This thesis suggests that the range of vocabulary in an individual’s lexicon has an influence on in their assessment of nonword wordlikeness. The study included thirteen Spanish-English bilinguals who participated in a language dominance questionnaire, standardized assessments of Spanish and English vocabulary knowledge, and Spanish and English wordlikeness judgment tasks. Resulting data demonstrated moderate correlations between vocabulary knowledge and performance on nonword wordlikeness judgement tasks in Spanish and English. Participants with larger lexicons appeared more tolerant of less probable nonwords, those with low phonotactic probability, while those with smaller lexicons were less accepting of nonwords with low phonotactic probability. The results suggest that an individual’s processing of low probability phonological constituents is influenced by the diversity and complexity of their linguistic knowledge and specifically, their vocabulary acquisition.

Despite efforts to improve access to early literacy intervention in the United States, there are still children entering kindergarten that are not adequately prepared for school and are unlikely to catch up to their peers (National Education Association, 2014). Preschool programs are actively involved in screening their students for potential literacy difficulties; however, there are children who do not attend preschool and may not have their literacy development assessed. One solution to this problem is to involve other individuals who routinely see preschool age children. Pediatricians are one such group as children come to them for their wellness visits and vaccinations. It may be possible to involve them in the reading screening process. To this end, a screening device (Tridas, 2014) has been developed by a developmental pediatrician. The purpose of this pilot study was to establish the content and criterion validity of this reading screening test (Tridas, 2014). Eight preschool children (ages 55-62 months) completed the reading screener, which had two components: a brief parental questionnaire assessing language abilities and a quick check of phonological awareness. The scores on these two subtests were compared with performances on two standardized measures of language function: the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-Preschool -Second Edition (CELF-P2; Semel, Wiig, & Secord, 2004), a measure of global language skill and the Test of Preschool Early Literacy Skills (TOPEL; Lonigan, Wagner, Toregsen, & Rashotte, 2007), a measure of early literacy skills. Results indicated that the reading screener showed good content and criterion validity. Parental report of language ability was verified by scores on the CELF-P2. The two students with the lowest scores on the CELF-P2 also received the greatest number of parental concerns on the reading screener. Participants evidenced excellent letter identification skills; however, performance on the rhyming tasks identified those with lower standard scores on the TOPEL. The pass/fail decisions on the reading screener were then compared with the standard scores on the TOPEL and the two individuals who failed both portions of the screener also scored the lowest on the TOPEL. Based on this analysis, cut-off scores for the components of the reading screener were identified. Pilot results indicated that this screening device has potential for the identification of children in need of more complete evaluation of literacy skills. Continued evaluation of this screening device is warranted with a broader sample of preschool children and with pediatricians as the examiners.

Script training is a technique that allows persons with acquired speech and language disorders, such as nonfluent aphasia, to have islands of fluent speech during which they can speak about a topic without pausing or having word-finding errors. Scripts relevant to specific functional situations are written and practiced until memorized. Script training delivered verbally has been effective with clients with aphasia but the role of written cues in the training has not been explored. Therefore the purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of script training taught verbally, or verbally with a written script, in persons with aphasia. Three adults, one with Broca’s aphasia and apraxia of speech (AOS), one with Broca’s aphasia, and one with Anomic aphasia were recruited for this study. Participants selected three topics for script training and with the clinician’s help wrote a script and a script prompt for each topic. Scripts were trained one sentence or phrase at a time until 95% repetition accuracy was achieved, then training began for the next script. The effects of two training procedures, verbal only and verbal + written script, were evaluated with a multiple baseline design across training procedures, the order of which was counterbalanced across participants. Maintenance data were collected after each script was mastered and after the study ended. Results revealed that 3 persons with aphasia (PWA) demonstrated mastery of 2-3 scripts each using V+W script training methods, but only 1 participant maintained script accuracy at 16 weeks post-study. More research is needed to explore the role of written and verbal cues on script mastery and generalization.

