Doctor of Philosophy, University of Akron, 2014, Elementary Education-Literacy

The purpose of this qualitative case study research was to investigate the oral language of early language learners as they participate in “collaborative talk” experiences (Wells & Wells, 1996) during journal writing experiences in a first grade classroom. Specifically, this study analyzed the conversations of young learners, with particular attention given to the questions they pose and answer as they use oral language during the composition process. Participants included three students whose literacy development was at, above, or below district achievement levels for first grade. Three research questions guided data collection and analysis: 1) What patterns, if any, emerge in the collaborative conversations (Wells & Wells, 1996) of first grade students during their construction of an journal writing entry; 2) What patterns, if any, emerge in the questions these students generate and/or respond to during their construction of an journal writing entry and; 3) What patterns, if any, emerge in the student's journal writing which gives evidence of their questions and/or participation in these conversations? Data were analyzed using the constant comparative method (Merriam, 2009) with the goal of developing emergent core categories ground in the data. Data analysis revealed that most of the oral language students used was in the form of utterances that were either generic comments or self-talk through which they constructed meaning. Students also asked questions of others, although most of their questions focused on the mechanics of writing. When responding to others, participants primarily offered either direct support or prompts to further peers' thinking. Ultimately, the study found that although all of the participants engaged in collaborative conversations with their peers and the teacher, meaningful self-talk had the greatest impact on their writing. Furthermore, the complexity and quality of the meaningful self-talk which was produced varied according to the (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Evangeline Newton Dr. (Advisor); Ruth Oswald Dr. (Committee Member); Harold Foster Dr. (Committee Member); Nidaa Makki Dr. (Committee Member); Cynthia Reynolds Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Early Childhood Education; Elementary Education; Linguistics

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2021, Psychology

Abstract Most language and reading researchers agree that reading is a language-based skill and that there is a connection between language ability and reading ability (Kamhi & Catts, 2012), especially between weaker language skills in early childhood and weaker reading skills in elementary school (McArthur et al., 2000; Catts et al., 2005). This study employed the extant longitudinal Western Reserve Reading and Math Projects (WRRMP) to examine how phonological awareness, letter identification, and rapid automatized naming (RAN) skills in Kindergarten predicted reading skills by Third Grade. The WRRMP dataset includes 438 pairs of twins from primarily White, non-Hispanic, middle class, Midwestern families (Petrill et al., 2006). For this thesis, language assessment data from 452 Kindergarteners (mean age: 6;2, SD: 0.44) were compared to reading outcome measures of 524 Third Graders (mean age: 9;1, SD: 0.46). Language and decoding skills in Kindergarten were assessed using the deletion subtests of the Phonological Awareness Test, the letter identification subtest of the Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests–Revised Normative Update (WRM–RNU), and the Letter Naming Fluency task from the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS). Reading outcomes in Third Grade were measured on Passage Comprehension, Word Attack (decoding of non-words), and Word Identification (decoding of real words) from the WRM–RNU. Significant correlations between letter identification (ranging from .305 to .435, p<0.01), phonological awareness (ranging from .377 to .563, p<0.01) and RAN (ranging from .231 to .297, p<0.01) on outcome measures for passage comprehension, non-word decoding, and real-word decoding were detected. Initial regression analysis showed that all three Kindergarten language measures contributed significantly to the variance of Third-Grade passage comprehension (R2=.293, F=21.144, p<0.01), non-word decoding (R2=.121, F=7.536, p<0.01), and real-word decoding (R2=.33 (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Stephen Petrill (Advisor); Rebecca McCauley (Committee Member); Sarah Schoppe-Sullivan (Committee Member) Subjects: Developmental Psychology; Language; Reading Instruction

MA, University of Cincinnati, 2001, Allied Health Sciences : Communication Sciences and Disorders

