Communicative Disorders Student Research

Special Project Workshop

An overview and question/answer session specifically addressing the special project process has been offered each August/September in the fall semester and each January/February in the spring semester. Our next workshop is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 1, 2008 from 11 a.m.–noon in Lea Hall, Room 226. Departmental requirements for the special project process will be covered at this time. Specific requirements in addition to those outlined during this inservice may be imposed by your specific supervisor. Attendance is mandatory for all students supervised by Drs. Swift, Weems and Bratcher.

ENMU Human Subjects

All CDIS research involving humans must be approved by the Human Subjects Committee prior to being conducted. The Human Subjects Committee is responsible for screening all studies that employ human subjects conducted under the auspices of Eastern New Mexico University. The screening guidelines employed are those set by DHHS and the ethical standards of the APA.

View the Protection of Human Subjects Policies and Guidelines and Screening Form. These documents outline the policies and procedures for the protection of human subjects in research, instruction, development and other activities conducted at or sponsored by Eastern New Mexico University. It also serves to implement the specific requirements of the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare (45 Code of Federal Regulations, Part 46) as revised April 1, 1977.

Note: The Human Subjects Committee meets the last Tuesday of each month. Proposals are due in the Grant and Contract Management Office the Thursday preceding the meeting.

ENMU Student Research Conference

The 35th Annual Student Research Conference will be scheduled in April, 2009. Check back later for details. All students and faculty are invited to attend presentations.

Abstracts of papers are typically due in March to Dr. Anthony Schroeder, Communication Center, Room 104, ENMU Station 27 or via e-mail at anthony.schroeder@enmu.edu.

Student Research

Student Special Project Research Activities - Current

• Bonnie Ballard: Supervisor: Million. In progress.
• Amy Bates: What does an SLP do? Perceptions of nurses. Supervisor: Swift/Bratcher/Weems. In progress.
• Kimberly Clark: The relationship of articulation/language disorders to reading and spelling: A case study. Supervisor: Bratcher/Swift/Weems. In progress.
• Renee Garcia: Stuttering in 2 Languages: Prevalence of Stuttering Characteristics in a Spanish- American Adult Male. Supervisor: Swift/Bratcher/Weems. In progress.
• Stephanie Hammond-Lebsack: Stuttering in 2 Languages: Prevalence of Stuttering Characteristics in a Chinese American Adult Male. Supervisor: Swift/Bratcher/Weems. In progress.
• Rachael Harrell: The language of gaming: Comparisons of conversational characteristics of young males while playing video games. Supervisor: Weems/Swift/Bratcher. In progress.
• Christina Hidalgo: Auditory attention and language processing: Male vs. female voices. Supervisor: Weems/Bratcher/Swift. In progress.
• Tristin Kirkpatrick: Students in Speech Pathology: A Survey of Expectations and Needs of Future Graduate Students in a CDIS. Supervisor: Swift/Bratcher/Weems. In progress.
• Colita Messer: Bridging the gap: A qualitative study on common social semantic themes with geriatric populations. Supervisor: Bratcher/Swift/Weems. In progress.
• Caitlin Mock: Perceived vocal effects of Firefighting. Supervisor: Weems/Bratcher/Swift. In progress.
• Heather Rosson and Ashley Canard: Speech characteristics and listener perceptions. Supervisor: Weems/Bratcher/Swift. In progress.
• Louise Seiler: Do Selected American Popular Musical Works from 1941-1945 (a.k.a. the World War II Era) Played in the Background Result in a Change in the Amount of Verbal/Vocal Communication Among Nursing Home Resident Peers Born Before 1930? Supervisor: Bird. In progress.
• Ailea Villanueva and Lindsey Broom: The Token, the TAPS, and the CELF: A few correlations. Supervisor: Swift/Bratcher/Weems. In progress.
• Greg Villar: The Impact of Non-Speech Oral Motor Articulation Therapy on the Phonemes /r/ and /s/ in a Single Subject Design. Supervisor: Swift/Bratcher/Weems. In progress.
• Michelle Whitehead: Auditory bombardment: Effects on articulation production. Supervisor: Bratcher/Weems/Swift. In progress.
• Rebecca Wise: Prosodic features in normal versus sarcastic speech: A comparison of speech characteristics. Supervisor: Weems/Bratcher/Swift. In progress.
• Amber Wyman: Timed tests: Are they valid? Supervisor: Swift/Bratcher/Weems. In progress.

Student Special Project Research Activities - Complete

2007-8

• Bridget Hanks: Diadochokinetic rate: Does this mean anything to you? Supervisor: Weems/Bratcher/Swift. Completed 2/08.
• Barbara Myers: The PPVT and Language Performance: Some interesting correlations. Supervisor: Swift/Bratcher/Weems. Completed 3/08. 2008 Research Conference Winner.