A week-long intervention for five school-age children who stutter was implemented using techniques of fluency shaping, stuttering management, and mindfulness training. The purpose of this study was to investigate if children who stutter stuttered less frequently, stuttered with less struggle, and demonstrated changes in mindfulness measures after the completion of this week-long intervention. Pre- to post-treatment measures were analyzed by individual and group-level results. A comparative analysis between reading and narrative tasks was also performed. Findings indicate that three out of five children reduced the total number of disfluencies during the reading task, and two children reduced this total during the narrative task. Four out of five children decreased the level of struggle in both tasks. Two children improved their overall mindfulness scores; however, additional changes in sub-divisions of mindfulness varied by participant. As a group, the total number of disfluencies decreased during the reading task, while the total number of disfluencies did not change from pre- to post-treatment measures during the narrative task. The group demonstrated improvements in mindfulness in the areas of communication attitudes, cognitive reappraisal, and expressive suppression. A comparison between reading and narrative tasks suggest that performance on these tasks approximated to one another by the end of the treatment. The results of this study should be interpreted with caution as this was a pilot study with clinical limitations; however, future studies are necessary to verify and support these findings.

Atualmente, a avaliação da tonicidade de bochechas é realizada de forma perceptual e dependente da experiência do avaliador. Por esse motivo, este trabalho propôs uma alternativa para diminuir a subjetividade da forma de avaliação atual da força das bochechas, a qual pode complementar o diagnóstico fonoaudiológico. Desenvolveu-se um protótipo constituído de uma célula de carga acoplada a uma haste, sistema de conversão, amplificação e transmissão do sinal elétrico. Um estudo inicial buscou avaliar a repetitividade e reprodutibilidade de medições realizadas em sujeitos normais e alterados quanto à força das bochechas. Num segundo estudo visou-se quantificar e analisar a performance de indivíduos com força adequada. Os valores de força no sexo masculino, tanto para força média quanto para força máxima, foram estatisticamente maiores do que os valores entre o sexo feminino. Cinco tipos de curva caracterizam o comportamento da bochecha durante o ensaio. O método de avaliação quantitativa da força das bochechas desenvolvido colaborou para a diminuição da subjetividade da avaliação e foi capaz de registrar a força exercida pelas bochechas. / Currently clinical evaluation of cheeks tone is performed at a perceptual level and depends on the evaluator's experience. Therefore, this study aimed to propose an alternative way of reducing the subjectivity in cheeks strength assessments, which can complement the speech therapist diagnosis. We developed a prototype consists of a load cell coupled to a handle, the conversion system, amplification, and the electrical signal transmission. An initial study was toanalyze of repeatability and reproducibility of measurements performed in normal and abnormal individuals regarding cheek strength. In a second study sought to quantify and analyze the performance of subjects with adequate strength. The force values in males, both for strength and for average maximum force were statistically higher than the values among females. Five types of curve characterize the behaviour of the cheek during the test. The method of quantitative assessment of the cheeks strength developed helped to reduce the subjectivity of the evaluation and it was able to record the force exerted by the cheeks.

