Racial and ethnic diversity is growing rapidly in the United States (US), leading to heightened concerns about racial/ethnic disparities in the provision of services for young toddlers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This investigation of the FIRST WORDS® Project studied a sample of 364 toddlers between the ages of 18 and 36 months who had a diagnosis of ASD confirmed (n = 195) or ruled out (n = 169) from three racial/ethnic categories: non-Hispanic White (n = 226), non-Hispanic Black (n = 74), and Hispanic White (n = 64). Differences across the groups were examined using scores from an observational measure of social communication, the Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales (CSBS; Wetherby & Prizant, 2002) Behavior Sample, and a parent-report measure of autism red flags, the Early Screening for Autism and Communication Disorders (ESAC; Wetherby, Woods, & Lord, 2007). After controlling for maternal education, findings revealed that, compared to children without ASD, children with ASD scored lower on the CSBS, indicating poorer social communication and scored higher on the ESAC, indicating more red flags of ASD. Racial/ethnic groups did not differ on six of the seven clusters of the CSBS, but Non-Hispanic White toddlers were observed to score significantly higher than non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic White toddlers on the understanding cluster. There were no significant interactions between diagnostic classification and race/ethnicity on either the CSBS or ESAC. These findings indicate good agreement between observed social communication and parent report of autism red flags in a diverse sample of toddlers. Results from this study suggest that the CSBS and ESAC could be instrumental in identifying young toddlers with ASD from these racial/ethnic categories and may contribute to improving early detection and access to early intervention for toddlers with ASD. / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Communication Science and Disorders in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2013. / June 18, 2013. / autism spectrum disorder, early identification, race/ethnicity, social communication / Includes bibliographical references. / Amy M. Wetherby, Professor Directing Dissertation; Chris Schatschneider, University Representative; Carla Jackson, Committee Member; Juliann Woods, Committee Member.

Few studies have examined how instructor variables relate to student performance measures for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The purpose of this study was to examine instructor language and student active engagement in general and special education classrooms for students with ASD. This study included participants (n = 196 students nested within 126 instructors) in the first three years of the Classroom SCERTS Intervention Project, an ongoing randomized controlled trial for elementary students with ASD. Findings documented significant group differences in the categories and the amount of instructor language between general and special education classrooms. Instructors in special education classrooms used significantly more language overall and more language that was directed to individual students, while instructors in general education classrooms used significantly more language during group instruction. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed differences in the structure of instructor language between the classroom settings, with a 3-factor model evidencing the best fit in general education classrooms and a 2-factor model in special education classrooms. Structural equation modeling revealed a moderate, positive association between the instructor Encouraging Interaction and Providing Information factors with student social communication in general education classrooms, and a moderate, negative association between the instructor Facilitative Language factor and student responding in special education classrooms. Additionally, a small, negative association was observed between the amount of language instructors used and student emotional regulation in special education classrooms. This study contributes to a limited body of research on students with ASD in educational settings and provides empirical measures of the language environment in general and special education classrooms. The significant differences in instructor language observed between general and special education classrooms may have important implications for student active engagement in educational settings. / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Communication Science and Disorders in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2013. / November 7, 2013. / Active Engagement, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Instructor Language / Includes bibliographical references. / Amy Wetherby, Professor Directing Dissertation; Chris Schatschneider, University Representative; Juliann Woods, Committee Member; Rick Wagner, Committee Member.

