Browsing by Subject "Speech"
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Item Acoustic correlates of [voice] in two dialects of Venezuelan Spanish(2009-08) Lain, Stephanie; Birdsong, David; Kelm, Orlando R., 1957-The present study is an investigation of acoustic correlates corresponding to the category [voice] in two dialects of Venezuelan Spanish. The Andean mountain dialect Mérida (MER) and Caribbean coastal dialect Margarita (MAR) are thought to differ systematically in the phonetic implementation of the Spanish phonological stop series along the lines of lowland and highland divides commonly reported for Latin American Spanish. Specifically, MER has been characterized by a greater percentage of occlusive pronunciations, MAR by more fricative and/or approximant realizations of phonological stops. To test what repercussions these differences in consonant articulation have on the acoustic correlates that encode [voice], a production experiment was run. Informants were 25 adult monolingual speakers of Venezuelan Spanish from the areas of El Tirano (Margarita Island) and San Rafael de Mucuchíes (Mérida state). The materials were 44 CV syllable prompts. Target syllables were analyzed with respect to the following: consonant closure duration, VOT, %VF, RMS, preceding vowel duration, CV ratio, F1 onset frequency, F0 contour, and burst. Statistical analysis using a linear mixed model ANOVA tested for fixed effects of voicing category, dialect and condition (speeded/unspeeded) and interactions of voicing category * dialect and dialect * condition. Results showed that the dialects MER and MAR vary significantly in RMS. In addition, the following correlates were significant for the interaction of voicing category * dialect: consonant duration, VOT, %VF, RMS, CV ratio and burst. Generally, the nature of the differences indicates a greater separation between [± voice] values in MER than in MAR (notably divergent are VOT and RMS). These results imply that while the same acoustic correlates of [voice] are operative in both fortis and lenis dialects of Spanish, [± voice] categories relate differently. Furthermore, with regard to prosody and rate of speech, most significant differences in condition occurred in initial position while most significant differences in the interaction of voicing category * dialect were linked to medial position. The results of this study are relevant to current research on the specifics of dialectal variation in consonant systems. They also have wider implications for the general mapping of phonetics to phonology in speech.Item An evaluation of a multi-component intervention for loud speech in children with autism spectrum disorder(2016-08) Ormand, Hailey Michelle; Allen, Greg, doctor of clinical psychology; Falcomata, Terry S.; Cawthon, Stephanie W; Keith, Timothy Z; O'Reilly, Mark FIdiosyncratic patterns of speech are common in ASD and greatly affect an individual’s level of functioning, and as a result, the extent of their social and educational inclusion. Although there is a large body of literature detailing and evaluating interventions for a variety of verbal behaviors in ASD, there is a relative dearth of research describing interventions for idiosyncratic characteristics of communicative speech (e.g., atypical prosody) and even less focused specifically on loud speech. To address this gap in the literature, the current study presents and evaluates a treatment package implemented with three children with ASD and a history of loud speech (i.e., ≥ 70 db). A concurrent multiple baselines across participants design was used to determine whether a multi-component intervention (i.e., an antecedent modification, a differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO) procedure, and in-vivo feedback) effectively reduced participants’ rates of loud speech. The results suggest it is possible to decrease rates of loud speech in children with ASD to near-zero levels by consistently implementing a relatively simple combination of behavioral strategies. The present study extends the literature on speech prosody in ASD, and fills a gap in the treatment literature by detailing an effective intervention for loud speech. This research could also inform future investigations into this nuanced yet crucial aspect of social communication, including appropriate methods for addressing issues with speech loudness in individuals with ASD.Item Articulation issues in children with fetal alcohol syndrome(2011-08) Bolinger, Christopher L.; Dembowski, James; Sancibrian, Sherry; Rogers, KarenThis study examines speech motor differences among children with fetal alcohol syndrome and neurotypical children. Three standardized tests examining speech and non-verbal intelligence were administered to children 3 - 10, diagnosed with FAS, and to controls. Children with FAS exhibited specific deficits in the area of focal oromotor control.Item Comparing deep brain stimulation and levodopa as treatment methods for Parkinson’s disease(2011-05) Robbins, Tiffany Paige; Marquardt, Thomas P.; Sussman, Harvey M.This report will review critically the available research on deep brain stimulation and levodopa as a means of treatment for Parkinson’s disease in an attempt to determine why neither of these treatments improves speech.Item The development of accuracy in early speech acquisition: relative contributions of production and auditory perceptual factors(2005) Warner-Czyz, Andrea Dawn; Davis, Barbara L. (Barbara Lockett)Item Effects of a basic speech program upon the development of self-confidence as a speaker in ninth grade students(Texas Tech University, 1973-08) Bennett, Richard MichaelThe problem of this study was the effectiveness of the beginning speech course in developing selfconfidence as a