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*Ghoshal, Sharmila
EFFECTS OF LINGUISTIC BIAS ON WORD DISCRIMINATION SCORES OF NON- NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKERS
During audiological assessment, it is essential for word discrimination tests to accurately represent the listener's hearing ability, and not word familiarity. Although numerous studies have looked at discrimination performance on English tests by listeners of varied linguistic backgrounds, the performance of non-native English speaker on separate tests using different language material is not well documented. This study examined the performance of eight bilingual non-native English speakers on two word discrimination tests: one in English and one in either Bengali or Hindi. All subjects' scores improved when given the test stimuli of their native language. Native language and non-native language discrimination scores were found to be significantly different, supporting the hypothesis that use of current English word discrimination tests should not be assumed as valid for non-native English speakers. pp.1-7
*Paper presented at the Annual Convention of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, November, 1996, Seattle, Washington.
*Bauman-Nielsen, Joan
THE ROLE OF SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS IN DETERMINING UNCOMFORTABLE LOUDNESS LEVEL OF SPEECH
This study investigated the effect of using specific instruction sets on measures of uncomfortable loudness level (UCL). UCL thresholds were obtained for 15 subjects under two conditions. In one session subjects were instructed to indicate when the intensity of the stimuli became "uncomfortable". In another session subjects were instructed to indicate when the intensity of the stimuli became "intolerable". A significant difference was found to exist between conditions. These results confirm the subjectivity of the measure, and point to the need for standardization. pp. 8-16
*Paper presented at the Annual Convention of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, November, 1996, Seattle, Washington.
*Fisher, Laura H.
RATINGS OF FUNCTIONAL COMMUNICATION IN APHASIC INDIVIDUALS BY INDIVIDUAL THERAPISTS, GROUP THERAPISTS, AND FAMILIAR CONVERSATIONAL PARTNERS
The purpose of this study was to determine if the assessment of functional communication skills of aphasic individuals by therapists is influenced by exposure to the client in group therapy vs. individual therapy. Five aphasic subjects, who were participating in both types of therapy, were evaluated by his or her group therapists, individual therapist, and a familiar conversational partner using the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association's Functional Assessment of Communication Skills for Adults (ASHA FACS). No significant differences were found in the subject's mean or overall ratings of communication independence or the qualitative dimensions of communication when the three types of rater were compared. A trend was observed in which the overall qualitative dimensions of communication for each aphasic subject was lower when rated by the group therapists than by his other individual therapist. Based on the results of this study, it appears that exposure to aphasic individuals in group vs. individual therapy setting does not significantly affect the clinician's assessment of the client's functional communication skills and that ASHA FACS is reliable across these settings. pp. 17-21
Paper presented at the Annual Convention of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, November, 1996, Seattle, Washington.
Cullinane, Anne
THE EFFECT OF VISUALIZATION TRAINING ON WORD-FINDING ABILITY IN APHASIA
This study examined the effect of visualization training on the word-finding ability of 6 fluent aphasic subjects with documented word-finding deficits. Each subject was asked to retell two stories, one with and on without visualization training. In addition, each subject performed two divergent naming tasks, one with and one without visualization training. Results showed no significant difference in group mean scores for the tasks under the two conditions. However, two subjects showed between 27% and 300% improvement in their scores on both tasks after being given visualization training. The implication of visualization as a self-cuing word-finding strategy are discussed. pp. 22-32
Hoover, Elizabeth L.FUNCTIONAL COMMUNICATION TREATMENT AND SOCIAL VALIDATION IN GROUP THERAPY FOR APHASIA
Three weeks of functional communication treatment (FTC) was conducted once weekly in a group setting for five chronic fluent aphasic adults. Each session detailed intervention at three specific levels: Impairment, Disability and Handicap. Social validation measures of both performance and attitude toward each intervention level were taken and compared to clinical performance measures. A significant difference was found between the clinical performance ratings across the intervention levels. No significant difference was found between the clinical performance measures and the social validation performance measures. No significant difference was found between the attitudes of the clients towards each intervention level. A supplemental social validation question was posed to determine the primary reason for attending group therapy. 100% of the clients currently receiving individual therapy stated that they attended group therapy for social and emotional support from their peers. 100% of the clients receiving only group therapy stated that they attended group therapy for additional speech and language gains. pp. 33-43
Gobble, Penny
A COMPARISON OF TURN-TAKING SKILLS IN HOME SCHOOLED AND CONVENTIONALLY SCHOOLED CHILDREN
The purpose of this study was to compare turn-taking and topic maintenance skills in home-schooled children to those of conventionally schooled children. Five home-schooled and five conventionally schooled children participated in a cooperative story recall task, The subjects' responses were tallied to compute the mean number of expansion elements produced per response. Results indicated that home-schooled and conventionally schooled children exhibited comparable turn-taking and topic maintenance skills. These findings suggest turn-taking and topic maintenance skills are not decreased or enhanced by a home learning environment. pp. 44-56.