Research has demonstrated that parents' use of synchronous language, which is language that follows their children's focus of attention, is related to language development in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD; Haebig, McDuffie, & Ellis Weismer, 2013a; Haebig, McDuffie, & Ellis Weismer, 2013b; Siller & Sigman, 2002; Siller & Sigman, 2008). Furthermore, experiments demonstrate that professionals can teach parents to increase their use of synchronous language when interacting with their children (Aldred et al., 2004, 2012; Green et al., 2010; Siller, Hutman, & Sigman, 2013). This investigation is part of the longitudinal Early Social Interaction (ESI) project and compared pre- and post-measures of parent synchronous language across two different intervention conditions that varied on intensity. A total of 82 children between the ages of 17 and 20 months of age and their parents were randomly assigned to either parent-implemented intervention (PII), which was offered in three individual sessions per week for 6 months, or information, education, and support (IES), which was offered in one group session per week. Findings revealed that parents in both intervention conditions significantly increased their use of synchronous language at similar rates after six months of intervention. Additionally, there was a significant time by treatment interaction for parent use of undemanding language indicating that the PII group increased their use of undemanding language over the course of intervention and the IES group did not. Additionally, significant relationships were observed between six-month levels of parent synchronous language and child outcomes measured on the Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales (CSBS; Wetherby & Prizant, 2002). Finally, parent use of synchronous language was significantly related to parent behaviors displayed in a home observation three months after collection of the clinic measure. Results of this study suggest that parents increased their use of synchronous language after participation in either intervention condition, both of which targeted parent synchrony. However, undemanding language may require more hours of training for parents to make changes during six-months of intervention. Furthermore, the findings of this study suggest that parent synchrony was not an active ingredient in mediating child change. / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Communication Science and Disorders in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2013. / November 8, 2013. / Autism Spectrum Disorder, Early Intervention, Parent Implemented Intervention, Parent Language, Synchrony, Toddler / Includes bibliographical references. / Amy M. Wetherby, Professor Directing Dissertation; Chris Schatschneider, University Representative; Carla Wood Jackson, Committee Member; Juliann Woods, Committee Member.

This study examined the relations among expressive phonology, phonological sensitivity, and early decoding skills in children attending kindergarten through 2nd grade. Extant literature suggests that children with disordered speech may be at additional risk for reading difficulties; however, due to methodological shortcomings, findings from previous research are questionable. A total of 140 children between the ages of 5- and 8-years of age were randomly selected from a pool of 392 children recruited from local schools to participate in assessments involving oral language, expressive phonology, phonological sensitivity, and early decoding skills. Results from correlational analyses revealed significant relations between most measures of phonological sensitivity, expressive phonology, and decoding skills, even after partialling out variance common to oral language. Additionally, results from simultaneous multiple regression analyses demonstrated that the Phonological Sensitivity, Lexical Access and Multisyllabic speech production jointly predicted early decoding skills (ÄR2 = .34). Phonological Memory and single-naming speech production did not. Additionally, Phonological Sensitivity, Lexical Access, and Multisyllabic speech production each predicted unique variance in Decoding. Finally, hierarchical multiple regression results indicated that whereas for the youngest group of children, those with poorer speech skills (as measured by multisyllabic word productions) or poorer phonological sensitivity skills also displayed poorer decoding skills, this relation was not found to be significant for the older children. Age did not moderate the relations between Lexical Access and Decoding. Results support extant literature suggesting that reading deficits stem from an underlying phonological deficit and that speech may serve as an early indicator of potential reading problems. Clinical implications include the need to use more sensitive, complex expressive phonological measures and to incorporate exposure to written language into speech therapy sessions. Additionally, future research should focus on extending current findings by examining the relations among speech and reading in a longitudinal nature. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Communication Disorders in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2004. / April 7, 2004. / Phonological Processing, Phonological Sensitivity, Decoding, Speech, Reading / Includes bibliographical references. / Howard Goldstein, Professor Directing Dissertation; Christopher Lonigan, Outside Committee Member; Lisa Trautman, Committee Member; Juliann Woods, Committee Member.

