Purpose: This study examines the classification accuracy and interrater reliability of a dynamic assessment (DA) of inferential word learning designed to accurately identify kindergarten through sixth-grade students with and without language disorder. Method: The participants included 127 school-age children from a mountain west school district who were administered a DA of inferential word learning that entailed a pretest, a teaching phase, an examiner rating of the child's ability to infer word meaning (modifiability), and posttests. Results: Hierarchical logistic regression and receiver operator characteristic (ROC) analyses revealed that combining all posttests, the modifiability total, and the final examiner judgement scores from this DA yielded the strongest sensitivity (.83) and specificity (.80). The static measures and the dichotomized final examiner judgement had excellent reliability; yet the individual modifiability measures (with the exception of disruption and frustration) had poor reliability. Conclusion: In concordance with a previous study, results indicate that a dynamic assessment of inferential word learning may be an efficacious method of identifying language disorders in school-age populations.

Previous computerized models of child language acquisition have sought to determine how children acquire grammatical word categories (GWCs). The current study seeks to determine if statistical structure can be corroborated as a factor in GWC acquisition. Previous studies examining statistical structure have dealt with word order rather than GWC order and only examined an overall success rate. The present study examines how well a computer model of child acquisition of GWCs was able to reorganize scrambled sentences back into the correct GWC order using transitional probabilities extracted from adult language input. Overall, a 50% success rate was obtained, but when broken down by utterance length, utterances up to eight words in length had a success rate much higher than chance. Thus, it is likely that statistical structure informs children's acquisition of GWCs.

Second language (L2) learners of English must learn to produce English phonemes, words, and sentences. These L2 learners make many errors when learning English; they may change the place or manner of articulation, insert vowels, or delete consonants. Obstruent sounds, such as fricatives, affricates, and stops, can be especially difficult for L2 learners. This study analyzed native English speakers’ perception of the quality of obstruents produced by native Mandarin Chinese and Korean speakers. Target words containing obstruents had been produced in three different tasks: in a carrier phrase, in a paragraph, and in a spontaneous speech sample. Obstruents were produced in word-initial position and word-final position. Raters with differing levels of expertise listened to these words and rated the perceptual quality of the obstruents within the words. This study found that overall, English obstruent productions by native Mandarin and Korean L2 speakers learning English were rated most clear when produced in word-initial position in a carrier phrase or a paragraph. The lowest ratings given were of obstruents in word-final position in spontaneous speech. No significant differences were found for listener expertise level. Combined with future research, results from this study will help educate the field of second language instruction as to how the speech of Korean and Mandarin learners of English is perceived. It also provides additional information on the effect that listener expertise has on the judgment of L2 speech production.

Speech perception typically takes place within the auditory cortex as evidenced by data collected using quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG). The purpose of this study was to determine if motor responses influence speech perception. We examined P300 event-related potentials during oddball stimulus recognition tasks that either required or did not require a motor response. Based on a review of the literature, it was hypothesized that similar areas of the brain would be activated in both the motor response task and the same task without a motor response immediately following the button-push condition. Two syllables, /ba/ and /ga/, were presented to 20 native English speakers (10 females and 10 males) between the ages of 19 and 30 years. An oddball paradigm consisting of standard and deviant stimuli was presented in three trials: passive listening, mental counting, and button-push. Participants were randomly assigned an order to the trials for passive listening and mental count; however, the button-push response was completed second each time. Data from event-related potentials were recorded for each participant using qEEG and combined across participants to create grand averaged waveforms. Cortical regions of activation were identified and compared across conditions. Results showed that different cortical areas were activated when the mental counting and passive listening conditions were done before and after the motor response condition. Requiring a more complicated response than is typically used to discriminate phonemes, such as with the button push response, may alter speech perception based on the cortical regions activated as measured through source localization. Further research on latencies and amplitudes of the even-related potential (ERP) waveforms is needed to determine how speech perception changes.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a combined narrative and expository language intervention on third graders' oral language. The participants included 96 third-grade students from two schools in the Mountain West region of the United States. In a quasi-experimental design, all third-grade students in one school (n = 46) were assigned to a treatment condition and all third-grade students in another school in the same school district (n = 50) were assigned to a control condition. Both treatment and control groups received large group oral narrative language intervention led by classroom teachers. The treatment group received additional large group expository language intervention led by the investigators. At posttest, students' narrative retells were analyzed for story grammar and language complexity. Primary and generalized expository outcomes were also analyzed for text structure and language complexity at posttest. Performances of the treatment and control groups were compared using ANCOVA across all measures. The results indicated that the control group and the treatment group did not have statistically significantly different narrative outcomes. However, the treatment group did make statistically significant improvements in expository text structure and some features of expository language complexity across both the primary and generalized expository measures when compared to the control group. This early efficacy study demonstrated the effects of a combined narrative and expository language intervention on expository language of third-grade students over and above narrative language intervention alone. It is possible that a dual focus on narrative and expository oral language instruction will not only impact students' oral language, but also reading comprehension and writing. Future research with a stronger experimental design should investigate the effect of narrative and expository oral language instruction on such distal outcomes.

