of this study was to compare the language and socialization skills of a group of five-year olds with a history of LT to a group of normal subjects of the same age. If significant differences were found between the two groups in either area, the scores of the subjects with a history of LT at age two would be correlated with their scores at age five to investigate whether a significant relationship existed between their scores at both ages. It was hypothesized that the subjects with a history of LTwould be at risk for longterm delays in both language and socialization. More specifically, the group of subjects with a history of LT, as a whole, would show significant delays in the areas of expressive language and socialization as compared to the normal controls. It was further hypothesized that the subjects with a history of LTs' scores at the age of two would reliably predict their scores at five, given a significant deficit in either area. The Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales VABS (Sparrow, Balla, & Cicchetti, 1984) was the test instrument used to gather the data at both age levels, five years and two years. Parents of 25 subjects with a history of L T and 25 normal subjects were interviewed by a trained graduate researcher on their child's communication, daily living and socialization skills using the VABS. Results of an ANOVA and Tukey multiple comparisons indicated that the subjects with a history of LT, as a whole, scored significantly lower than the normal subjects in the areas of expressive communication and socialization at age five. Since a proportion of the test items in the socialization domain of the VABS require the child to verbalize, an item analysis between the verbal and the nonverbal test items was performed to determine the influence of the verbal test items on the subjects with a history of LTs' socialization scores. Results of the item-analysis indicated that the subjects with a history of L T's poor performance on the socialization scale was due to their deficits in social skills not their deficits in expressive language. Lastly, a Pearson Product Moment Correlational Test was conducted to investigate the relationship between the subjects with a history of LTs' scores at age two on the communication and the socialization scales and their scores at age five on the same scales. Results indicated that the subjects with a history of LTs' scores on both the socialization scale and the communication scale at age two correlated significantly with their scores on the socialization scale at age five. Therefore, the subjects with a history of LTs' socialization and communication scores at age two are good predictors of their adaptive social skills at the age of five.

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