Vocabulary is considered one of the critical language skills necessary for children to develop at a young age, as it has been shown to be highly correlated with future academic success in school. Children from low-income environments have been identified as at risk for delayed acquisition in this area, as their environments often lack the exposure and opportunities necessary for vocabulary acquisition. Shared storybook reading is considered an ideal context in which to target learning of vocabulary. Researchers have been successful in teaching parents from low socioeconomic status (SES) to implement shared storybook reading strategies, and as a result, some gains, although not dramatic, have been observed in children's vocabulary. However, parents have not been taught how to embed effective vocabulary instruction into book reading. This study investigated the effects of teaching mothers of preschoolers from low SES homes how to embed rich vocabulary instruction in shared storybook reading through scripts on mothers' behaviors during book reading and the word learning of the preschoolers. A multiple baseline design across mother-child dyads and books was utilized. Data on the mothers' reading behaviors were collected through audiotaped reading sessions. Tapes were transcribed and coded for the mothers' comments, questions, and explanations relating to target words and other words in the story. Additionally, an alternating treatments design was used to compare the effects of two types of scripted reading procedures, word explanation condition and a no word explanation condition. Each type of scripted reading involved the use of comments and questions relating to target vocabulary words. However, the script in the word explanation condition also included the provision of a definition of the target word. Varying levels of children's vocabulary knowledge were assessed on a weekly basis. Increases in the mothers' vocabulary-related utterances were observed with the implementation of the scripted reading procedures. Additionally, large gains were observed in children's knowledge of novel words. The evidence suggests that teaching mothers from low SES homes how to embed vocabulary instruction in book reading through the use of scripts results in changes in the mothers' behavior, along with increases in children's word knowledge. This easy to implement method of intervention shows great promise for widespread application by professionals working with families and children. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Communication Disorders in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2006. / June 28, 2006. / Word Learning, Vocabulary Acquisition, Language, Preschool, Parent Training, Low-Income / Includes bibliographical references. / Howard Goldstein, Professor Directing Dissertation; Mary Frances Hanline, Outside Committee Member; Juliann Woods, Committee Member; Carla Wood-Jackson, Committee Member.

Research has documented the importance of early oral language and phonological sensitivity abilities in relation to later reading success. More research is needed to measure specific components of oral language abilities in order to better understand oral language development during the preschool years and its relation to emergent literacy. The present study was designed to expand the research base on language production and emergent writing and drawing abilities in 3-year-old children. This investigation utilized standardized language assessment and a spontaneous language sample in order to provide an in depth analysis of oral language. Spontaneous language samples were analyzed for length of utterance, vocabulary diversity, and lexical components. Emergent writing and drawing were evaluated utilizing a developmental scale. This investigation also sought to document developmental changes in spontaneous language production in a story retell task. In addition, a subgroup of these children was re-evaluated at 4 years in order to determine whether language and emergent writing and drawing at 3 years predict language and emergent literacy abilities at 4 years. The methods for the proposed study are presented for data collection, transcription, coding, and analysis of language, emergent literacy and emergent writing measures. Results indicated that standardized measures of both receptive and expressive language were related to spontaneous language variables at 3 years. On the story retell task, children were able to retell parts of a story about a familiar routine at 3 years and provided significantly more information in their story retell at 4 years. Both standardized language and spontaneous language measured at 3 years were significant predictors of oral language abilities at 4 years. Although standardized language was a better predictor of oral language, the lexical composite uniquely contributed to the prediction of oral language abilities at 4 years. The predictor variables were not significantly related to phonological awareness and print awareness measured at 4 years. Due to the strength of the concurrent and predictive relationships found in this study, future research should continue to explore relationships between early language abilities and later academic outcomes. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Communication Disorders in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2004. / March 31, 2004. / Story Retell, Narrative Development, Phonological Awareness, Print Awareness, Language Development / Includes bibliographical references. / Amy Wetherby, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Lisa Scott Trautman, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Stephanie Dent Al Otaiba, Outside Committee Member; Christopher Lonigan, Outside Committee Member; Joanne Lasker, Committee Member.

This study investigated the development and validation of the Florida Assessments for Instruction in Reading (FAIR) expressive vocabulary measure. Three hundred, seventy-one children from two school districts representative of the demographics of Florida were tested in the spring of the 2008-09 school year. Results indicated that this new measure was associated with performance on outcome measures of kindergarten word reading and first and second grade reading comprehension. It was equally associated with outcome measures for children qualifying for Free and Reduced Lunch (FRL), English Language Learners (ELL), and Minority students except for students qualifying for FRL in Kindergarten. However, when reading ability was held constant, the differential prediction was no longer significant. The FAIR measure had a strong relation with the EVT-2 averaging .80 across the three grades indicative of concurrent validity. Item difficulty had a small correlation with imageability and a moderate, negative correlation with word frequency. The added value of prompting was investigated and surprisingly was found to contribute to low student probabilities of answering an item correctly after receiving a prompt and did not add any value when predicting to a reading outcome. The results of this study suggest that FAIR may provide a viable assessment option that balances ease and time of administration with predictive power and connection to instruction. / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Communication Science and Disorders in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2010. / December 7, 2009. / Reading, Assessment, Vocabulary / Includes bibliographical references. / Howard Goldstein, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Barbara Foorman, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Stephanie Dent Al Otaiba, University Representative; Joanne Lasker, Committee Member.

