Repeated exposure to disparity between the motor plan and auditory feedback during speech production results in a proportionate change in the motor system’s response known as auditory-motor adaptation. Artificially raising F1 in auditory feedback during speech production results in a concomitant decrease in F1. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) can be used to alter neuronal excitability in focal areas of the brain. The present experiment explored the effect of noninvasive brain stimulation applied to the speech premotor cortex on the timing and magnitude of adaptation responses to artificially raised F1 in auditory feedback. Participants (N=16) completed a speaking task in which they read target words aloud. Participants' speech was processed to raise F1 by 30% and played back to them over headphones in real time. A within-subjects design compared acoustics of participants’ speech while receiving anodal (active) tDCS stimulation versus sham (control) stimulation. Participants' speech showed an increasing magnitude of adaptation of F1 over time during anodal stimulation compared to sham. These results indicate that tDCS can affect behavioral response during auditory-motor adaptation, which may have translational implications for sensorimotor training in speech disorders.

The present study examines the efficacy of group conversation intervention for Individuals with Severe Aphasia (IWSA) in a preliminary case study of five participants. IWSA are particularly marginalized from society as a result of profound communication deficits. Current efficacious treatment strategies for IWSA are compensatory in nature however, IWSA have the same goals of less severe profiles with regard to rengagement in social and community life. IWSA are commonly excluded from research regarding participation based treatment due to their complex profiles. Aims of the study were to determine if IWSA improved in discrete linguistic measures, functional and quality of life measures and targeted elements of discourse production as a result of 20 total hours of group conversation therapy. Results of evaluations conducted at pre-treatment, post-treatment and maintenance intervals revealed significant improvements on standardized linguistic measures from pre to post treatment for two of the five participants. Group analysis of functional measures showed no change across testing intervals, however when individual clinically significant change scores were calculated on one measure, three of five participants demonstrated clinically significant increase in self-reported communicative effectiveness at maintenance testing. Results of discourse analysis were variable by participant and dependent on targeted outcome measures/individualized goals. Overall, results should be interpreted with caution, due to the variability in the participant’s profiles, lack of a standard measurement tool for narrative samples and small sample size. Patterns in results prompt further research regarding efficacy of conversation therapy for IWSA.

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<p> A central challenge in California is how best to provide speech and language services to linguistically and culturally diverse (CLD) populations, given that only a small percentage of speech-language pathologists (SLPs) identify as bilingual. The present thesis investigated whether bilingual speech-language pathology assistants (SLPAs) can serve as suitable collaborators with SLPs in the process of carrying out screenings and assessments of CLD students/clients. A survey was administered to 6 bilingual SLPAs who reported that they currently assist with bilingual assessment. The results revealed that these participants expressed confidence in their ability to assist in assessments of CLD students/clients. This confidence seems to stem from their linguistic fluency, as well as from their cultural competency. Moreover, these SLPAs reported making use of materials and procedures identified as best practices. However, training for assisting in CLD assessments was largely obtained during work experience, not from formal coursework. Future research will be needed to identify how SLPA training programs can best train bilingual SLPAs to competently assist in CLD assessments in California schools and clinics.</p><p>

<p> The purpose of this study was to explore how listeners perceived adults who use speech modification techniques for stuttering and how these techniques affect listener comfort. Eighty-nine university undergraduate students completed Likert-type scales and answered descriptive questions to rated four audio samples presenting stuttered speech, prolonged speech, speech with pull-outs, and speech with preparatory-sets.</p><p> The results of the scales reveled that listeners perceived the use of preparatory-sets to be a significantly more natural and less handicapping form of speech than the other experimental conditions. No significant differences were found in personality judgments of the speaker. However, all four conditions were rated to have an overwhelmingly negative impression, which was primarily described with negative communication and personality attributes.</p><p> Listener comfort was significant more positive in the preparatory-set condition than the other conditions and in the stuttered speech condition compared to the prolonged speech condition. Most participants reported that listener comfort was influenced by the negative speech attributes of each condition, which varied across conditions. The participants were significantly less willing to socially interact with the speakers using prolonged speech. </p><p> The results of this investigation supported the use of preparatory-sets to increase perceived speech naturalness, listener comfort, and to decrease perceived handicap. The use of prolonged speech at reduced speech rates should be used with caution as it can lead to increased negative socially interaction and listener comfort. However, all the speech conditions were rated more negatively than the norms for fluent speech. Therefore, counseling and desensitization techniques should be incorporated in interventions for stuttering.</p><p>

<p> This study focused on the experience of stigma in adults who self-identify as having a lisp. Data were gathered and analyzed using a mixed-methods methodology. This research design allowed for multiple data collection procedures, including quantitative surveys and rating scales, completed by both listeners and self-identified adults who lisp (SIAWLs) and qualitative semi-structured interviews of SIAWLs. These combined procedures allowed for the adherence to the theoretical appropriateness of qualitative approaches to stigma and disability and for the incorporation of quantitative objectivity. </p><p> The results of the quantitative data yielded varied conclusions regarding listener ratings of SIAWLs compared to SIAWLs&rsquo; ratings of themselves. These results also yielded varied conclusions regarding listener and SIAWL ratings of lisping stigma awareness, lisping stereotype agreement, and (SIAWLs only) stigma self-concurrence. Applied thematic analysis of the qualitative semi-structured interview responses yielded eleven superordinate themes. Each theme was examined for its possible association with public and self-stigma in the creation of a new model of reinforcement of structural stigma. These emergent themes supported Goffman&rsquo;s stigma theory and the consideration of lisping as a minor bodily stigma. The integration of the qualitative and quantitative approaches allowed for in-depth illustrations of each interviewed individual SIAWL. This study emphasized the importance of considering the experience of the SIAWL as a highly personal one. These research findings have important implications for the value of using mixed-methods research designs to investigate, acknowledge, illuminate, and legitimize this personal and variable experience of stigma or lack thereof in adults who self-identify as speaking with a lisp.</p><p>