This case study examined the overall rate of engagement and the overall rate of interaction between a child with Down syndrome and a child who was typically developing when engaged in play with and without adult intervention. Also measured were the mean time of engagement, the engagement rate of interaction, the mean rate of interaction per interaction, the overall rates of interaction by both peers individually, as well as the mean rates of interaction per interaction by both peers individually. The two children played together on a weekly basis in the home of the child with Down syndrome for a total of eleven weeks. An adult facilitator redirected the children's play and provided language models for the intervention sessions. Baseline sessions without adult intervention were also completed before the first intervention session, after the fourth intervention session, and then again following the eighth intervention session to determine the rates of engagement and interaction occurring spontaneously by both children. All play sessions were transcribed and analyzed by the researcher. Results indicated that the overall rate of engagement increased over time for the peers during adult supported intervention sessions, yet this increase was not maintained during baseline sessions. Results also indicated that the overall rates of interaction for each child, respectively, were near equal during adult supported intervention sessions, supporting the conclusion that the peers maintained reciprocal communicative interactions. This case study was conducted as part of a larger pilot study examining the effects of a home based peer buddy program on children with language- based disorders.

Committee: Dr. Jo-Anne Prendeville (Advisor) Subjects: Health Sciences, Speech Pathology

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 (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2023, Psychology/Industrial-Organizational

Language understanding plays a crucial role in psychological measurement and so it is important that semantic cues should be studied for more effective and accurate measurement practices. With advancements in computer science, natural language processing (NLP) techniques have emerged as efficient methods for analyzing textual data and have been used to improve psychological measurement. This dissertation investigates the application of NLP embeddings to address fundamental methodological challenges in psychological measurement, specifically scale development and validation. In Study 1, a word embedding-based approach was used to develop a corporate personality measure, which resulted in a three-factor solution closely mirroring three dimensions out of the Big Five framework (i.e., Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness). This research furthers our conceptual understanding of corporate personality by identifying similarities and differences between human and organizational personality traits. In Study 2, the sentence-based embedding model was applied to predict empirical pairwise item response relationships, comparing its performance with human ratings. This study also demonstrated the effectiveness of fine-tuned NLP models for classifying item pair relationships into trivial/low or moderate/high empirical relationships, which provides preliminary validity evidence without collecting human responses. The research seeks to enhance psychological measurement practices by leveraging NLP techniques, fostering innovation and improved understanding in the field of social sciences.

Committee: Michael Zickar Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Neil Baird Ph.D. (Other); Richard Anderson Ph.D. (Committee Member); Samuel McAbee Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Psychological Tests; Psychology; Quantitative Psychology

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2023, Speech Pathology and Audiology

Joint attention provides children with important opportunities for language learning. To engage in JA children must be able to visually attend to their parents and an object. Children with autism tend to struggle with visual attention. Deaf parents of deaf children have been shown to be more adept at facilitating visual attention in their deaf children. Both autistic and deaf children have unique visual attention needs. To determine if Deaf parents are also more adept at facilitating visual attention in autistic children, we sought to identify the strategies used by Deaf parents of autistic children. We obtained videos of our participants playing with their children and identified 15 strategies which occurred in a single modality or bimodally. We found that most frequently deaf parents were using gaze shifts, linguistic utterances, touching their child's body, and object manipulation to gain and maintain their attention. Additionally, they use the same adaptations Deaf parents use in child directed sign, as well as the unique adaptation of shifting their eye gaze toward their own signs. Eventually, we hope to determine the efficacy of these strategies and if they carry over to hearing and heterogeneous dyads.