Many theories for explaining speech production problems in apraxia of speech (AOS) have been advanced. Schmidt's schema theory of motor control has been widely used to explain motor learning in normal subjects as well as in individuals with motor speech disorders especially, AOS. Several studies have provided the data on motor learning in limb system from the perspective of schema theory of motor control and learning. Those studies investigated important variables of motor learning such as practice (random and blocked), feedback (100% feedback, reduced feedback), and their influence on acquisition and retention. However, few studies have investigated motor speech production for AOS. Furthermore, many of the variables directly related to relearning or learning outcomes of complex motoric speech behavior have gone uninvestigated. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of the manipulation of several parameters (the schedules of practice trials, the schedules of feedback, and retention) of motor learning theory on the verbal acquisition and retention of words in a foreign language (Korean). Thirty two normal English speaking subjects participated in this study. Ten Korean sentences were presented for each participant to practice. The subjects were directed to practice by listening to the sentences that the experimenter orally modeled for them. The speech samples were produced with one day of retention and one week of retention following training. The results showed that the combination of 100 practice trials and 20% feedback was more effective than the other combinations on the retention of novel verbal productions of Korean phrases one day after training. Also, the effects of the combination of 100 practice trials and 20% reduced feedback were retained one week after acquisition. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Communication Disorders in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2007. / January 25, 2007. / Practice Trials On Motor Speech Retention, Apraxia Of Speech, Treatment Of Apraxia Of Speech, Retention, Motor Learning Theory, Effect Of Feedback Schedules / Includes bibliographical references. / Leonard L. LaPointe, Professor Directing Dissertation; Rolf A. Zwaan, Outside Committee Member; Julie A. G. Stierwalt, Committee Member; Richard J. Morris, Committee Member.

Purpose: Reading plays a critical role in ensuring children's academic achievement (Lonigan, Burgess, & Jason, 2000). This investigation focused on the acquisition of mental orthographic images (MOIs). Specifically, it examined word position effects during MOI learning of novel words in typically-developing kindergarten students. Methods: Forty-seven typically-developing, kindergarten students ranging in age from 5-6 years were presented with 12 novel words. MOI acquisition by word position was assessed through a spelling generation task. Results: Words were analyzed based on four word positions and orthotactic and phonotactic probabilities. Analysis revealed that students acquired significantly more MOI information for the onset position over any other word position. In addition, MOI acquisition was greater for words containing graphemes of high orthotactic probability. Conclusion: Young students quickly acquire information from novel written words; this ability is affected by word position. These results, once corroborated, may lead to educational decisions about whether explicit or implicit instruction is required for all written word learning. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Communication Disorders in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Summer Semester, 2008. / July 3, 2008. / Mental Orthographic Images, Reading, Spelling, Word Position / Includes bibliographical references. / Kenn Apel, Professor Directing Thesis; Shurita Thomas-Tate, Committee Member; Lisa Scott, Committee Member.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the vocabulary of low SES students, who also had low standardized language and cognitive scores, could be improved through a supplemental one-on-one intervention. Three first graders (6 years of age), who also had low weekly scores in a larger listening center intervention, received individualized Tier 2 intervention. In the baseline condition, students listened to interactive stories four days weekly under headphones during a listening center, classwide activity, with instruction on seven words embedded in stories. In the intervention condition, the participants received the same listening center intervention, but with several modifications including listening to the story via boom box with adult monitoring and implementation of a scaffolding hierarchy if correct answers were not provided. Data were collected on the prompts needed to achieve an accurate response, and the participants were tested weekly to measure knowledge of the words presented. All participants showed an increase in the number of independent responses given during instruction. However, minimal effects on word knowledge were shown during weekly testing. Clinical implications of this study suggest that although supplemental interventions may be helpful in improving vocabulary acquisition, additional programming is needed to ensure more complete learning. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Communication Disorders in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Art. / Summer Semester, 2008. / April 23, 2008. / Vocabulary, Low SES / Includes bibliographical references. / Howard Goldstein, Professor Directing Thesis; Shurita Thomas-Tate, Committee Member; Kathryn Bojczyk, Committee Member.