Combination corticosteroid inhalers are the primary treatment option for long-term pulmonary disorders including asthma, persistent bronchitis, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Common side effects of these medications are xerostomia in the mouth and throat, hoarseness, and soreness in the oropharynx. Research indicates that a large percentage of the inhaler particles are deposited onto laryngeal tissue, leaving an alteration of laryngeal mucosal properties. As the first stage in a long-term project, this thesis addresses the need for baseline phonatory data that will lay groundwork for quantifying inhaler-induced phonatory changes. Excised larynx research is a powerful tool for assessing aerodynamic alterations that accompany laryngeal pathology. Porcine (pig) larynges are a traditional species employed in voice disorder research, though leporine (rabbit) larynges are an emerging species that lends itself to histologic vocal fold studies as they have the most similar vocal fold cover structure to humans compared to any other animal to date. The purpose of this study was to examine the measurement stability of six aerodynamic parameters in a traditional excised larynx benchtop model. Specifically, the current author assessed measurement stability of leporine larynges compared to porcine larynges with the following aerodynamic metrics: phonation onset pressure (PTP; cmH2O), phonation onset flow (PTF; L/m), sustained pressure (cmH2O), sustained flow (L/m), onset laryngeal resistance (cmH2O/L/m), and sustained laryngeal resistance (cmH2O/L/m). A total of 30 larynges—15 leporine and 15 porcine—were mounted on a benchtop setup; phonation was sampled over 15 trials for each larynx. Measurement stability for the above six tokens was examined using coefficient of variation (%) analyses. Leporine larynges demonstrated significantly less variation across all six aerodynamic parameters when compared to porcine larynges. The leporine PTP values were most stable as compared to leporine and porcine pressure and airflow values. Leporine airflow values were also more stable than porcine PTP and PTF values. These results indicate that leporine larynges might be a preferred excised larynx specimen for certain benchtop phonation studies. These findings are important for establishing expected measurement variability in porcine and leporine larynges, particularly when translating benchtop research to laryngeal pathology.

