Journal of Communication Disorders最新文献

Introduction

Online support group experiences, using social networking websites like Facebook, have shown much promise in past research unrelated to stuttering. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the utility of a Facebook-based stuttering support group that was created as an extension of and supplement to an in-person stuttering support group as a means of providing psychosocial support for people who stutter (PWS).

Method

A qualitative approach that was inspired by ethnography was used to explore the experiences of seven participants (six participants who stutter and one participant who does not stutter) who digitally connect on a private Facebook-based stuttering support group that was created as an extension of and supplement to an already existing in-person stuttering support group. The main question posed to the participants related to describing their experiences being a member of the Facebook-based stuttering support group.

Results

Data analysis revealed two major themes, which included the benefits and challenges of participating in a Facebook-based stuttering support group.  Each major theme contained five subthemes. Specific results are discussed with reference to past research, as well as implications for practice and recommendations for future research.

Conclusions

There are numerous benefits and challenges associated with being a member of a Facebook-based stuttering support group.  However, the overall utility of a Facebook-based stuttering support group, used in tandem with an in-person stuttering support experience, seems to provide members with a useful and impactful way to gain psychosocial support from other PWS.

Introduction

The purpose of this study was to measure and determine the factors that influence counseling self-efficacy in speech-language pathologists.

Methods

Data was collected through an anonymous 95-question web-based survey. Five hundred and twenty-seven completed responses were received.

Results

The results indicated that participants in the study were confident in their counseling abilities and skills; however, lesser confidence in skills related to personal adjustment counseling were observed. Further, emotional intelligence, internal locus of control, counseling training, and years of experience were positively related to counseling self-efficacy.

Conclusions

Speech-language pathologists may increase their counseling self-efficacy through increased training opportunities and experiences, development of greater emotional intelligence, and by having an internal locus of control.

Purpose

Percent grammatical utterances (PGU) provides clinicians and researchers with meaningful information on young children's grammatical abilities (Eisenberg & Guo, 2016). However, work is still needed to place PGU within the context of conventional language sample measures and understand how PGU reflects grammatical development in bilingual populations. The current study focuses on Spanish-English bilingual preschoolers to examine: 1) change in Spanish and English PGU over one year of preschool English instruction, 2) associations between PGU and other language sample measures within each language and across time, and 3) the types and frequency of error patterns in each language.

Method

Play-based language samples were elicited in English and Spanish from bilingual children (n = 19) at the beginning and end of an instructional preschool year in English. PGU was derived from each sample along with other language sample measures (e.g., mean length of utterance). We examined change in PGU from Time 1 to Time 2, and correlations between Time 1 PGU and Time 2 PGU for each language. Specific grammatical errors were described in terms of their frequency in each language and stability across time.

Results

Average English PGU increased from Time 1 to Time 2, and correlated with other language sample measures. Conversely, average Spanish PGU did not increase from Time 1 to Time 2, nor did PGU correlate with any other Spanish measure. Error patterns in each language reflected grammatical differences across English and Spanish.

Conclusions

Our results revealed distinct developmental patterns in bilingual children's first and second languages. Associations between time points and measures in English contrasted with disassociations in Spanish. Error patterns revealed more detailed information as to how bilingual children begin to acquire grammatical structures in each of their languages. We provide a case example to illustrate how grammaticality and error patterns can be used to characterize children's language abilities. We conclude with clinical implications of grammaticality in Spanish-English bilingual children.

Objective

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of flow phonation voice therapy on laryngeal physiology and vocal quality in persons with primary Muscle Tension Dysphonia (MTD1).

Methods

Seventeen participants with a diagnosis of MTD1 completed the study. Participants were randomized to two groups. Group 1 (9 participants) received flow phonation treatment and individualized vocal hygiene education for 12 sessions over six weeks. Group 2 (8 participants) received vocal hygiene education only for three weeks (6 sessions), followed by another three weeks (6 sessions) of both vocal hygiene instruction and flow phonation therapy. Treatment consisted of cup-bubble blowing, gargling, and stretch and flow exercises. Visual-perceptual. auditory-perceptual, acoustic, aerodynamic and voice-related quality-of-life measures were obtained at three time points: before treatment, three weeks after initiation of treatment and after completion of treatment.

Results

Voice quality was perceived to be significantly improved in both groups. Voice related quality-of-life trended toward improvement for both groups across time points. Changes in aerodynamic and acoustic measures did not reach statistical significance compared to baseline for both groups. Visual comparisons of laryngeal closure patterns demonstrated comparably better outcomes for Group 1.

Conclusions

Results of this study indicate flow phonation exercises can potentially be favorably employed for individuals with MTD1. In particular, it appears that the exercises aid in alleviating vocal hyperfunction, as evidenced by visual perceptual stroboscopic analysis, and clinically improved auditory-perceptual measures.

Introduction

One way to identify Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) is to establish clinical markers in a language to serve as reliable indicators of the disorder. This study embarks on the search for clinical markers for Vietnamese using longitudinal data from children with and without DLD.

Methods

We matched ten children previously classified with DLD to ten with typical development (TD) by age and gender. Participants completed a story generation task at three time points: kindergarten, first, and second grade. Overall grammatical development was measured using mean length of utterance, MLU, and proportion of grammatical utterances, PGU. We examined a language-specific feature, classifiers, in terms of accuracy (omission errors), diversity (number of different classifiers), and productivity, or the use of classifiers in constructions of two-to-three elements (classifier+noun, numeral+classifier+noun). Longitudinal change and group differences were examined using linear mixed modeling, supplemented by linguistic analysis.