speaker.Item Facilitating transfer and maintenance in school-aged children who stutter : a guidebook for clinicians(2014-05) Wong, Allison Mei-Li; Byrd, Courtney T.This report was developed to: a) enhance the clinician’s understanding of transfer and maintenance as it relates to stuttering, b) explore the unique challenges that face the school-aged population, c) examine research outside of the field that may be of benefit for school-aged stuttering clients, and d) provide the clinician with examples and activities that will facilitate the transfer and maintenance of stuttering treatment. The report will include a brief discussion of transfer and maintenance. The remainder of the report will focus on facilitating transfer and maintenance by increasing motivation, self-efficacy, realistic goal setting, and self-regulation.Item I am (wo)man: The rhetoric of transidentity in politics, law, and performance(2008-12) Endres-Parnell, Prairie A.; Langford, Catherine L.; Gring, Mark A.; Gelber, William F.This rhetorical analysis uses close textual methodology to analyze a speech, court case, and play that each construct transgender identity through language. The close textual analysis reveals that gender is constructed through language thus constraining transgender agency through labels.Item Improving the speech intelligibility of adults with Down syndrome (DS) using the core vocabulary approach(2016-05) Easter, Michelle Lee; Davis, Barbara L. (Barbara Lockett); Franco, Jessica HetlingerThe goal of the present study was to evaluate the efficacy of the Core Vocabulary approach (CVA; Dodd, Holm, Crosbie, & McIntosh, 2006) for improving speech intelligibility in an adult with DS by establishing consistent word production in order to enhance communicative competence and participation within a variety of social settings. Research indicates marked limitations in speech intelligibility in individuals with DS, including delayed and disordered articulation and inconsistent speech errors (i.e., variability in production of the same word) that continues throughout the individual’s life (Kent & Vorperian, 2013). This study evaluated the effectiveness of CVA on intelligibility by targeting reduction in variability in target word productions selected because they were functionally salient for the client. Data collection consisted of a slight adaptation to CVA, including both speech accuracy and variability measures to evaluate the effect of CVA. The following question was addressed: What are the effects of core vocabulary on the variability and accuracy of production of target words in an adult with DS? Results suggest that vowel accuracy is a relative strength in her system as compared to consonants, and two-syllable shaped words are her upper boundary. However, while accuracy measures demonstrated some slight improvement across intervention sessions, variability remained stable and did not show the same change over time. A variety of adaptations and possible future research topics are discussed.Item The mechanism of speech : a translation with critical introduction of Chr. B. Flagstad's Psychologie der sprachpaedagogik, ch. II A(1936) Flagstad, Christian Benedict, 1867-; Hinrichs, Johann Jacob; Boysen, Johannes LassenItem Oral stereognosis and short-term memory(Texas Tech University, 1973-08) Cavaness, Denise Suzanne KasbergNot availableItem Racial and Ethnic Influences on the Identification of Hoarseness in Children.(Texas Tech University, 1975-12) Whitaker, Linda LakeNot Available.Item Rating scales and measurement of speech treatment outcomes in young children with cleft palate : a systematic review(2016-05) Fredericks, Josephina Shea; Peña, Elizabeth D.; Bedore, LisaObjective. (1) To identify the methods by which speech outcomes are measured with subjective rating scales for children with cleft palate and (2) to examine the usefulness of these commonly used measures for assessing treatment outcomes. Design. Six databases were searched between inception and April 2016 to identify published articles relating to rating-scale based measurement of speech and language outcomes for children with cleft palate with or without cleft lip. Studies that included at least one participant and reported intelligibility and/or resonance outcome measures for speech were included. All of the studies had participants who were age six and younger and assessed the measurement of speech development following cleft palate repair. Results. Six papers out of the 88 identified by the literature search met all of the criteria and were evaluated by this review. These included one randomized controlled trial, three observational and retrospective studies that had experimental components, and two non-experimental studies that reported on results and speech development following surgical cleft palate repair. Outcome measures for speech included perceptual rating scales, formal and informal articulation measures, and objective instrumental evaluation. Conclusions. The review found evidence to support that perceptual rating scales, when used in combination with other measures such as articulation assessments and instrumental exams, can be effective outcome measures in clinical studies. Measuring speech outcomes from therapy, surgery, and maturation is an important component of increasing the knowledge base so that the best possible outcomes can be provided with the most effective intervention, with minimal time devoted to elaborate measures and analyses of speech sounds. Demonstrating that measurement using less technology can also be effective at measuring treatment outcomes allows future studies to focus more resources on manipulating variables to optimize speech outcomes, while still obtaining statistically significant results. Building an