This thesis argues that the modern notion of free-speech was born within the Westphalian nation-state. It suggests that the legal rights framework - particular to the Westphalian nationstate - not only legitimizes and legalizes the right to free-speech, but also enables us to invoke legally the necessary limitations that demand the limitation of free-speech in certain contexts. However, such a legal-rights framework is exclusive to the nation-state and cannot be enforced on an international level, outside of the nation-state boundary. With reference to examples on an international level, this thesis demonstrates that calls for the limitation of free-speech are indeed legitimate and necessary but cannot be enforced on an international level for the reasons just mentioned. In order to address this problem, this thesis proposes a framework - based on a Kantian model - that enables us to invoke the limitation of free-speech on an international level without appealing to a legal-rights discourse to do so.

Psychotherapists' statements may be conceptualized and described in different ways, depending on which aspects of the statements are highlighted. Traditionally, therapist statements have been described in terms of techniques that serve, for example, interpretative, reflective, or supportive functions. From a psycholinguistic or an interactional communications perspective, therapist statements may also be understood as inviting or instructing the client (directly or indirectly) to respond in a particular manner and to carry out given behaviours. Accordingly, the primary purposes of the present research were (1) to examine therapist statements as potentially containing requests for verbal behaviour, and (2) to test hypotheses regarding clients' responses to these antecedent behavioural requests. The data consisted of 12 sessions; two sessions from the beginning, middle, and end of two therapy cases, one Gestalt and the other psychodynamic. Raters identified therapist statements that contained requests for verbal behaviour and specified the nature of these requests. The requests were then organized into a general set of categories for each therapist. A second team of raters ascertained the goodness of fit between the therapist statements and the categories to which they had been assigned. A third team of judges rated the clients' responses to the therapists' antecedent requests on a four-point scale of conformity. The results indicated that a large proportion of therapist statements contained requests for verbal behaviour (66.3%). While some requests were communicated explicitly as such, others were implicit in the therapists' statements. Some categories of requested verbal behaviour were common to both therapists while others appeared to be unique to a particular therapeutic approach. Both therapists invited certain categories of verbal behaviour more often than others. The findings also showed that the level of client conformity to the therapists' antecedent requests was high in general (82% of client responses in the Gestalt case, 98% in the psychodynamic case), and that this high level was relatively stable and consistent across sessions. In the Gestalt case, the degree of conformity was found to vary depending on the type of verbal behaviour requested by the therapist. Nevertheless, a high level of conformity was reflected in all the categories in one case, and most of the categories in the other case. Contrary to expectations, the findings did not show (1) a strong upsurge in client opposition corresponding to particular stages of therapy, or (2) stage differences in the extent of conformity or type of opposition. The findings of this investigation are discussed in terms of their implications for clinical practice and future research.

The purpose of this thesis was to study the communication processes in the equestrian sport dressage. Phase One was a descriptive, qualitative study examining the pathways of communication. This involved interviewing one coach and two dressage riders. From the results, we made a preliminary model of communication that included three actors (coach, rider, and horse) and different pathways of communication (auditory, kinesthetic, verbal, visual). In Phase Two, we interviewed a second coach and two more riders. We decided to look at their definition of dressage as well as the culture within which we could study communication, as it would bring a deeper understanding of the participant's environment. Here, the role of the horse was more important than we initially thought, and the kinesthetic pathway was key to successful dressage riding and training. Phase Three was a detailed study looking at different levels of riders and horses and how the process of communication differed within each context. The roles of each actor were also studied. A cross context analysis was done and a detailed look between the six different contexts revealed several interesting similarities and differences.

En coaching, la communication, élément essentiel du processus enseignement-apprentissage, permet l'échange d'informations entre l'entraîneur et l'athlète. Au cours des vingt dernières années, plusieurs chercheurs en pédagogie sportive ont étudié les comportements des entraîneurs, mais peu d'entre eux ont cherché à comprendre le rôle de l'athlète. Le but de la présente recherche était, par une approche inductive, d'étudier le processus de communication en sport en considérant à la fois le point de vue des entraîneurs et le point de vue des joueurs. Trois équipes de soccer semi-compétitives composées de garçons de 12 et 15 ans furent étudiées. Les données furent recueillies par des enregistrements sur bandes vidéo, des notes de terrain et des entrevues. En début de saison, deux joueurs et l'entraîneur de chaque équipe furent interviewés afin d'obtenir un premier aperçu de leur perception de la communication entraîneur joueurs. Durant la saison, plusieurs séances d'entraînement et plusieurs matchs furent observés et des entrevues furent effectuées avec les entraîneurs et les joueurs de chaque équipe dans le but de bien comprendre le processus de communication tel qu'il se déroule dans l'action. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)