Committee: Aaron Shield (Advisor); Amy Lieberman (Committee Member); Donna Scarborough (Committee Member); Trace Poll (Committee Member) Subjects: Speech Therapy

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2023, Psychology

Language and nonverbal skills like face/body perception and theory of mind (ToM; the ability to infer others' mental states) are vital for effective communication in a social world. The superior temporal lobe (STL) has been widely implicated in each of these skills, as well as social communicative skills like face and body perception, but its functional organization as well as the potential modularity of these functions is unclear, particularly early in development. What is the functional organization of these skills in children who are still developing complex language and ToM? Do more complex cognitive functions like language and ToM emerge from an initially common neural substrate for social communication? In this study, 29 children ages 4-9 years old completed three functional MRI tasks to localizer language, non-verbal ToM, and dynamic face and body recognition. We first examine the general landscape of cortical organization of the STL. We find the left, anterior STL is strongly dominated by speech and language responses, whereas the right STL shows clusters for face, body, and ToM, primarily in the inferior anterior and superior posterior regions. Using subject-specific regions of interest, we find that language and ToM are represented by distinct modules in the STL, that are specific for their category, not sensitive to other functions, and show minimal overlap in their foci of activation. This minimal overlap is not associated with age or selectivity of non-overlapping regions. This study is the first to examine the modularity of language and ToM in children, and we see early functional specialization even in children still developing these skills, similar to prior work in adults with fully developed skills. These results suggest that language and ToM develop separately in the STL, not from earlier developing general social cognitive skills, and provide a valuable addition to developmental cognitive neuroscience literature by providing insights to the develo (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Zeynep Saygin (Advisor); Dylan Wagner (Committee Member); David Osher (Committee Member) Subjects: Psychology

Master of Science (MS), Wright State University, 2022, Computer Science

Motivational Interviewing (MI) is an evidence-based brief interventional technique that has been demonstrated to be effective in triggering behavior change in patients. To facilitate behavior change, healthcare practitioners adopt a nonconfrontational, empathetic dialogic style, a core component of MI. Despite its advantages, MI has been severely underutilized mainly due to the cognitive overload on the part of the MI dialogue evaluator, who has to assess MI dialogue in real-time and calculate MI characteristic metrics (number of open-ended questions, close-ended questions, reflection, and scale-based sentences) for immediate post-session evaluation both in MI training and clinical settings. To automate dialogue assessment and produce instantaneous feedback several technology-assisted MI (TAMI) tools like ReadMI based on Natural Language Processing (NLP) have been developed on mobile computing platforms like Android. These tools, however, are ill-equipped to support remote work and education settings, a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, these tools lack data visualization features to intuitively understand and track MI progress. In this thesis, to address the aforementioned shortcomings in the current landscape of TAMI, a web-based MI data visualization dashboard tool ReadMI.org has been designed and developed. The proposed dashboard leverages the highperformance computing capacity of cloud-based Amazon Web Service (AWS) to implement the NLP-based dialogue assessment functionality of ReadMI and a vibrant data visualization capability to intuitively understand and track MI progress. Additionally, through a simple Uniform Resource Locator (URL) address, ReadMI.org allows MI practitioners and trainers to access the proposed dashboard anywhere and anytime. Therefore, by leveraging the high-performance computing and distribution capability of cloud computing services, ReadMI.org has the potential to reach the growing population of MI practitioner (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Ashutosh Shivakumar Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Yong Pei Ph.D. (Committee Co-Chair); Thomas Wischgoll Ph.D. (Committee Member); Paul J. Hershberger Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Behavioral Psychology; Computer Engineering; Computer Science

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, University of Toledo, 2022, Curriculum and Instruction

In U.S. public schools the number of English language learners (ELLs) is increasing, yet U.S. educators are underprepared to teach ELLs in their classrooms. At the secondary level, educators face particular challenges given domain-specific language demands. This mixed-method study examined how professional development (PD) with explicit attention to Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (CRP) and engaging in periodic teacher debrief sessions over the course of several months influenced secondary in-service teachers' perceptions of ELLs' needs and understanding of instructional practices to address the cultural, academic and linguistic needs of ELLs in their classrooms. Quantitative data were gathered via a survey about teachers' perceptions of ELLs (n=10). Qualitative data included two in-depth interviews (n=3), two debriefing sessions (n=3) and an ELL Profile Evaluation task (n=10). Analyses of the participants' responses revealed that teachers had a limited understanding of culturally relevant teaching practices and acknowledged the challenges they face to meet EL learners' particular needs. The most frequently mentioned challenge was the lack of sufficient time for planning and collaborating with colleagues to adapt materials and assessments for ELLs. While participants' reflections demonstrated some learning, the reflection discussions often concentrated on why particular instructional strategies were useful for ELLs regarding their language (mostly vocabulary) needs rather than relating to the students' cultural backgrounds and experiences. As a result, teachers did not implement some of the practices that are key to meeting the goals of culturally relevant teaching. Implications of the results, recommendations for future research, limitations of the study, and concluding remarks are included.