evidence base for speech-language therapy practice in children with cleft palate with or without cleft lip allows treatment resources to be used in more effective ways.Item Speech, art and community : the 'logos nexus' in Ovid(2009-05) Natoli, Bartolo; Galinsky, Karl, 1942-; Ebbeler, JenniferThis paper examines the role of the ability to speak in Ovid's construction of identity within the Metamorphoses . As various scholars have recognized, metamorphosis in Ovid is closely connected with the issue of identity. An important aspect of identity in Metamorphoses is the linguistic ability of its characters. Ovid's manipulation of his characters' linguistic ability and, in particular, of their loss of speech adds meaning to what it is to be metamorphosed in Ovid's chef d'oeurve . Throughout the work, Ovid consistently portrays the metamorphosized human characters as changed due to their lack of linguistic ability. Since the ability was seen as an aspect strictly reserved for humans, the loss of such ability led to the dehumanization, or metamorphosis, of the character. In the stories of Lycaon, Acteon, Philomela, Echo, Io, et al., Ovid takes each characters ability to speak from them as they mutate into their changed shape. The mens of each is intact; however, they are unable to speak and, thus, are unable to communicate with humanity. This lack of connection to humanity results in the loss of the ability to express identity or, in fact, to have identity. To explore the role of speech loss in construction of identity, this paper analyzes Ovid's depiction of humans metamorphosed through the lens of modern socio-linguistic theory. The theory of performative utterance first introduced by J.L. Austin and then refined by many other scholars, most notably John Searle, provides an interestingly fresh prism through which to examine Ovid's construction of identity. In addition, if one includes the literary-philosophical ideas of the 20th century scholar Walter Benjamin into the mix, the picture is refined further. To these scholars, if one could not speak, one could not be. Words are not a simple means by which one can communicate. Instead, they form the ability to do within a society, thereby describing one's ability to become a part of humanity. By stripping the metamorphosed of their ability to be and, consequently, the ability to do something human, Ovid removes their human identity. Moreover, by looking at such narrative technique through the kaleidoscope of Benjamin, Austin, and Searle, this paper hopes to open doors to the discussion of how Ovid saw his own identity. As a poet, the power of speech was paramount to him and because of such speech, Ovid could be spoken of amongst humanity (ore legar populi), a concept later picked up by Martial (3.95,7 and 8.3,7). Could this power have led Ovid to see a heightened identity for himself as well, a melior pars that might possibly give him precedence over the rest of mankind, or possibly over Augustus himself? Or, in the words of 18th century German poet Heinrich Heine, "Don't belittle the poets, they can flash and thunder, they are more fierce than the bolt of Jove, which, after all, they created for him."Item Spirited media : revision, race, and revelation in nineteenth-century America(2014-08) Gray, Nicole Haworth; Carton, Evan; Winship, Michael, 1950-"Spirited Media" analyzes distributed structures of authorship in the reform literature of the nineteenth-century United States. The literature that emerged out of reform movements like abolitionism often was a product of complex negotiations between speech and print, involving multiple people working across media in relationships that were sometimes collaborative, sometimes cooperative, and sometimes antagonistic. The cultural authority of print and individual authorship, often unquestioned in studies that focus on major or canonical figures of the nineteenth century, has tended to obscure some of this complexity. Moving from phonography, to Josiah Henson and Uncle Tom’s Cabin, to spiritualism, to Sojourner Truth and Walt Whitman, I consider four cases in which reporters, amanuenses, spirit mediums, and poets revived and remediated the voices of abolitionists, fugitive slaves, and figures from American history. By separating publication into events—speech, inscription, revision, and print—I show that "authorship" consisted of a series of interactions over time and across media, but that in the case of reform, the stakes for proving that authorship was a clear and indisputable characteristic of print were high. For abolitionist, African American, and spiritualist speakers and writers, authority depended on authorship, which in turn depended on the transparency of the print or the medium, or the perception of a direct relationship between speaker and reader. Like authorship, this transparency was constructed by a variety of social actors for whom the author was a key site of empowerment. It was authorized by appeals to revelation and race, two constructs often sidelined in media histories, yet central to discussions of society and politics in nineteenth-century America. Thinking of authorship as a distributed phenomenon disrupts models of the unitary subject and original genius, calling attention instead to uncanny acts of reading and writing in nineteenth-century literature. This dissertation argues that we should think about the transformative power of U.S. literature as located in revelation, not just creation, and in congregating people, not just representing them.Item The relationship of speech discrimination to loudness discomfort level(Texas Tech University, 1981-12) Wei, Hwe-wenNot availableItem Voice contrast and repetition in speech retention(Texas Tech University, 1964-05) Dunham, Jerome RNot available