The purpose of this study was to examine the validity of teacher ratings for screening childrens language skills. Teacher ratings were measured through the use of two tools, the Childrens Communication Checklist-2 (CCC-2; Bishop, 2006) and the Teacher Rating of Oral Language and Literacy (TROLL; Dickinson, McCabe, & Sprague, 2001). The data for this study were from 77 kindergarteners who lived in rural Louisiana and spoke a non-mainstream dialect of English; 51 were classified as typically developing and 26 as presenting with Specific Language Impairment. Convergent validity was examined by comparing the two teacher rating tools to each other and to three language and literacy screeners. Predictive validity was examined by comparing the teacher rating tools to the Diagnostic Evaluation of Language Variation: Norm Referenced (Seymour, Roeper, & de Villiers, 2005). Although some results supported the convergent and predictive validity of the teacher ratings as measured by the two tools, neither tool nor the other screeners accurately identified a sufficient number of children with SLI. When empirically-derived cut scores for each screener were utilized, accuracy of the teacher ratings improved, and a discriminant function analysis with empirically-derived cut scores selected the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test 4 (PPVT-4; Dunn & Dunn, 2007) and TROLL as the best tools to utilize in combination for screening purposes. This combination of tools accounted for 73% of the variation in the childrens DELV-NR scores. However, the PPVT-4 by itself was just as accurate as the PPVT-4 and TROLL together, with 95% of the children accurately screened (Sensitivity = .88; Specificity = .98). For screening purposes, these findings support the use of teacher ratings as measured by the TROLL when empirically-derived cut scores are used and when the TROLL is combined with the PPVT-4.

The purpose of this study was to identify how SLP communication regarding language disorders was perceived by caregivers. Employing a qualitative methodology, the caregivers of 10 children, identified with a language-based reading impairment, participated in semi-structured interviews concerning their experiences communicating with SLPs. As a whole, the findings showed the value caregivers place on receiving clear, concrete, and timely diagnostic information, the variability and complexity associated with caregivers understanding of language disorders, and the reciprocal relationship between key SLP communication practices, caregiver knowledge, and effective collaboration. Some of the key themes emphasized in regard to SLP communication practices included: recognition of the importance of diagnostic labels to caregivers, recognition of the potentially different ways caregivers may interpret diagnostic labels, recognition of the need for initiating and following-up on communication opportunities with caregivers, recognition of the necessity of checking for caregiver understanding of messages, recognition of how caregiver roles and responsibilities influence caregiver collaboration, and recognition of the importance of providing caregivers with informational resources across time that increase their knowledge and understanding of the diagnostic and intervention process.

The aim of this study was to determine if dialect status has an effect on the frequency at which kindergarteners produce nonmainstream English markings for regular third person, IS and ARE, and regular past tense when producing oral narratives. Specifically, I wished to determine if child speakers of African American English (AAE) and child speakers of Southern White English (SWE) mark these structures with nonmainstream English forms at different rates. The narrative data came from language samples that had been previously collected from twenty kindergarten speakers of AAE and twenty kindergarten speakers of SWE. All of the children were recruited from various primary schools in rural Louisiana, and their dialect status was confirmed with a listener judgment task. The narratives were elicited by asking the children to produce narratives based on three to four pictures. Their narratives were then transcribed and coded. Once the narratives were transcribed, the target grammar structures were coded as mainstream overt, nonmainstream overt, or nonmainstream zero. The rate of nonmainstream marking was calculated by dividing each childs number of nonmainstream overt and nonmainstream zero markings by the total number of opportunities that each child had to produce the structures. For all three grammar structures, the AAE-speaking children producing higher rates of nonmainstream marking than their SWE-speaking peers. Additionally, it was found that both groups were more likely to produce nonmainstream forms with the auxiliary than copular BE form. These findings suggest that the rate of nonmainstream marking in narratives differs based on a childs dialect status in ways that are consistent with what has been documented in studies of conversational language samples. However, by comparing the current results to a previous study of the grammatical structures produced in conversation, it was found that narratives were more likely to elicit past tense structures while conversations were more likely to elicit present tense structures.

Certain neurogenic voice disorders present with similar or overlapping audio perceptual voice characteristics. Developing reliable and standardized perceptual measures of vocal fold vibratory characteristics for such voice disorders can enable accurate diagnosis and lead to faster, targeted treatment. In this study, subjective perceptual vocal fold vibratory characteristics and the presence and absence of supraglottic events during phonation were investigated to differentiate between Adductor Spasmodic Dysphonia (ADSD) and Essential Vocal Fold Tremor (EVT) using high-speed videoendoscopy (HSV). The specific aims of the study were to 1) assess which subjective endoscopic vocal fold vibratory measures differentiate EVT from AdSD; and 2) assess the inter-rater and intra-rater reliability of the ratings. High speed video recordings of vibratory vocal fold motion were selected to conduct a retrospective analysis on existing data. The participants were classified into three groups: 16 participants with a diagnosis of Adductor Spasmodic Dysphonia, 8 participants with a clinical diagnosis of Essential Vocal Tremor, and 10 participants with a diagnosis of Both (AdSD with Tremor). The inclusion criteria for HSV data was the presence of a full view of true vocal folds and supraglottic structures during vibration. It was hypothesized that HSV vocal fold vibratory measures and supraglottic events would distinguish EVT and ADSD and these measures would be reliable. In addition, the vocal fold vibratory features would be more reliable than supraglottic events in differentiating between the groups. Results demonstrated mixed reliability for supraglottic and vocal fold vibratory parameters. None of the hypothesized supraglottic parameters demonstrated any significant distinction between diagnostic groups given the three raters responses. While all four vocal fold vibratory parameters revealed distinctive patterns between the three diagnostic categories, only two, right/left TVF symmetry and anterior/posterior TVF symmetry, met the requirements for both reliability and differentiation. For these parameters, EVT demonstrated greater vocal fold symmetry in comparison to AdSD; however, those with a differential diagnosis of both demonstrated the highest vocal fold symmetry.