Committee: Susanna Hapgood (Committee Chair) Subjects: Curriculum Development; English As A Second Language

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2022, Spanish and Portuguese

The interpretation of numerals has been traditionally debated across disciplines including, but not limited to, Linguistics, Developmental Psychology, and Philosophy. A big portion of the debate concentrates on the ontology of numerals, i.e., their basic meaning, and the mechanisms by which (non) exact interpretations (e.g., at least) are derived. While I adopt the Scopal Analysis of numerals where their semantic denotation is exact (Kennedy 2013, 2015), one question that remains rather underexplored is the relationship between our Number System and our Language System. In this dissertation, I propose the Lexical Refraction Hypothesis (LRH) in which numerals and other number-related morphemes, draw their denotative meaning from the Number faculty, with our language faculty mediating this process. Evidence from pre-verbal infants shows that humans, as well as non-human animals, possess a non-linguistic Approximate Number System (ANS) that allows us to make non-exact quantity judgments. What makes human vs non-human animals different? I propose that the natural lexicon is the vehicle by which the ANS representations are expressed as exact numerosities. Results from Experiment 1 confirm a relationship between Number and Language via Path Analysis. I then conducted a Mediation Analysis to determine if the lexical measure mediates between the two numerical systems. Results show that 75.5% was mediated by lexicon. The results are consistent with my hypothesis that the lexicon mediates between ANS and natural language quantifiers. In addition, I test whether children's estimation on the Number Line Task predict their interpretation of numerals. Unlike previous research (Musolino 2004), numerical cognition is a central variable in my dissertation not only to prove a connection between Number and Language, but also to determine whether our Number System has an impact in linguistic interpretations. As expected, children's numerical cognition significantly predicted (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: John Grinstead (Advisor); Holly Nibert (Committee Member); Scott Schwenter (Committee Member) Subjects: Language; Linguistics

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2022, Educational Studies

This dissertation had three main research goals. First, to examine the English vocabulary development from prekindergarten (pre-K) to third grade among Spanish-speaking dual language learners (DLLs) living in Arizona (U.S.). Second, to examine to what extent the linguistic environment of pre-K classrooms influenced the development of DLLs' English vocabulary. Finally, the last research goal was to investigate the moderator role of DLLs' bilingualism in the relationship between children's English vocabulary and the linguistic environment of pre-K classrooms. This study focused on proximal and distal aspects of the classroom linguistic environment, including the amount of Spanish use in interactions and the classroom climate quality. This study capitalized on the data collected by the Language and Reading Research Consortium (LARRC), a federally funded project that followed the development of DLLs' and non-DLLs' literacy-related skills from 2010 to 2015. The current study used the information associated with 285 DLLs, who attended 63 classrooms. Bayesian multilevel analysis for longitudinal data showed that DLLs' English vocabulary development was stable and discontinuous over time. That is, DLLs with a high English vocabulary knowledge in pre-K tended to have a high English vocabulary knowledge in third grade, but the rate of change of this development was not constant. The fastest growth in this development and the major individual differences were observed from pre-K to kindergarten, suggesting an important transition in DLLs' English vocabulary before the first grade. The heterogeneity of DLLs' Spanish proficiency and the amount of Spanish used at home in the pre-K year, two characteristics of their bilingualism, significantly predicted their English vocabulary development. Notably, the analyses revealed a non-linear association between DLLs' amount of Spanish spoken at home and their English vocabulary, and that the strength of this relationship changed over time (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Laura Justice Dr. (Advisor); Ann O’Connell Dr. (Committee Member); Tzu-Jung Lin Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Early Childhood Education; Education; Educational Psychology

Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Education, Cleveland State University, 2022, College of Education and Human Services

The importance of integrating culture into foreign language teaching and learning has been acknowledged in the U.S. by the National Standards in Foreign Language Education Project and foreign language professionals. However, it remains challenging for Chinese-as-a-Foreign-Language (CFL) teachers to embrace this concept thoroughly and implement it effectively in their CFL classes. The study explores six CFL teachers' perceptions and experiences towards culture and language integration into their CFL curricula and instruction in American high schools. This study aims to describe the overall landscape of culture-language integration in the CFL discipline in American high schools by revealing the essential knowledge of CFL curriculum and pedagogy; the difficulties in developing a culture-language integrated curriculum; the processes CFL teachers use to respond to the difficulties; and the experiences, relationships, structures, and/or resources shaping CFL teachers' practices of integrating culture into CFL curriculum and instruction. The researcher adopted the hermeneutic phenomenological approach to probe the research questions and utilized questionnaires and in-depth interviews to collect data. The data analysis revealed a gap between recognizing the significance of integrating culture in CFL courses and implementing this integration in the CFL curricula and instruction among the participants. The participants appealed for support in academic knowledge of cultural teaching, and for social and cultural capital to fulfill culture-language integration in the CFL classes in American high schools. The findings underscore pedagogies and techniques the participants used to integrate culture into CFL curriculum and course instruction, including cultural comparison, contextualization, and project-based methods. Compared with the academic factors which impact the Chinese teachers' integration of culture into the CFL curricula and instruction, the research found that structur (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Lih-Ching Chen Wang (Advisor); Anne Galletta (Committee Co-Chair); Abed el-Rahman Tayyara (Committee Member); Elena Andrei (Committee Member); Katherine Clonan-Roy (Committee Member) Subjects: Cultural Anthropology; Curricula; Education; Educational Sociology; Instructional Design; Pedagogy

Doctor of Education (Educational Leadership), Youngstown State University, 2022, Department of Teacher Education and Leadership Studies

Children from all cultural backgrounds and socioeconomic statuses demonstrate speech and language disorders that can have implications on their reading and writing abilities. It is the role of speech language pathologists to help remediate these foundational skills to allow further development of encoding and decoding in the educational setting. The presence of underlying speech and language disorders are often to blame for student deficits in writing abilities that present as writing disorders. School staff need to understand the role of speech language pathologist and the implications of untreated speech and language deficits. Graham et al. (2020) shares a large body of work that aims to strengthen the argument that there is a strong correlation between the presence of speech and language impairments and the effects that they have on student writing. The current investigation is a meta-analysis that replicates and improves on Graham et al.'s research. The current investigation utilizes their existing body of work with the following additions to examine if race, gender, socioeconomic status, location of the study, type of assessment utilized, or publication status generate any significant differences in students' writing abilities. Results of this study support Graham et al.'s conclusion. Both bodies of work agree that the presence of speech and language impairments have a negative impact on students' writing abilities. There was not enough available data to determine if a student's racial background, gender, or socioeconomic status plays a part in the development of encoding. Teachers and school staff need to understand the importance of speech and language disorders and when speech and language intervention is needed to help students' writing skills progress. Language skills are necessary foundational skills that are required to participate in both functional and educational activities.

