This study investigated the phonological and grammatical characteristics of Black American English Dialect, and the congruence between three popular assessment procedures: spontaneous discourse, elicited imitation and sentence completion. Codeswitching was also observed using a researcher designed sentence completion task and a uniform narrative sample. 10 black male and 10 black female 5th grade subjects were from three predominantly black elementary schools in two North Florida Counties were used. Nineteen (10 phonological and 9 grammatical) constructions were observed on all tasks throughout this investigation. The results of this investigation suggest that while some of the elements of BAD reported in previous literature still persist, others did not occur frequently enough or were too subject specific (even when the opportunity for them to occur was high) to be considered characteristic of the speech/language pattern of an entire culture or community. It was also found that males used more BAED constructions than females on all tasks, and that difference was statistically significant. This investigation also suggests that there is some level of congruence between the subjects' performances on spontaneous discourse, elicited imitation and sentence completion tasks. These subjects performed comparably on all three tasks. This congruency, was found to be highly variable and specific to certain phonological and grammatical constructions. Possible reasons for the apparent change in the characteristics of BAED, the variability in the results in congruence and their implications for future research are offered. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 50-08, Section: B, page: 3430. / Major Professor: Virginia Walker. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1988.

The purpose of this study was to describe the narrative and conversational discourse of a group of adults with right hemisphere damage (RHD). Seven RHD subjects with a median age of 61 years (Range = 65-68 years) and seven normal control subjects with a median age of 65 years (Range = 55-69 years) participated in the study. RHD subjects suffered a stroke in the distribution of the middle cerebral artery at least four weeks but not more than five months prior to data collection. Narrative discourse samples included retellings of two single-episode narratives and production of a personal experience narrative. Conversational samples included two 15-minute samples (i.e., one with a familiar interactor and one with an unfamiliar interactor). Fourteen persons who were familiar to the respective RHD and normal control subjects served as familiar interactors during conversational samples. / Findings revealed that the RHD subjects recalled less information from spoken narratives than did the normal control subjects. The RHD subjects' recall differed significantly with the two passages used, even though the passages were of similar length and syntactic complexity. The narrative composition (i.e., scripted versus nonscripted) may have influenced recall. RHD subjects recalled significantly fewer a priori propositions in the narrative superstructure categories of complicating action and evaluation for the nonscripted narrative. The personal experience narratives of both groups of subjects were similar. Results indicated that the narratives of the RHD subjects were schema-driven (i.e., demonstrated narrative superstructure organization), but some impairment was evident relative to the normal subjects. / There were no significant differences between the RHD and normal subjects on measures of turn-taking, topic manipulation, or communicative informativeness during conversation samples. Unfamiliar interactions resulted in both groups of subjects engaging in longer speaking turns, providing more new information, and requesting less information. Results of a questionnaire administered to significant others of the RHD subjects provided information for determining whether conversational profiles displayed by the RHD subjects were typical of pre-stroke abilities. Clinical implications are discussed. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-12, Section: B, page: 5833. / Major Professor: Amy M. Wetherby. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 40-06, Section: B, page: 2624. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1979.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 32-11, Section: B, page: 6717. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1971.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 33-02, Section: B, page: 0950. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1969.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 36-06, Section: B, page: 2741. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1975.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 38-05, Section: B, page: 2135. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1977.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 39-11, Section: B, page: 5333. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1978.

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston University Slides to accompany thesis on file in the Audio-Visual Library.

This study used the LENA Digital Language Processor to look at parental input as a possible factor affecting language performance variability in children with cochlear implants. Eight children between the ages of 2 and 6 with cochlear implants wore the LENA DLP for one full day while engaging in typical family activities. Adult word counts, child word counts, and number of conversational turns were compared to the child's Preschool Language Scales 3rd Edition scores and to LENA data from normal hearing children. It was found that parents of children with cochlear implants talk in a similar fashion to parents of normal hearing children in regards to amount of speech. The children, however, were significantly above agerage on word counts, while being significantly below average on PLS 3 scores. Possible reasons for this discrepancy are discussed.