EdD, University of Cincinnati, 2008, Education : Special Education

This study described the communication and spoken language development of a Japanese girl with profound hearing loss who used a cochlear implant from 19 months of age. The girl, Akiko, was born in Belgium where her family was living at that time. After she was identified as deaf at birth, she and her parents were provided with support services. The family relocated to Japan when Akiko was 1 year 5 months of age. When she was 1 year 6 months of age Akiko underwent cochlear implantation. The cochlear implant device was activated when Akiko was 1 year 7 months of age. The parents routinely made video recordings of Akiko interacting with family members and teachers at home and at school. The video recordings taken by the parents used as the data for this study contained scenes of Akiko from the time she was 3 months of age until she was 4 years 11 months of age. Micro-ethnographic methods were used to analyze the dynamics and development of selected communicative interactions over this age span of fifty-six months. The original pool of video recordings provided for my dissertation study contained 213 scenes, as well as email exchanges with Akiko's mother, the webpage created by Akiko's mother, and an informal discussion with Akiko's parents during a joint viewing session of the 29 scenes, which were chosen for in depth analysis. As a result of video viewing and editing, Akiko's communication development was found to follow expected patterns of development as described by other child language researchers of children with normal hearing, such as, Elizabeth Bates and colleagues (e.g., Bates, 1974; Bates, Camaioni, Volterra, 1975) who applied, J.L. Austin's “speech act theory” as the foundation for their descriptions of “early communication development” of children. There were seven demarcations that represent Akiko's communication and spoken language development: 1) perlocutionary, 2) transition of perlocutionary to illocutionary, 3) illocutionary, 4) transition of illocu (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Richard Kretschmer EdD (Committee Chair); Laura Kretschmer PhD (Committee Member); Jo-Ann Prendeville EdD (Committee Member); Roberta Truax PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Education

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2023, Speech and Hearing Science

Scoping Review Purpose: Intervention studies contribute to evidence-based practice in speech-language pathology. With individuals who use speech generating devices (SGDs), it is important to determine what vocabulary to teach during intervention. However, it is unclear whether researchers are reporting the vocabulary selection techniques they used within intervention studies so that they may be replicated in clinical practice. The purpose of this scoping review was to (a) describe the intervention studies focused on vocabulary acquisition in early symbolic communicators who use SGDs and (b) describe the vocabulary selection techniques used in the studies. Method: PsychInfo, PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Educational Resources Information Center, Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts, Educational Research Complete, and CINAHL databases were systematically searched for articles that were intervention studies targeting single-word vocabulary acquisition in early symbolic communicators who use SGDs. Data related to methods and results were extracted from each article and charted in Excel. Results: Five thousand four hundred and five unique articles were found. Eighteen articles met the inclusion/exclusion criteria for this review. Of the 18 articles, eight studies targeted requesting or manding, six studies used preference assessments to select vocabulary, and seven articles used adults as informants to select the vocabulary. Conclusions: There are a limited number of studies investigating vocabulary acquisition in early symbolic communicators who use SGDs. Further, the studies did not use a range of methods that align with the literature in vocabulary selection (Morrow et al., 1993). Using techniques that are clearly reported and align with the available literature is imperative to contributing to speech-language pathologists' evidence-based practices. SLP Survey Purpose: Vocabulary selection is a critical aspect of AAC implementation but there is (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Allison Bean (Advisor); Carmen DiGiovine (Committee Member); Janet Vuolo (Committee Member); Amy Miller Sonntag (Committee Member); Jamie Boster (Committee Member) Subjects: Language; Speech Therapy

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2009, Curriculum and Instruction Cultural Studies (Education)

This research is a phenomenological study that seeks to understand the challenges Japanese female graduate students face while adjusting to speaking English and socializing with peers in a U.S. university. Because they crossed the border out of Japan and crossed the border into the United States of America I termed them “border crossers.” In this research, I focused on what kind of coping and adjustment strategies they utilized at a Midwestern U.S. university. The study investigated language-related challenges. Respondents felt fearful when they first experienced American living styles and using English in American educational settings. The study also explored on- and off-campus experiences, and this section revealed difficulties interacting with American roommates and public service members. In addition, this study examined academic challenges on U.S. campuses. The design of this research was a case study to critically examine social reality and to describe in-depth analysis. Adopting a qualitative research, this study was conducted in a Midwestern U.S. university where there were few networks of international communities. Participants for this study included nine Japanese graduate female students purposively sampled. Data analysis focused on the interview transcripts and observational descriptions, while coding categories and finding themes. Based on each research question, categories and themes were described based on patterns. The examinations of this study disclosed six findings based on participants' voices and observations. These include fear of living in a new country, challenges of intercultural communications, identity development, anxiety in the classroom, and impact from Japanese education and gender roles. Fearful feelings paralyzed students' fluency in English and this commonly happened in public service settings. The study also revealed the necessity of understanding and accepting different communication styles to avoid misunderstanding between Japane (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Francis E. Godwyll PhD (Committee Chair); Rosalie Romano PhD (Committee Member); Debra Henderson PhD (Committee Member); Scott Jarvis PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Educational Sociology; Linguistics; Womens Studies

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2008, Speech-Language Pathology (Health Sciences and Professions)

Joint attention is critical for language development in children. Children with severe communication impairments requiring assistive technology have additional challenges in managing their joint attention and there is minimal information on how to reduce these demands. A within-subjects design was used to determine the effect of communication device placement, in relation to eye gaze, on the overall, as well as AAC device specific, frequency and duration of coordinated and passive joint attention episodes. Sixteen, typically developing infant-parent dyads participated in the study consisting of 2 storybook reading interactions. Device placement aligned with adult eye gaze resulted in significantly greater frequency and duration of coordinated joint attention than passive joint attention with the device. Younger infants engaged in more passive joint attention when the device was not aligned with gaze while older infants engaged in more coordinated joint attention when the device was aligned. Future directions and clinical implications are discussed.

Committee: John McCarthy PhD (Advisor); Joann Benigno PhD (Advisor); Sally Marinellie PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Developmental Psychology; Language; Special Education; Speech Therapy