Wednesday, December 11, 2013

CSD Publishing News


The second edition of Language and Literacy Development: Development and Disorders, was published by Guilford Press in October 2013. Elaine Silliman is one of the co-editors along with C. A. Stone, B. J. Ehren, and G. P. Wallach. Dr. Silliman also has a chapter in the volume, co-authored with Louise Wilkinson, on Policy and practice issues for students at risk for language and literacy learning: Back to the future. In addition, she is a co-editor with Dr. Ruth Bahr of the CSD Program of the forthcoming Handbook of Communication Disorders to be published by Routledge.

Friday, December 6, 2013

SPEAKING OUT FOR APHASIA AT FLASHA 2014

People living with aphasia, their families, aphasia clinicians and researchers will once again come together at the National Aphasia Association's Speaking Out Conference. Speaking Out will be part of the FLASHA Convention program, and FLASHA attendees will have the option to attend both traditional presentations on the FLASHA program or consumer-oriented programming that will be part of the Speaking Out conference. The FLASHA Annual Convention will be held May 22-24, 2014 in Orlando this year. USF faculty Cheryl Paul, Donna Polelle and Jackie Hinckley are helping to plan the event along with faculty at UCF again for the third year. 

The 2012 program, also held in Orlando, drew 100 attendees who gained social support and information about living with aphasia. This year, the program will not have any financial support from the National Aphasia Association. Sponsorships and advertising opportunities are available for facilities and corporations, and donations of any size from individuals are gratefully accepted.  Please contact Cheryl Paul (capaul@usf.edu) or Jackie Hinckley (jhinckle@usf.edu) for details. Plan to attend with your clients, former clients, and aphasia groups!
Image courtesy of photostock and freedigitalphotos.net

Thursday, December 5, 2013

David Eddins, PhD, CCC-A, of CSD receives R01 grant for Psychoacoustic approach to dysphonic voice quality perception study


David Eddins, PhD, CCC-A, an audiologist and hearing scientist, has received an R01 grant for a study titled "Psychoacoustic approach to dysphonic voice quality perception," for        which Eddins is the primary investigator (PI). The 5-year, $2,250,261 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Institute on Deafness and Communication Disorders (NIDCD) will involve several CSD students and staff in addition to the PI from Michigan State University, Rahul Shrivastav, PhD, CCC-SLP, a speech-language pathologist and voice scientist."Voice quality is the most obvious symptom of most laryngeal disorders, including disorders associated with various neurological conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, ALS, and spasmodic dysphonia as well as mass lesions on the vocal folds due to abuse, misuse, or disease," says Eddins."Unfortunately, in contemporary research and clinical practice, the primary measure of voice quality relies on the perceptual ratings of one or a few people who listen to live or recorded samples of a patient’s voice, and these subjective ratings are not very reliable."The interdisciplinary collaboration between Eddins, Shrivastav, and their teams aims to create more reliable assessment of voice quality by establishing standardized measurements for basic investigation based on psychometric methods. To effectively create these measurements, establish formal conceptual models to predict voice quality perception based on large data sets collected in a laboratory setting."With the aid of these large data sets and model predictions, novel mathematical scales of measurement will be developed and validated for each of primary voice quality dimensions," says Eddins. "These scales will allow one to make quantitative and informative comparisons across patients, clinicians, laboratories and before, during and after treatment to establish treatment efficacy and outcomes."- By Theresa L Woods

CSD Associate Professor Presents in Europe


Stefan Frisch, PhD, recently presented a keynote address, “Deep Phonotactics”, at the 2nd International Workshop on Phonotactics and Phonotactic Modeling at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, Italy, November 22nd.  This workshop aimed to provide an informal atmosphere for discussion on experimental and theoretical aspects of phonotactics and phonotactic modeling in language sciences.  Dr. Frisch’s research examines the articulatory and cognitive processes that underlie knowledge of speech and language. 
During his trip to Europe, Dr. Frisch also presented two papers from his collaborative work with Dr. Nathan Maxfield (CSD) and graduate student Alissa Belmont (CSD) at the 6th Ultrafest meeting at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.   Ultrafest is a meeting of researchers working with Ultrasound imaging technology for linguistic analysis. The meeting was co-hosted by the CASL Research Centre (Centre for Audiology, Speech and Language, Queen Margaret University) and CSTR (the Centre for Speech Technology Research, University of Edinburgh).  This trip was supported in part by a USF Faculty International Travel Grant

Men in Speech Tackling Education, Recruitment and Retention (MISTERR)