Committee: Karen Larwin Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Patrick Spearman Ph.D. (Committee Member); Carrie Jackson Ed.D. (Committee Member); Pam Epler Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Reading Instruction; Speech Therapy; Teacher Education

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Toledo, 2021, Curriculum and Instruction

The purpose of this multi-participant qualitative case study was to investigate effective teachings practices among highly-regarded second language teachers and how they developed during teacher education programs and in their careers. Furthermore, since COVID-19 has had a remarkable impact in every aspect of living worldwide, including in the field of education, this study also attempted to illustrate how highly-regarded second language teachers adapted to emergent remote teaching. The focal participates were six highly-regarded second language teachers, who were recommended by second language researchers, educators, and professional organization leaders as having outstanding and even innovative teaching practices. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed qualitatively. Activity Theory and Ambitious Teaching guided this study and were utilized as theoretical frameworks. Themes related to the theoretical frameworks and patterns that appeared among these highly-regarded teachers were discussed. In order to cultivate second language learning and create effective second language classes, highly-regarded language teachers nurtured student-centered classrooms, that were enriched with inspiring and encouraging activities, multimodule tools, diverse literature and teaching materials, constructive support systems from teachers, peers, and parents, and inquiry-based instruction. These second language teachers also commonly demonstrated the caring features which were observed as they “went beyond the classroom” to connect with students at both academic and personal levels. In regard to adapting to remote teaching due to the COVID-19 pandemic, participants demonstrated the ability to be adaptive, and they were able to modify their lessons, strengthened with technological tools, and took advantage of students' home learning environments.

Committee: Susanna Hapgood (Committee Chair); An Chung Cheng (Committee Member); Mark Templin (Committee Member); Jenny Denyer (Committee Member) Subjects: Curricula; Curriculum Development; Education; Education Philosophy; Educational Psychology; Educational Technology; Educational Theory; English As A Second Language; Foreign Language; Higher Education; Instructional Design; Modern Language; Teacher Education; Teaching

Doctor of Education (Educational Leadership), Youngstown State University, 2021, Department of Teacher Education and Leadership Studies

The purpose of the current investigation is to analyze extant research examining the impact of play therapy on the development of language skills in young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). As rates of ASD diagnoses continue to increase, families and educators are faced with making critical decisions regarding the selection and implementation of evidence-based practices or therapies, including play-based interventions, to support the developing child as early as 18 months of age. Research on rare diseases and low incidence disabilities are difficult and lack available evidence as the conditions and responses to interventions vary by person. The following study investigates whether play-based interventions should be considered as effective means of increasing language development in young children with ASD. In addition, this study was conducted to identify specific moderators or variables associated with the effectiveness of play-based interventions. In order to conduct the present investigation, a meta-analysis was conducted, based on a collection of available research. Using data extraction software, the researcher conducted statistical analyses, Tau-U and Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM), to measure effect sizes across the available data and further assess whether specific moderators play a role in the usefulness or success of play therapy to promote language development in young children with ASD. The results revealed that play-based interventions are considered an effective intervention to support language development in young children with ASD and identified frequency, duration, and type of play-based intervention as significant predictors of language development for young children with ASD who participate in play-based interventions. Such findings offer insights for educators, families, clinicians, and others who are make decisions regarding the recommendation, selection, and implementation of play-based therapy as an intervention to increase lan (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Karen Larwin PhD (Committee Chair); Patrick Spearman PhD (Committee Member); Carrie Jackson EdD (Committee Member); Matthew Erickson EdD (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Educational Leadership; Special Education

MAE, Otterbein University, 2019, Education

The number of Heritage language learners (HLL's) is growing steadily in the United States. These students are not challenged by the foreign language curriculum. These students provide unique challenges that a Spanish foreign language (FL) classroom is not prepared for. The aim of this research is to provide tools to teachers who will have to teach HLL's to help develop a curriculum specifically designed to meet these unique needs.