Purpose: This study increased our understanding of how aphasia may affect interpretation of road signs. Background: Despite aphasias theoretical effects on road sign comprehension and promising initial findings in studies that investigated driving and aphasia, the literature examining aphasia and road signs has been sparse. Research has shown that aphasia may have some effect on road sign interpretation. However, more study is needed regarding both accuracy and response time to road sign interpretation, which are equally important for safe driving. Methods: This was a prospective, between group study that used data collected from a larger study by Donovan, Savage, Varnado, & Brown (2014). This study aimed to determine if presence of aphasia had an effect on the accuracy and response time of road sign interpretation in a sample of 10 adults with aphasia versus 10 adults in neurologically normal control group. The participants were asked to choose the correct interpretation of pictures of road signs from three choices. A MANOVA was conducted to compare the effect of aphasia on accuracy and response time (α = .05). Results: Aphasia significantly impacted accuracy and response time of road sign interpretation (V = .996, F(2, 17) = 8.446, p = .003). The aphasia group was (a) less accurate (M = 28.60) than the neurological normal control group (M = 32.30; p = .001); and (b) slower (M = 2777.62 ms) than the neurological normal control group (M = 1211.58 ms; p = .036). Visual inspection of the data also showed the aphasia group was less accurate and had longer response times interpreting signs that were linguistically dense or had greater symbolic complexity. Discussion: The role of healthcare providers, including speech-language pathologists, in advising people with aphasia about return to driving is not well documented. The present study suggests aphasia may have an effect on driving and therefore, speech-language pathologists may serve an important role in helping people with aphasia make informed choices about return to driving. More study, however, is needed to investigate the profile of deficits that contribute to poor road sign interpretation and to build upon and support the present studys results.

The purpose of this study was to document the auxiliary and copula BE system of African American (AA) children with Gullah/Geechee (GG) heritage and to compare the findings to those from African American English (AAE)-speaking children without this heritage and to what has been documented in previous studies of Gullah and AAE. The data came from 38 children, aged five to six years. Nineteen were from rural South Carolina and classified as GG, and 19 were from rural Louisiana and classified as AAE. All were developing language typically, and the groups were matched on a number of socio-demographic variables and language test scores. The childrens 4,114 productions of BE were elicited using a standardized language screener, probes, and language samples. The GG group produced some patterns of BE that aligned with previous studies of Gullah. These included 81 BEEN and four də forms and variable marking of AM (69%) and WAS/WERE (63% - 88%). Similar to adult AAE, the AAE group did not produce BEEN or də, and they produced categorically high rates of AM and WAS/WERE, with higher rates of overtly marked AM than IS. The GG group also produced patterns of BE that were consistent with both Gullah and AAE. These included variable marking of IS and ARE, with IS > ARE, and significant effects for contractibility (contractible > uncontractible), grammatical function (copula > auxiliary) and preceding contexts (it/that/what > noun > pronoun), although the statistical significance of these effects varied by the type of analysis completed. The AAE group also produced these patterns. These findings indicate that although language contact has led to evolution and change in Gullah, vestiges of this language variety can still be found in the BE system of modern day AA children with GG heritage.

Background: The Stroke and Aphasia Quality of Life-39 (SAQOL-39) is a valid and reliable measure of quality of life (QOL) for stroke survivors and people with mild-to-moderate aphasia However, it could not be validated for people with severe aphasia due to their language deficits. Research has shown that combining pictures with written text can support communication effectiveness of people with aphasia. Combining language modalities in this way is a form of alternative or augmentative communication (AAC). The use of AAC has been explored as a possibility to improve communication for people with severe aphasia (Dietz, McKelvey & Beukelman, 2006). Aim: This study sought to examine whether photographic representations of the SAQOL-39 would improve self-reported ratings when completed by people with moderate to severe aphasia. Methods: This study was a prospective, within group design. Four adults with moderate to severe aphasia self-reported their QOL rating through the SAQOL-39. All participants completed the SAQOL-39 in two conditions: written text only, and written-text paired with photographic representations. A 5-point rating scale, derived from the SAQOL-39, was displayed onscreen for participant rating of the degree to which they believed specific aspects of QOL had been impacted by their aphasia. Levels of instruction required to elicit a response were recorded for every item to conclude whether the photographs reduced the amount of researcher cueing required for each item. The mean response time for each item was also recorded. Results: The method of data analysis was changed secondary to recruitment of only four participants. Results of the Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test (a = .05) showed that the text plus photograph condition compared to the text only condition did not result in QOL rating changes [(Mdn = 0), Z = -.66, p = .551]. Likewise, the Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test (a = .05) showed that the text plus photograph condition compared to the text only condition did not result in faster rating response time [(Mdn = 0), Z = -.94, p = .348]. Descriptively, comparison of changes in level of instruction between the two conditions showed no differences either. Discussion: Further research is encouraged to discover an approach for allowing people with severe receptive aphasia to self-report on their QOL. Replication of this study with a larger sample size is essential to further investigate the effect of using photographic representations of the SAQOL-39 to improve ratings with people with severe receptive aphasia.