Results

Both groups increased in MLU and PGU over time. The DLD group performed lower in kindergarten and continued to show lower performance over time on these measures. Classifier omission errors decreased over time with no group differences. Classifier diversity increased across groups, with lower performance by the DLD group in kindergarten and over time. For classifier productivity, TD children used classifiers in multiple constructions in kindergarten and maintained the same level over time. In contrast, children with DLD had minimal use of three-element constructions in kindergarten but increased in productivity over time.

Conclusions

Children with DLD produce shorter utterances with relatively more grammatical errors compared to their TD peers in the early school years. Though no longer committing classifier omission errors, children with DLD showed more restricted use of classifiers in terms of the number of different classifiers and constructions produced. Findings inform the search for Vietnamese clinical markers of DLD.

Introduction

Surgical treatment for oral cancer leads to lasting changes of the vocal tract and individuals treated for oral cancer (ITOC) often experience speech problems. The purpose of this study was to analyse the acoustic properties of the spontaneous speech of individuals who were surgically treated for oral cancer. It was investigated (1) how key spectral measures of articulation change post-treatment; (2) whether changes are more related to target manner or place of articulation; and (3) how spectral measures develop at various time points following treatment.

Method

A corpus consisting of 32.850 tokens was constructed by manually segmenting the speech of five (four female - one male) American English speaking ITOC. General acoustic characteristics (duration and spectral tilt), plosives (burst frequency), fricatives (centre of gravity and spectral skewness), and vowels (F1 and F2) were analysed using linear mixed effects regression and compared to control speech. Moreover, a within speaker analysis was performed for speakers with multiple recordings.

Results

Manner of articulation is more predictive of post-treatment changes than place of articulation. Compared to controls, ITOC produced the fricatives /f, v, θ, ð, s, z, ʃ, ʒ/ with a lower centre of gravity while no differences were found for plosives and vowels. Longitudinal analyses show high within-speaker variation, but general improvements one-year post-treatment.

Conclusions

Surgical oral cancer treatment changes the spectral properties of speech. Fricatives with varying manner of articulations were distorted, suggesting that manner of articulation is more predictive than place of articulation in identifying general problem areas for ITOC.

Calibration is an essential component of audiology practice to ensure the accuracy of the equipment for audiometric tests and the transferability of test results across different clinics and countries. The ability to check the accuracy of the equipment and the ambient noise levels allows clinicians to monitor the functions of their equipment, to reduce noise distractors in the testing environment, and to have confidence in their test results, especially in humanitarian or field test settings. Sound level meters are the primary instruments to measure the sound pressure levels of the transducers and the test rooms used for audiometric testing. The International Electrotechnical Commission released a 3-part IEC 61672 standard of the specifications of sound level meters in 2013, and it is adopted by the standards organizations of many countries. This first installment of the tutorial series references this international standard and discusses basic acoustics concepts, calibration principles, and key functions of sound level meters in the application of audiometric calibration. Subsequent installments will discuss how to measure the ambient noise levels, how to determine whether a test room is suitable for testing hearing thresholds using different transducers, and how to determine whether different transducers of audiometers meet the national or international standards.

Ambient noise measurement is a part of audiometric calibration in which one measures the ambient noise level in a sound room/test area intended for audiometric testing and then decides whether the background noise in the test room meets the maximum permissible ambient noise level (MPANL) requirements specified in national or international standards, e.g., ANSI/ASA S3.1:1999(R2018) or ISO 8253–1:2010 (R2021). If the ambient noise levels are below the MPANLs, clinicians can be sure that the test stimuli they present to patients are not masked by the background noise in the test room/area and their test results are valid and the subsequent clinical decisions are sound. Audiometric testing, however, may not always be carried out in sound rooms/test areas with ambient noise levels below the MPANLs, especially during community outreach or humanitarian services. A thorough understanding on the MPANL requirements for different transducers can help clinicians determine which equipment is appropriate for the test area. This tutorial discusses the rationale and assumptions behind the MPANL specifications, how to measure ambient noise levels of test rooms/areas, and how to apply the national and international standards to determine if the test room is suitable for audiometric testing. Alternative strategies are discussed when the ambient noise levels exceed the specified MPANLs. The rationale and procedures are explained using examples on how to lower the ambient noise levels in test areas, and how to determine the suitable test frequency range and the lowest threshold levels that can be assessed in the test area.

Introduction

We tested whether aphasia self-disclosure via an aphasia ID card impacts (1) how non-aphasic listeners initially process language produced by a speaker with aphasia and (2) learning of the speaker's error patterns over time.

Methods

In this eye-tracking experiment, 27 young adults followed instructions recorded by a speaker with nonfluent aphasia while viewing a target picture and a distractor. The Card group (n = 14) was shown a simulated aphasia ID card for the speaker and the No Card group (n = 13) was not. The task was divided into Pre-Observation and Post-Observation blocks. Between blocks, participants observed the speaker making semantic paraphasias. Eye-tracking analyses compared the time course of target advantage (reflecting competition from the distractor picture) and workspace advantage (reflecting attention to task) between groups and blocks.

Results

Pre-Observation, the Card group had a higher target advantage than the No Card group in the post-response window (i.e., after participants had responded), indicating sustained attention to the speaker's language. Across blocks, there was evidence that the Card group (but not the No Card group) learned that the speaker makes semantic paraphasias.

Conclusions

Aphasia ID cards impacted listeners’ processing of language produced by a speaker with nonfluent aphasia. Increased patience and attentiveness may underlie both the Card group's sustained attention to the speaker as well as learning of the speaker's error patterns. Further research should address whether these changes impact communication success between PWA and new conversation partners.