2006-7

• Katherine Casaus: Oral motor therapy: The efficacy of Beckman Exercises on articulation production. Supervisor: Bratcher/Weems/Swift. Completed 03/07.
• Tamara Dengler: Cerebral Palsy: Changes in New Mexico’s speech-pathology program curriculum. Supervisor: Bird. Completed 5/07.
• Anthony Flores: Steven: A Longitudinal Case Study. Supervisor: Bird. Completed 12/06.
• Ashley Golden: Is a True/False Test Stimulus more or less of a valid assessment than a multiple choice test stimulus? Supervisor: Bratcher/Swift/Weems. Completed 3/07.
• Tabitha Gore: The role of phonetic/articulation training in auditory discrimination, memory, and phonetic/phonemic processing. Supervisor: Weems/Bratcher/Swift. Completed 3/07.
• Amy Hartley: Perceptions of therapy: A survey of elementary, junior, and high school students receiving speech language pathology services. Supervisor: Swift/Bratcher/Weems. Completed 5/07. 2007 Research Conference Winner.
• Kathryn Klepper: Speech Recognition/Intelligibility Differences: A Comparison of PPVT-III Performance and Reading Passage Intelligibility When Asian Influenced English and Standard American English is Rated by Primary Asian Language Speakers (ESL speakers). Supervisor: Weems/Bratcher/Swift. Completed 2/07.
• Angie May: Perceived communication characteristics of teens having Asperger Syndrome: A survey of untrained observers. Supervisor: Swift/Bratcher/Weems. Completed 4/07.
• Linda Moya: Lip reading variability: The effects of facial piercing on the lip-reading abilities of persons having hearing loss and persons with normal hearing. Supervisor: Weems/Bratcher/Swift. Completed 2/07.
• Dejoundla Roberts: Stuttering therapy efficacy across settings. Supervisor: Bratcher/Weems/Swift. Completed 5/07.
• Jessica Sanchez, Maria Sanchez, and Mavrina Sanchez: When do /l/ and /r/ emerge? A descriptive study of developmental norms for children ages 3-0 to 6-6. Supervisor: Swift/Weems/Bratcher. Completed 4/07.
• Elizabeth Shafer: The effect of AAC on communicative forms in adults having Developmental Disabilities. Supervisor: Bratcher/Weems/Swift. Completed 03/07.
• Sherry Thain: A comparison of verbal reinforcements and tangible reinforcements: The geriatric population. Supervisor: Bird. Completed 5/07.
• Allyson Warrick: The role of phonetic/articulation training in novel sound production. Supervisor: Swift/Weems/Bratcher. Completed 4/07.

2005-6

• Breanne Black: Vocal fatigue: The effectiveness of daily vocal warm-ups for reducing perceived vocal fatigue in early elementary teachers. Supervisor: Weems/Swift. Completed 5/06.
• Mariola Clark: Speech recognition/intelligibility differences: A comparison of PPVT-III performance and reading passage intelligibility when discriminating Spanish Influenced English (SpIE) and Standard American English (SAE) productions. Supervisor: Swift/Weems. Completed 12/05.
• Ashley Colston: Contrasting therapy schedules: Frequency versus duration of intervention. Supervisor: Swift/Weems. Completed 12/05.
• Tiffany Huizenga and Johnna Garcia: Lights, Sound, Action! The effects of auditory and visual memory/coding skills on repetition tasks, following directions, and phonemic sequencing. Supervisor: Swift/Weems. Completed 04/06. 2006 Research Conference Winner.
• Karen Lopez Walker: Augmentative-Alternative Communication in public school classrooms: A survey of knowledge and needs of general and special education teachers. Supervisor: Swift/Weems. Completed 04/06.
• Jennifer Martinez: Articulation, language, and reading: The relationship between phonological processing ability scores and articulation/language production. Supervisor: Swift/Weems. Completed 04/06.
• Tonya Rush: Moving ForWord: A computer generated school based language learning program. Supervisor: Bratcher. Completed 03/06.
• Corey Walker: Restricting clinician speech: The effects of decreased therapist MLU and verbal narration on script therapy efficacy. Supervisor: Swift/Weems. Completed 04/06.
• Robin Woodbury Pickering: Therapeutic horsemanship: Effectiveness in facilitating increased communication initiations. Supervisor: Swift/Weems. Completed 04/06.

2004-5

• Janice Baca-Lujan: Educating caregivers of children with visual impairments about speech and language development: A case study. Supervisor: Swift. Completed 12/04.
• Heidi J. Blackwell: The effects of behavior modification on adolescent language delays: Can reinforcement/punishment improve conversational maintenance/regulation and decrease conversational echolalia? Supervisor: Swift. Completed 5/05. 2005 Research Conference Winner.
• Mandy McDaniel: Articulation intervention efficacy: A comparison of multiple phoneme and cycles approaches. Supervisor: Swift. Completed 5/05.
• Melissa Pacheco: Do distractions and/or competing tasks influence an individual's word finding abilities? The effects of competing stimuli and distraction on word finding speed and accuracy. Supervisor: Swift. Completed 4/05.
• Joanne Payne: Learning American Sign Language: The impact of auditory, visual, and kinesthetic learning styles on student performance. Supervisor: Swift. Completed 11/04.