This study investigated the acoustic correlates of contrastive stress produced by individuals with Parkinsons disease (PD) to learn more about their ability to modulate acoustic cues to mark contrastive stress. Speech materials from 10 individuals with PD and 10 gender- and age-matched neurologically healthy controls (HC) were recorded and analyzed. The four acoustic measures (peak intensity, peak F0, vowel duration, and acoustic vowel space area) of stressed and unstressed syllables were compared to determine which acoustic parameters are preferentially employed by each group to mark contrastive stress. The results indicated that individuals with PD exhibited significant changes in vowel duration and intensity of stressed/unstressed words to mark contrastive stress in similar ways to their HC counterparts. Unlike the HC group, individuals with PD did not demonstrate an expanded vowel space area (VSA) or employed changes in F0 to mark contrastive stress. Findings on which abilities are better preserved in the PD population for the purposes of marking contrastive stress add to our knowledge of prosodic deficits in this dysarthric population and can aid in the planning and executing of intervention services.

ABSTRACT Objective The present study aimed to determine if a treatment effect is present on speech outcomes in children with spastic cerebral palsy (CP) given 5 sessions of a manual therapy treatment protocol. Methods A single-subject experimental design (ABAB) study was devised to establish the treatment efficacy of a manual therapy protocol on speech outcomes in children with spastic CP. The protocol was administered to 5 participants, 4-6 years old. It included five intercostal stretches administered in 15-minute sessions for five sessions. During the withdrawal phase, a sham treatment was administered that included an equal dosage of treatment. Measurements of sound pressure level (SPL) and Maximum Phonation Duration (MPD) of /a/ served as the primary outcomes. Secondary outcome measures included speech intelligibility, syllables per breath unit (SBU), and chest structure measurements. Results Trend, level, variability, effect sizes, % of Non-Overlapping Data, and immediacy of effect were combined to support or refute each effect. 15 of 15 demonstrations of effect for SPL, and 9 of 15 demonstrations of effect for MPD were located. This data demonstrate a positive effect on SPL and minimal support for an effect on MPD. Secondary outcome measures of SBU and chest mobility showed a positive treatment effect, while speech intelligibility and abdominal protrusion did not. Conclusions This is the first known study to demonstrate a treatment effect in SPL and SBU using a manual therapy protocol, which provide evidence of a likely treatment effect in speech outcomes in children with spastic CP.

Reading instruction has historically been deemphasized for students in special education, and the limited research on this topic reveals that sight word vocabulary is most commonly taught in special education classrooms (Browder, Wakeman, Spooner, Ahlgrim-Delzell, Algozzine, 2006). However, successful reading instruction must target the five essential components: vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, phonics, and phonemic awareness (National Reading Panel, 2000). The extremely small body of research attempting to teach phonics and phonemic awareness to students with mild to severe disabilities approaches instruction from a decoding framework with mixed success (Browder et al., 2006). Alternatively, this study aims to teach from an encoding framework. Encoding is the process of converting speech sounds to print by applying the alphabetic code (Herron, 2008). Students are actively engaged in the process relying on their current level of knowledge to construct words. Any attempt is viewed as a success that can be gradually improved by feedback and increased phonological and phonemic awareness. This study investigated whether encoding practice embedded in a narrative context would improve participants developmental spelling patterns across intervention sessions, and whether scores on measures of phonological awareness, alphabetic knowledge, print knowledge, language abilities, and spelling would improve following the 18 intervention sessions. Prior to any intervention, participants completed multiple baseline probes attempting to spell three lists of target words that were randomly selected from the words that would be targeted during intervention. Immediately before intervention sessions, participants attempted to spell five target words independently. During intervention sessions, the same five words were practiced in a narrative context with scaffolding and feedback (i.e., examiner and Phonic Faces). Participants again attempted to spell the same five target words independently immediately following the intervention session. On average, participants spelling attempts improved following intervention sessions. One participant made expected positive changes in encoding abilities from baseline to intervention, while the other participants made inconsistent progress. From pretest to posttest, participants made clinically significant gains on standardized measures of phonological awareness, vocabulary, and language measures. Findings of the study suggest that students with developmental disabilities have the potential to learn early reading skills when given direct instruction and practice.