Committee: Daniel Cho Ph.D. (Advisor); Kristin Bourdage Ph.D. (Committee Member); Adele Weiss Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Bilingual Education; Higher Education; Multicultural Education; Multilingual Education

MA, Kent State University, 2020, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Psychological Sciences

Latino children of adolescent mothers are at risk for early language deficits, which can lead to long-term difficulties in school (Keown et al., 2001; Rescorla & Achenbach, 2002). Mother-child teaching interactions provide an important opportunity for children to develop language skills (Hohm et al., 2007; Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., Rodriguez, 2008). Most research on maternal teaching and child language outcomes has been conducted with European American adult mothers and has focused on individual teaching behaviors (Tamis-Lemonda et al., 2012). Although some studies have been conducted with Latina mothers, most have not considered within-group differences in teaching based on maternal cultural orientation (acculturation and enculturation) or examined links to children's language skills. The first goal of the current study was to identify teaching styles used by young Puerto Rican mothers and examine whether these styles were related to mothers' cultural orientation to both American (acculturation) and Latino (enculturation) cultures. The second goal was to test how these maternal teaching styles related to toddler language development. This study included 122 Puerto Rican, adolescent mothers and their toddlers. Maternal teaching behaviors were observed during a structured teaching task when children were 18 months old. Mothers also self-reported on their levels of U.S. acculturation and Puerto Rican enculturation. Language development was assessed using a standardized measure at 18 and 24-months. Using a person-centered approach, we identified three distinct teaching styles that differed in their association with cultural orientation and language development: (a) mixed directive, (b) verbally directive, (c) mixed nondirective. We found that overall, across cultural orientation levels, mothers used a combination of verbal and nonverbal behaviors, however, they differed in their use of directive and nondirective behaviors. Mothers in the mixed nondirective cluster were th (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Josefina Grau Ph.D. (Advisor); Karla Anhalt Ph.D. (Committee Member); William Merriman Ph.D. (Committee Member); Beth Wildman Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Psychology

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2020, Speech Pathology and Audiology

Although Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) is defined as a speech impairment, the relationship to language abilities remains unclear. This research seeks to evaluate the language abilities and development of children (age 3-10) with CAS enrolled in a school-based sign supported speech (SSS) program over an academic semester and calendar year and to explore environmental, demographic, and linguistic factors that best support growth. Standardized expressive and receptive language assessments were used to determine baseline characteristics. Follow up assessments were completed at 6 and 13 month time points in order to understand development over an academic semester and calendar year, respectively. Results of assessments, language sample, and parent survey were used to extract variables which were correlated with changes in standardized language scores in order to determine factors which may support development. As hypothesized, language abilities at baseline ranged from average to very-below-average on both expressive and receptive language assessments. At the 6-month and 13-month follow-up points, participants demonstrated a variety of language change profiles and selected variables were correlated with this growth. This work suggests that there is significant variability within the population of children with CAS and further research is necessary to inform best treatment practices for this population.

Committee: Aaron Shield (Advisor); Arnold Olszewski (Committee Member); Amber Franklin (Committee Member) Subjects: Speech Therapy

Master of Education (M.Ed.), Xavier University, 2019, Education

This study addresses the relationship between parents' screen time use and the impact it has on their children's speech development. Research shows that children develop their language skills in face-to-face communication. In today's technological society, parents are often distracted by their devices, frequently leading to less one-to-one communication which is critical for speech development. The literature reviewed in the study examines the parent-child interactions and its importance on developing speech skills with background information from the developmental theorist, Lev Vygotsky. Additionally, the literature reviews the effects of children's' use of screen time and the ramifications that use has on their speech development. Finally, the literature examines how parents are distracted by their screen use and the physical and emotional impact on their child. This mixed method study was conducted at a private, independent, Catholic school located in Cincinnati, Ohio. The first part of the study included self-reported surveys of parents of children aged 3-6 years old to gather data on the amount of time parents are spending with screen devices, their children, and the frequency in which they utilize those screens while they are with their child. Subsequently, a small sample of parents were interviewed to collect more information about their distractions with screen devices and the impact on their child's speech development. Results from the survey found most parents felt they used their screen devices too much, however only reported using screen devices 2-3 hours per day. These findings suggest that people may not be aware of their actual screen use and might under report their total daily use. Significant findings came from the parents of children with speech issues. These parents spend most of the time with their child, however are engaged with screen devices 2-5 hours daily and reported looking at their screens 3-6 times per hour while they (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Laura Edwards Ed.D. (Advisor) Subjects: Early Childhood Education; Education