USF Clinical Instructor in Speech-Language Pathology, Dr. Joseph Constantine, noticed the number of male SLP graduate students has declined to about one percent in the past decade. In the spring of 2012, Constantine started Men in Speech Tackling Education, Recruitment and Retention (MISTERR) in hopes of educating the public about the lack of diversity within the speech-language pathology profession. The objective of the group is to recruit and retain SLP students with varied social, cultural, linguistic and experiential backgrounds.
“There is often a perception and belief that nurturing and communicating are in the domain of ‘women's work’ but the world has changed,” said Constantine. “As a culture, we have moved beyond the 1950's-type values that kept women and men in such rigid social roles.”
When asked, USF male students exiting the program indicated that being a male minority and feeling like an outsider was factored into their decision to leave.
Timothy Stockdale, a current student in the SLP graduate program says that while he feels very accepted by his peers there are some social barriers that come with being the only male in a class of about 55 students.
Stockdale has never considered changing degree programs for this reason. However, he feels that closer relationships with others in the program could have provided him with a greater support during difficult times during his education.
The American Speech–Language–Hearing Association (ASHA) statistics depict a decline in the number of male SLPs from 4.7 percent in 2002 to 3.8 percent in 2012.
Feeling like a minority may not be the only factor contributing to the low number of men in SLP. ASHA conducted a study in 1997 that found men were more likely than women to express concerns about finding jobs that provided opportunities for advancement. The same study also showed men were more likely to categorize speech-language pathology and audiology as offering few opportunities for growth.
Perry Flynn, an ASHA board member who is associate professor at the University of North Carolina Greensboro states in the article, Where the Boys Aren’t by Kellie Rowden-Racette, he believes there is third factor contributing to the declining number of men in SLP: lack of awareness.
Constantine believes starting small will help build national attention for SLP, which is why he started MISTERR at USF.
Publishing articles in local newspapers and newsletters can also help spread awareness about what an SLP does and the numerous job opportunities available.
On a national level, Constantine believes continued education and marketing of SLP as a viable and rewarding career choice will help boost the number of males in the field, including corporate partnerships to assist in funding of marketing. Secondly, he believes MISTERR can grow into a national organization and play a major role in recruiting and retaining more diverse students.
“Men today are active and nurturing parents; they are effective nurses, counselors, psychologists and therapists,” said Constantine. “Men and women are blazing new trails with how they interact and communicate with each other. The membership of ASHA should reflect these historic changes but, unfortunately, demographics point to something of a ‘time capsule’ within the association.”
The scope of practice is very broad in SLP.  It not only allows work in schools with children who have problems with language or articulation, but it allows the  opportunity to work in hospitals, nursing homes, and other medical settings treating individuals who may have a number of medical issues.
“Groups like MISTERR can help with recruitment and retention, by holding regular meetings for students and faculty to network and collaborate on pertinent issues,” said Constantine. “The presence of male SLPs as role models at health fairs, screenings and school events could expose young students to diverse professional opportunities.”
(reproduced from http://www.cbcs.usf.edu/NewsEvents/ViewNews.cfm?NewsID=848), Image courtesy of artur84 & freedigitalphotos.net

10th Anniversary for Tampa NSDS Group

The Tampa National Spasmodic Dysphonia Support Group proudly celebrated 10 years on Saturday September 21st at the War Veteran’s Memorial Park in St. Petersburg, FL.  The group was started by Darla Freeman-LeVay, Clinical Instructor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders. Spasmodic Dysphonia is a disabling voice disorder resulting in a strain-strangled voice and has no known etiology or cure. This group, sponsored by the National Student Speech Language Hearing Association, has raised over $10,000 in the past two years in support of research.  Our members are locally as well as nationally involved in continuing to educate the community and students here at USF.  For more information on Spasmodic Dysphonia go to www.dysphonia.org. (Pictured: Group Leaders, Ron Langdon and Jim Anderson accepting the recognition award from the NSDA.)


Tuesday, July 30, 2013

CSD Hosts Conference for Externship Supervisors


Externship supervisors who provide on-site clinical training for  speech-language pathology (SLP) and audiology grad students from the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) attended a conference Saturday, April 6th on the main campus of USF.  The 55 attendees learned how to improve supervisory skills in a general session before separating into sessions focusing on areas of specific interest.  There were 4 sessions targeting assessment and treatment of pediatric and school-aged clients that included an update for professionals on autism, treatment techniques for Selective Mutism and common core standards for language and literacy.  There were an additional 4 courses geared toward SLPs working in medical settings that included the use of assistive technology in aphasia treatment, differential diagnosis of severely impaired states of consciousness and evidence-based interventions for people with head and neck cancers.

Clinical faculty from USF-CSD were joined by Erin Rowe, an SLP specializing in head and neck cancer at Moffitt Cancer Center and Linda Picon, an SLP from the PolyTrauma Unit of James A Haley V.A. Hospital in Tampa.