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Department of Communicative Disorders

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Browsing Department of Communicative Disorders by Subject "CHILDREN"

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    Addressing phonological memory in language therapy with clients who have Down syndrome: Perspectives of speech-language pathologists
    (Wiley, 2016) Faught, Gayle G.; Conners, Frances A.; Barber, Angela B.; Price, Hannah R.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
    BackgroundPhonological memory (PM) plays a significant role in language development but is impaired in individuals with Down syndrome (DS). Without formal recommendations on how to address PM limitations in clients with DS, it is possible speech-language pathologists (SLPs) find ways to do so in their practices. AimsThis study asked if and how SLPs address PM in language therapy with clients who have DS. It also asked about SLPs' opinions of the importance, practicality and difficulty of addressing PM in clients with DS. Methods & ProceduresSLPs participated in an online survey that asked if they address PM in clients with DS and, if so, how often and with which techniques. The survey also asked SLPs to rate their opinions of addressing PM in clients with DS with Likert scales. To contrast clients with DS, SLPs were asked about their practices and opinions with clients who have specific language impairment (SLI) and autism spectrum disorders (ASD). SLPs were recruited through e-mails sent from state organizations and researchers. To compare SLPs' practices and opinions across client types, frequency analyses and analyses of variance (ANOVAs) were run. Outcomes & ResultsIn all, 290 SLPs from 28 states completed the survey. Nearly all SLPs were currently practising at the time data were collected, and all worked with at least one of the three client types. Findings indicated SLPs less often addressed PM and used less variety when addressing PM with clients who have DS compared with clients who have SLI or ASD. Further, SLPs considered it less important, less practical and more difficult to address PM in clients who have DS when compared with clients who have SLI, whereas a similar pattern was found with clients who have ASD. Conclusions & ImplicationsSLPs' opinions could be one reason they under-address PM with clients who have DS. Other reasons include there are no evidence-based practice (EBP) guidelines on this topic, and there is not enough familiarity with the DS phenotype among SLPs. Future research on ways to address PM in clients with DS successfully are essential so that EBP guidelines can be established and language therapy can be made more effective.
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    Narrative Language Sampling in Typical Development: Implications for Clinical Trials
    (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 2018) Channell, Marie Moore; Loveall, Susan J.; Conners, Frances A.; Harvey, Danielle J.; Abbeduto, Leonard; University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; University of Mississippi; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa; University of California Davis
    Purpose: This study examined cross-sectional age-related trajectories of expressive language variables (syntactic complexity, lexical diversity, unintelligibility, dysfluency, and talkativeness) derived from a narrative language sampling procedure. Method: Narrative samples were analyzed from 103 typically developing individuals, ages 4-21 years. Results: Results showed that this procedure was effective for the entire age range, with participants producing an utterance on virtually every page of the wordless picture books used to prompt the narrative. Importantly, the cross-sectional trajectories for syntactic complexity and lexical diversity showed age-related increases through the age of 18 years, although measures of other dimensions of language showed different relationships with age. Conclusions: These data inform developmental work and document the extent to which the narrative procedure can be used to characterize expressive language over a wide age range. This procedure has been proposed as an outcome measure for clinical trials and interventions involving individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The present data document the developmental levels for which the procedure and metrics derived are appropriate.
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    Pulmonary Function in Infants with Swallowing Dysfunction
    (PLOS, 2015) Tutor, James D.; Srinivasan, Saumini; Gosa, Memorie M.; Spentzas, Thomas; Stokes, Dennis C.; University of Tennessee Health Science Center; St Jude Children's Research Hospital; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
    Background Swallowing dysfunction can lead to recurring aspiration and is frequently associated with chronic symptoms such as cough and wheezing in infants. Our objective was to describe the characteristics of infants with swallowing dysfunction, determine if pulmonary function abnormalities are detectable, and if they improve after therapy. Methods We studied 38 infants with a history of coughing and wheezing who had pulmonary function tests performed within two weeks of their diagnosis of swallowing dysfunction. The raised lung volume rapid thoracoabdominal compression technique was used. After 6 months of therapy, 17 of the infants repeated the tests. Results Initially, 25 had abnormal spirometry, 18 had abnormal plethysmography, and 15 demonstrated bronchodilator responsiveness. Six months later test were repeated for seventeen patients. Ten patients had continued abnormal spirometry, two patients remained normal, three patients' abnormal spirometry had normalized, and two patients' previously normal studies became abnormal. Eight of the 17 patients had continued abnormal plethysmography, six had continued normal plethysmography, and three patients' normal plethysmography became abnormal. After 6 months of treatment, eight patients demonstrated bronchodilator responsiveness, of which five continued to demonstrate bronchodilator responsiveness and three developed responsiveness. The remainder either continued to be non-bronchodilator responsive (two) or lost responsiveness (three.) The findings of the abnormal tests in most infants tested is complicated by frequent occurrence of other co-morbidities in this population, including gastroesophageal reflux in 23 and passive smoke exposure in 13 of the infants. Conclusions The interpretation of lung function changes is complicated by the frequent association of swallowing dysfunction with gastroesophageal reflux and passive smoke exposure in this population. Six months of medical therapy for swallowing dysfunction/gastroesophageal reflux did not significantly improve pulmonary function in these infants. Long-term studies will be necessary to determine which of these changes persists into adulthood.
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    Sex differences in infant vocalization and the origin of language
    (Cell Press, 2023) Oller, D. Kimbrough; Gilkerson, Jill; Richards, Jeffrey A.; Hannon, Steve; Griebel, Ulrike; Bowman, Dale D.; Brown, Jane A.; Yoo, Hyunjoo; Warren, Steven F.; University of Memphis; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa; University of Kansas
    Seeking to discern the earliest sex differences in language-related activities, our focus is vocal activity in the first two years of life, following up on recent research that unexpectedly showed boys produced significantly more speech-like vocalizations (protophones) than girls during the first year of life.We now bring a much larger body of data to bear on the comparison of early sex differences in vocali-zation, data based on automated analysis of all-day recordings of infants in their homes. The new evidence, like that of the prior study, also suggests boys produce more protophones than girls in the first year and offers additional basis for informed speculation about biological reasons for these differences. More broadly, the work offers a basis for informed speculations about foundations of language that we propose to have evolved in our distant hominin ancestors, foun-dations also required in early vocal development of modern human infants.