Introduction: Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal and progressive disease characterized by the deterioration of motor neurons within the body. This degeneration leads to bulbar dysfunction in the form of an impaired ability to communicate and swallow. Currently, bulbar dysfunction is treated via compensatory methods aimed at maximizing comfort and safety that include environmental adaptations, augmentative and assistive communication and gastrostomy tube placement to replace speech and oral feeding. The role of active intervention is controversial in this patient population and no investigations have examined the potential role lingual exercise might play in ALS bulbar management. The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of an eight week lingual resistance training program on lingual strength and lingual endurance, speech, swallowing, global disease progression and patient-reported outcomes in two individuals with ALS. Methods: Two individuals with ALS (El Escorial criteria) were enrolled across three different time points, each separated by eight weeks (Baseline 1, Baseline 2, Post-Treatment) with a delayed intervention design utilized to benchmark bulbar disease progression. At each evaluation, tongue strength, endurance, swallowing, speech and patient-reported outcomes were collected. Following Baseline 2, participants completed lingual resistance training five days a week for eight weeks (40 sessions). Outcome measures included maximum anterior isometric tongue pressure (MIP), maximum endurance hold time MHT), speech intelligibility, airway safety and patient-reported outcomes. Results: On average, MIPs decreased by 2% during the lead in period and increased by 13% across both participants. On average, MHT declined by 25% between baseline 1 and 2 and increased by 144% following lingual resistance training. No improvements were noted for speech intelligibility or airway safety during swallowing. Patient-perceptions of communicative effectiveness, swallowing impairment and quality of life remained relatively stable over the four-month period. Conclusion: Although no improvements were noted in lingual strength, improvements in lingual endurance hold times were noted in both participants. Further investigation is warranted to validate these preliminary findings in two cases of ALS.

Atualmente, a avaliação da tonicidade de bochechas é realizada de forma perceptual e dependente da experiência do avaliador. Por esse motivo, este trabalho propôs uma alternativa para diminuir a subjetividade da forma de avaliação atual da força das bochechas, a qual pode complementar o diagnóstico fonoaudiológico. Desenvolveu-se um protótipo constituído de uma célula de carga acoplada a uma haste, sistema de conversão, amplificação e transmissão do sinal elétrico. Um estudo inicial buscou avaliar a repetitividade e reprodutibilidade de medições realizadas em sujeitos normais e alterados quanto à força das bochechas. Num segundo estudo visou-se quantificar e analisar a performance de indivíduos com força adequada. Os valores de força no sexo masculino, tanto para força média quanto para força máxima, foram estatisticamente maiores do que os valores entre o sexo feminino. Cinco tipos de curva caracterizam o comportamento da bochecha durante o ensaio. O método de avaliação quantitativa da força das bochechas desenvolvido colaborou para a diminuição da subjetividade da avaliação e foi capaz de registrar a força exercida pelas bochechas. / Currently clinical evaluation of cheeks tone is performed at a perceptual level and depends on the evaluator's experience. Therefore, this study aimed to propose an alternative way of reducing the subjectivity in cheeks strength assessments, which can complement the speech therapist diagnosis. We developed a prototype consists of a load cell coupled to a handle, the conversion system, amplification, and the electrical signal transmission. An initial study was toanalyze of repeatability and reproducibility of measurements performed in normal and abnormal individuals regarding cheek strength. In a second study sought to quantify and analyze the performance of subjects with adequate strength. The force values in males, both for strength and for average maximum force were statistically higher than the values among females. Five types of curve characterize the behaviour of the cheek during the test. The method of quantitative assessment of the cheeks strength developed helped to reduce the subjectivity of the evaluation and it was able to record the force exerted by the cheeks.

Atualmente, a avaliação da tonicidade de bochechas é realizada de forma perceptual e dependente da experiência do avaliador. Por esse motivo, este trabalho propôs uma alternativa para diminuir a subjetividade da forma de avaliação atual da força das bochechas, a qual pode complementar o diagnóstico fonoaudiológico. Desenvolveu-se um protótipo constituído de uma célula de carga acoplada a uma haste, sistema de conversão, amplificação e transmissão do sinal elétrico. Um estudo inicial buscou avaliar a repetitividade e reprodutibilidade de medições realizadas em sujeitos normais e alterados quanto à força das bochechas. Num segundo estudo visou-se quantificar e analisar a performance de indivíduos com força adequada. Os valores de força no sexo masculino, tanto para força média quanto para força máxima, foram estatisticamente maiores do que os valores entre o sexo feminino. Cinco tipos de curva caracterizam o comportamento da bochecha durante o ensaio. O método de avaliação quantitativa da força das bochechas desenvolvido colaborou para a diminuição da subjetividade da avaliação e foi capaz de registrar a força exercida pelas bochechas. / Currently clinical evaluation of cheeks tone is performed at a perceptual level and depends on the evaluator's experience. Therefore, this study aimed to propose an alternative way of reducing the subjectivity in cheeks strength assessments, which can complement the speech therapist diagnosis. We developed a prototype consists of a load cell coupled to a handle, the conversion system, amplification, and the electrical signal transmission. An initial study was toanalyze of repeatability and reproducibility of measurements performed in normal and abnormal individuals regarding cheek strength. In a second study sought to quantify and analyze the performance of subjects with adequate strength. The force values in males, both for strength and for average maximum force were statistically higher than the values among females. Five types of curve characterize the behaviour of the cheek during the test. The method of quantitative assessment of the cheeks strength developed helped to reduce the subjectivity of the evaluation and it was able to record the force exerted by the cheeks.

