1. business and industrial
2. business operations
3. business plans

Department of
Speech & Hearing Science
Research Day
Friday, May 1st, 2015
 Ph.D. Research Presentations 
12:00-2:00 in Coor 2201
 Research Poster Symposium 
2:45-4:00 in Carson Ballroom (Old Main)
 Departmental Awards Ceremony 
4:00-5:00 in Carson Ballroom (Old Main)
 First Year Ph.D. Presentations 
Friday, May 1st 12:00-2:00 in Coor 2201
Caitlin Vose
Committee: Dr. David Ingram (Chair), Dr. Beate Peter, Dr. Nancy Scherer
The Use of Whole Word Measures in Assessing Childhood Apraxia of Speech
Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) is a perplexing disorder that is difficult to accurately diagnose,
particularly in the initial stages of speech and language development. There is currently no goldstandard measure for speech-language pathologists to use in the assessment and differential
diagnosis of CAS. In this study, speech samples of 12 children with childhood apraxia of speech or
suspected childhood apraxia of speech were analyzed using whole word consonant and vowel
measures and compared to those of 12 children with other speech sound disorders to identify
patterns of error that can be used as diagnostic criteria in the differential diagnosis of
CAS. Measures include Percent Consonant Correct, Proportion of Whole-word Proximity, Percent
Vowels Correct, and Percent Non-distorted Vowels. Results advocate for the use of vowel
measures in the comprehensive assessment of CAS.
Ming Tu
Committee members: Dr. Visar Berisha, Dr. Julie Liss, Dr. Yi Zhou
Modeling Expert Perception of Dysarthric Speech
In my first year project, a data-driven framework is proposed to model expert perception of
dysarthric speech. The system uses training data from acoustic metrics of dysarthric speech, along
with perceptual judgments of SLPs, to predict outcomes for novel dysarthric speech. Feature
selection and dimensionality reduction algorithms are employed to process acoustic data before
development of a linear regression model. For evaluation, leave-one-speaker-out cross validation is
used to calculate correlation coefficients between prediction and SLPs' ratings. The result shows
that the system could predict the condition of dysarthric speech with correlation coefficients as
high as 0.88, proving proposed system’s promise in clinical practice.
 First Year Ph.D. Presentations 
Friday, May 1st 12:00-2:00 in Coor 2201
Yishan Jiao
Committee: Dr. Visar Berisha, Dr. Julie Liss, Dr. Rene Utianski
Towards a Clinical Tool for Automatic Speaking Rate Estimation
Speaking rate estimation is useful in both research and clinical area. However, the existing
methods are either time-consuming or unreliable. The present study proposes a novel automatic
speaking rate estimation method towards a clinical tool in speech-language therapy. It is fast and
more reliable than the existing methods, and can be adapted to a particular speaker. The method
was examined on three datasets, including a healthy speech corpus, a multi-type dysarthria
speech corpus and a longitudinal dysarthria speech corpus. Evaluation results showed that the
proposed method worked well on all of the three datasets and performed better than the state-ofthe-art methods. In particular, the speaker adaptation strategy makes the system adjustable
according to different characteristics of different sub-types of dysarthria. This method can be
developed into a clinical tool to facilitate clinical practice and provide visual feedback to clients.
 SHS Research Poster Symposium 
2:45-4:00 in Carson Ballroom (Old Main)
The Effect of Auditory Distraction on Verbal Memory
in Military Veterans with and without mTBI
Kelly Allen, Tamiko Azuma, & Karen Pittenger
Turning “perro” into “pup”:
What Cross-Language Errors Tell Us about Bilingual Executive Function
Setarae Banihashemi, Ileana Ratiu, & Tamiko Azuma
Developmental Acoustic Analysis of /r/ Using Signal Processing
Brittany Becvar & Juliet Weinhold
Functional Reorganization of Language and Music Perception Post-Stroke:
fMRI and Behavioral Evidence
Julia Cai, Alvaro Diaz, Arianna LaCroix, Nicole Blumenstein, Gretchen Hays,
Leslie Baxter, & Corianne Rogalsky
Self-Report of Deficits and Complex Working Memory Span
in Military Veterans
Cassie Elias, Tamiko Azuma, & Karen Pittenger
Audio-Visual Speech Processing and Cognitive Control
Megan Fitzhugh, Lisa Johnson, Alvaro Diaz, Leslie Baxter,
& Corianne Rogalsky
How Spatial Contingency between Consonant and Vowel Impacts the
Manner in which the Word is Perceived in Background Noise
Nancy Flores & Yi Zhou
 SHS Research Poster Symposium 
2:45-4:00 in Carson Ballroom (Old Main)
A Developmental Comparison of Inhibition and Set Shifting Skills
in 2nd Graders, 5th Graders, and College Students
Alyssa Rekart, Kayleigh Durigg, Anne Iniguez, & Shelley Gray
Validation of SELPS-R English
Meaghan Riordan, Laida Restrepo, Shelley Gray, & Whitney Lee
Cross-language Naming Performance in Spanish-English Bilinguals
Vianeth Santiago, Ileana Ratiu, & Tamiko Azuma
Myofunctional Disorders and /s/ and /z/ Misarticulation in College Students
David Stettler & Juliet Weinhold
Visual Influences on Sound Localization
in Subjects with Asymmetric Hearing Loss
Emily Venskytis, Christopher Montagne, & Yi Zhou
What Only Kids Can Tell Us About Having Hearing Loss
Amanda Willman, & Andrea Pittman