<p> As the push for inclusion continues to grow, professionals are encouraged to collaborate with one another in order to support the students on their caseloads (IDEA, 2004). Despite the need for collaboration, there continue to be barriers that impede the successful use of this service delivery model. This study aimed to investigate the possible barriers to collaboration among educators and specialists in the educational setting. Ways to improve collaborative interactions among educators and specialists on a regular basis was also explored as they relate to the common core state standards.</p><p> Three classroom teachers, three special education teachers, and three speech and language pathologists were surveyed in order to further investigate their knowledge and views of collaboration and the common core state standards. All of the professionals surveyed had a positive view of what collaboration could accomplish. As a result, positive trends are anticipated for the future of collaboration.</p>

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston University

The purpose of this study was to gather information related to reading abilities in typically aging older adults. A variety of strategies had been used in the past to assess reading in older adults. These strategies included the use of questionnaires, diary keeping, and interviewing. Several weaknesses in previous research were noted including lack of diversity in samples, volunteer bias, and social desirability confounds. More importantly, however, none of the previous research examined the scope of components that affect reading and reading-related skills in typically aging adults. The questions guiding this research addressed issues related to the reading and related skills of older adults, the strategies that older adults use to improve reading comprehension, and the types and frequency of reading materials older adults use. Data for this study were collected from 96 community dwelling adults between the ages of 65 and 79 years. The Word Identification and Word Attack subtests of the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test (Woodcock, 1998) were used as a measure of decoding ability. The vocabulary subtest of the Nelson-Denny Reading Test (Brown, Fishco, & Hanna, 1993) was used as a measure of reading vocabulary. Several nonstandardized tasks were included to examine reading comprehension, phonological awareness, and morphological awareness. Additionally, four survey instruments were used to assess awareness of reading strategies, print exposure, reading habits, and attitudes about reading. The adults in this study were, as a group, more highly educated than the general population in Kansas. This sample of adults demonstrated reading comprehension and vocabulary skills which were above average as compared to the normative samples on the standardized instruments. Pearson correlations indicated that reading comprehension was positively correlated with vocabulary, decoding, phonological awareness, and morphological awareness in this study. Both qualitative and quantitative data indicated that this group of adults used a wide variety of materials and strategies for reading. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Wichita State University, College of Education / College of Health Professions, Dept. of Communication Sciences and Disorders / "May 2005."

Thesis (B.Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 2003. / "A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Bachelor of Science (Speech and Hearing Sciences), The University of Hong Kong, April 30, 2003." Includes bibliographical references (p. 29-30) Also available in print.

Thesis (M.A. in speech and hearing sciences)--Washington State University, May 2010. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Apr. 30, 2010). "Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences." Includes bibliographical references (p. 52-54).

Thesis (M. Communication Pathology)--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Summary in English and Afrikaans. Includes bibliographical references.

<p> Aphasia is an acquired impairment of language secondary to neurological brain damage commonly seen in stroke, and is defined by impairment to communication through speech and language which can limit participation in work, family, and social settings. Standard aphasia treatment consists of behavioral therapy to restore or compensate for this impairment. Unfortunately, recovery is often incomplete with long-lasting residual communication deficits. </p><p> Enhancing the effects of behavioral therapy has long been a goal of aphasia researchers. Behavioral therapy takes advantage of neuroplasticity, the brain&rsquo;s ability to change, and a recent direction has been to use adjuvants to behavioral treatment to enhance these effects, even in the chronic stage of recovery. The two studies reported here use transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) for this purpose. tDCS provides low-level current that can hyper- or depolarize cortical neurons, to build on the neuroplastic capacity of the brain. In the studies reported here, the anode was placed over the left primary motor cortex, with the cathode over the right supraorbital region. Study one investigated whether tDCS administered prior to robotic motor therapy (36 sessions over 12 weeks) resulted in improvements in speech/language outcome measures, comparing a group receiving active tDCS with a group receiving sham tDCS. This study revealed some overall differences on selected speech and language measures from pre-test to post-test, although tDCS condition did not affect performance. One important finding this work revealed was a possible cross domain synergy between motor and speech-language therapy, even when no speech therapy was provided. </p><p> Study two examined whether the timing of tDCS relative to a speech/language treatment affects treatment outcomes. This study compared participants receiving tDCS immediately preceding computerized aphasia treatment to participants receiving tDCS and treatment simultaneously. A crossover design was employed so each participant also received sham tDCS for comparison. No interaction was found between stimulation type and timing (preceding or during) of aphasia treatment. Accordingly, the results were somewhat equivocal with respect to the best approach. Further investigation with larger sample sizes, longer times between tDCS conditions or multiple consecutive sessions may help clarify the role of tDCS timing in aphasia treatment.</p><p>

abstract: Emotion recognition through facial expression plays a critical role in communication. Review of studies investigating individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and emotion recognition indicates significantly poorer performance compared to controls. The purpose of the study was to determine the effects of different media presentation on emotion recognition in individuals with TBI, and if results differ depending on severity of TBI. Adults with and without TBI participated in the study and were assessed using the The Awareness of Social Inferences Test: Emotion Evaluation Test (TASIT:EET) and the Facial Expressions of Emotion-Stimuli and Tests (FEEST) The Ekman 60 Faces Test (E-60-FT). Results indicated that individuals with TBI perform significantly more poorly on emotion recognition tasks compared to age and education matched controls. Additionally, emotion recognition abilities greatly differ between mild and severe TBI groups, and TBI participants performed better with the static presentation compared to dynamic presentation. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Speech and Hearing Science 2011

<p> This study investigated the acoustic characteristics that contribute to the perception of foreign-accentedness of English spoken by native Ewe speakers. Forty monosyllabic words spoken by four speakers were rated on accentedness by 109 participants; 51 with exposure to Ghanaian-accented-American English and 58 with none. The ratings and measurements of F1 and F2 values of the vowels were analyzed and compared. The results suggest that the perception of accentedness was influenced by the acoustic properties of vowels. Listeners rated L2 speakers as more accented than they did L1 speakers. Accentedness ratings did not correlate with comprehension of words, and finally, listeners with previous exposure to Ewe accented American English rated the non-native tokens as less accented than listeners without previous exposure. Previous exposure did not influence comprehension of tokens.</p><p>

<p> Semantic approaches, including semantic feature analysis (SFA), are commonly used to treat individuals with anomia (word-finding difficulties) due to nondegenerative chronic aphasia. Research has traditionally targeted nouns, with relatively few published studies targeting verbs in isolation or in comparison to nouns. Yet, verbs are essential for higher-level communications, and some evidence suggests that treating higher-level word types may have crossover benefits. Generalization to untrained words and discourse have also varied across studies. </p><p> Thus, the aim of this study was to determine if a modified SFA treatment could be effective for both nouns and verbs, to assess generalization, and to investigate potential crossover benefits. Results revealed that the treatment did improve spontaneous production of trained nouns and verbs as well as semantic retrieval of untrained words, with an unexpected result of untrained verbs achieving a higher level of spontaneous production than untrained nouns. Implications and avenues for future studies are also discussed.</p><p>