Developmental stuttering persists in approximately 1% of the United States population. Stuttering has been shown to impact overall quality of life. The present study examines the effects of a Novel Right Brain Intervention on two female participants with persistent developmental stuttering. The aim of the study was to determine whether encouraging greater activation of the right hemisphere, specifically the pre-SMA, via complex left-handed movements, prior to speech production, would lead to a reduced stuttering frequency and severity in people who stutter (PWS). It was hypothesized that each participant would reduce stuttering symptoms and behaviors following the intervention due to the results found in patients with non-fluent aphasia's and neural imaging findings with PWS. Following analysis of speech samples taken from unstructured retell and unfamiliar reading tasks, the results revealed decreases in stuttering and secondary behaviors during the unstructured reading task for Participant 1 and decreases in stuttering and secondary behaviors during the unstructured retell task for Participant 2. The results of this study should be interpreted with caution, as this is a pilot study with multiple limitations. With further research, this method of intervention may become a viable option for those who have not benefited maximally from current intervention methods.

Interspeech posture (ISP) is a term used to define the position of a person’s articulators when they are preparing to speak. Research suggests that ISP may be representative of a speaker’s phonological knowledge in a particular language, as determined empirically with ultrasound measures of the tongue in English-French bilinguals (Wilson & Gick, 2014). It is possible, therefore, that measuring ISP could be a diagnostic tool for determining phonological knowledge in bilingual speakers. However, more information on ISP in typical adult bilingual speakers is needed before diagnostic claims can be made. For example, ISP is believed to be language specific, and the typical ISP for each language must be determined. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to extend the research by Wilson and Gick (2014) to investigate ISP in Spanish-English speaking adults. To this end, 13 bilingual Spanish-English adults were asked to produce 30 sentences while speaking in monolingual and bilingual modes. While they were speaking, ultrasound images of the oral cavity were obtained by placing a probe sub-mentally and analyzing the position of the tongue using Articulate Assistant Advanced 2.0 software (Articulate Instruments, 2012). Tongue and palate contour measurements were made by using a curved tongue spline that was manually drawn and semi-automatically fit to each speaker’s tongue/palate contour. ISP was measured using the participant’s tongue tip height along a reference angle from the probe to the alveolar ridge. Additionally, monolingual English speaking adults were asked to rate the accentedness of each bilingual’s speech in English as a behavioral correlate of language proficiency. Overall results of this study were non-significant; bilingual Spanish-English speakers utilized similar postures in monolingual Spanish and English modes, and in bilingual mode, in contrast with the findings of Wilson and Gick (2014). Accentedness ratings in English v indicated that the bilingual speakers were relatively uniform in their lack of accentedness. Although overall results from this study differ from those of Wilson and Gick (2014) a subset of their participants- speakers that were rated as having non-native accents- had similar results in that they also showed no difference in ISP. Related ISP’s across languages may be due to participants having native sounding English but non-native Spanish. Due to contrasting findings from Wilson and Gick (2014), further investigation with accented speakers is needed to determine if distinct ISPs exist for bilingual Spanish-English speakers.