Purpose: This study examines the classification accuracy and interrater reliability of a dynamic assessment (DA) of inferential word learning designed to accurately identify kindergarten through sixth-grade students with and without language disorder. Method: The participants included 127 school-age children from a mountain west school district who were administered a DA of inferential word learning that entailed a pretest, a teaching phase, an examiner rating of the child's ability to infer word meaning (modifiability), and posttests. Results: Hierarchical logistic regression and receiver operator characteristic (ROC) analyses revealed that combining all posttests, the modifiability total, and the final examiner judgement scores from this DA yielded the strongest sensitivity (.83) and specificity (.80). The static measures and the dichotomized final examiner judgement had excellent reliability; yet the individual modifiability measures (with the exception of disruption and frustration) had poor reliability. Conclusion: In concordance with a previous study, results indicate that a dynamic assessment of inferential word learning may be an efficacious method of identifying language disorders in school-age populations.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to compare hearing difficulties and hearing aid outcomes in veterans with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) to a group of veterans with no medical diagnosis of PTSD. Our hypothesis was that veterans with PTSD would have poorer hearing aid outcomes in certain domains (e.g., those related to loudness or interactions with the environment) relative to patients without PTSD. Assessing these differences could help identify unique factors that may lead to the development of tailored aural rehabilitation for hearing aid users with PTSD. Design: This descriptive study employed subjective outcome measures and surveys; the Abbreviated Profile for Hearing Aid Benefit (APHAB) served as the primary outcome measure. An additional questionnaire was developed to assess views of the subjects’ hearing in unaided and aided conditions in an effort to explore the relation between hearing aid benefit and PTSD symptoms. A total of 60 veterans with sensorineural hearing loss and bilateral hearing aid use were recruited from the Audiology Clinic at the James H. Quillen Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Mountain Home, TN. Participants were divided into two groups of subjects either with or without PTSD (n=30 in each). Diagnosis of PTSD was confirmed via a chart review of the veteran’s medical record. Results: Results from the APHAB revealed a significant difference between groups in global benefit scores as well as the aversiveness subscale in the unaided condition. Overall, the PTSD group showed lower benefit scores, however outcomes indicated that both groups received benefit when aided. Results from the study questionnaire showed a significant difference between the two groups in both unaided and aided conditions for the questions focused on hyper-arousal and re-experiencing symptoms. Conclusions: Hearing aid users with PTSD perceive less benefit from hearing aid use on traditional hearing aid outcome measures. Additionally, these hearing aid users were more affected by hyper-arousal, re-experiencing symptoms, and avoidance compared to hearing aid users without PTSD. The clinical implications of this work suggest that hearing aid users with PTSD may need modified hearing aid fittings and/or additional counseling to meet their unique listening needs.

The primary purpose of the study was to determine the level of teacher competence concerning instructional television and the need for university training for future teachers. The secondary purpose of the study was to determine the availability, accessibility and utilization of instructional television equipment in elementary and secondary schools in the State of Utah. The principals of 400 elementary and secondary schools were the respondents in this study. A questionnaire was designed to acquire information on the following: (1) What degree of sophistication and types of television equipment are presently available in schools in the State of Utah; (2) what major problems are encountered by teachers using television; and (3) are the universities in the state adequately preparing teachers in the use of instructional television as an instructional medium. The results of the survey suggest that universities should offer prospective teachers hands-on experience in television utilization and production. An overwhelming majority of school principals (91 percent) indicated that universities should be doing this job. The results indicated what type of and how much equipment Utah schools presently have. In addition the survey showed the type of productions and programs that teachers are presently doing with television equipment. The results also identified several specific problem areas teachers now have.

An examination was made of the acoustic characteristics of wind turbulence generated noise in a car traveling at 70 mph over smoothly paved highway with the driver's window down. The overall noise level was found to be at 112 dB SPL with the predominance of energy in the low frequencies. The study was concerned with the effects of such noise on human audition in terms of temporary threshold shift. Twenty normal hearing young adults were exposed to a tape recording of wind noise for 15 minutes. Post-exposure auditory thresholds at seven discreet frequencies were compared to pre-exposure auditory thresholds at the same seven frequencies. Threshold shift was taken as the difference between pre-exposure and post-exposure thresholds. Post-exposure thresholds were obtained immediately after exposure and at five, ten and fifteen minutes after exposure. The results of the study indicate to significant difference in the amount of threshold shift or the rate of recover based on sex. A significant difference was observed int he amount of threshold shift at different test frequencies. The rate of recovery at different test frequencies was also significantly different. Decisions of significance were made at the .01 level of confidence. The statistical tool utilized was analysis of variance.