Budovsky, Inna V.
INTER LANGUAGE TRANSFER: THE EFFECT OF TRAINING BILINGUAL CHILDREN IN L1 ON THE ACQUISITION OF MORPHOLOGICAL PROPERTIES OF L2
Results from recent research indicate that using a bilingual child's most proficient language facilitates his or her learning of concepts as well as learning a second language (i.e. English). Six Russian speaking bilingual children were studied under two conditions: bilingual (Russian and English) and monolingual (English only). They were taught to derive plural and diminutive forms of nonsense words. Test comparisons of the children's performance in English in both conditions did not show a significant difference, although the percent of correct responses was higher for the monolingual condition. Limitations of this study and implications for Slaps working with bilingual children are discussed. pp. 57-65
Segni, Gina
THE EFFECTS OF SPEAKER-LISTENER FAMILIARITY ON JUDGMENTS OF SPEECH INTELLIGIBILITY IN CHILDREN WITH PHONOLOGICALLY DISORDERS
Previous studies have proposed that one source of bias in intelligibility judgments is whether the judge knows the subject personally. This study investigated this potential source of bias by examining the use of clinicians as familiar listeners in judging the intelligibility of their own clients. Five children (aged 4 to 6 years) who exhibited phonologically disorders were chosen to participate in the study. They were audio taped while imitating single words taken from the Assessment of the Intelligibility of Dysarthric Speech. Five speech-language pathology graduate students served as familiar and unfamiliar judges. Results indicated that there was no significant difference between the unfamiliar and familiar listeners in correctly identifying target words. Therefore, clinical judgments of intelligibility may not necessarily be biased by listener familiarity. pp. 66-74
Hall, Dana J.
INTERRATER AND TEST-RETEST RELIABILITY OF THE BUFFALO VOICE PROFILE
Twenty speech language pathology graduate students rated the quality of twenty voices to assess the interrater and test-retest reliability of the Buffalo Voice Profile. Ten advanced and 10 beginning clinicians were asked to rate 10 pairs of voices based on the most distinguishing quality, and then to rate the severity. Results showed that overall interrater agreement levels for beginning clinicians were comparable to the advanced clinicians. However, levels of overall agreement of vocal quality and severity were below the levels of agreement expected on the basis of chance alone. Levels of test-retest reliability were also below the levels of agreement expected on the basis of chance alone. The results of this investigation suggest a need to standardize the instructions and terminology of the Buffalo Voice Profile. pp. 75-81
Lytle, Mark
CARDIOVASCULAR CHANGE IN STUTTERERS DURING VOLUNTARY STUTTERING
The purpose of this study was to explore changes in blood pressure and heart rate during voluntary stuttering. The vital signs of twelve adults previously diagnosed as stutterers were measured during reading and spontaneous speech, first under normal conditions and then with trained voluntary stuttering. Overall results indicated that: blood pressure did not significantly decrease when the voluntary stuttering condition was applied; heart rate demonstrated a downward trend when voluntary stuttering was introduced. When data from mild stutterers were analyzed separately from data of moderate to severe stutterers, voluntary stuttering was associated with a significant decrease in heart rate. Findings suggest that voluntary stuttering may be a stress- reducing condition for moderate to severe stutterers, but not for mild stutterers. pp. 82-90
Ordering information:
To order any of the above papers, send a request through regular inter-library loan to California State University, East Bay Libraries, Hayward, California 94542. Include author, title, volume, call number and page numbers.
