Journal of Undergraduate Research

Janet Crapo and Dr. Barbara Culatta, Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology Early literacy skills in children have become an area of national interest due to the implications in later-developing literacy and academics. These early literacy skills are closely connected with the concept of phonemic awareness, or “the knowledge of meaningful sounds, or phonemes, in our language […]

Melissa Willes and Dr. Barbara Culatta, Audiology and Speech Language Pathology Effective literacy skills are essential to success in life. In order to gain these skills, a strong literacy foundation must be established during childhood. Any impairment of this skill has a profound effect on the life of a child. Children with delayed literacy skills […]

Kathryn S. Todd and Dr. Martin Fujiki, Audiology and Speech Language Pathology Children diagnosed with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) “exhibit significant limitations in language functioning that cannot be attributed to deficits in hearing, oral structure and function, or general intelligence” (Leonard, 1987). Recently, research revealed children with SLI also demonstrate difficulty in social interaction. As […]

Sue Pickens and Dr. Barbara Culatta, Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology Currently, Dr. Culatta is working on Project CALL, a Contextualized Approach to Language and Literacy. She is looking at how language and literacy skills can be taught to preschool children in Head Start. As an extension of her research, I analyzed children’s participation and engagement […]

Melanie D. Javid and Dr. Martin Fujiki, Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology Children with specific language impairment (SLI) have difficulties with language comprehension and production that is not attributed to other disabilities. Studies have shown that these children are also at risk for social problems. These social problems are assumed to be the outcome of the […]

Andrea Dance, Martha Gray, Natalie Roach, and Dr. Martin Fujiki, Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology As part of a research team consisting of professors of Speech-Language Pathology and Psychology and graduate students, our goal was to achieve a clearer understanding of the relationship between emotion and language. We wanted to see if children with restricted language […]

Jessica Goates and Dr. Richard W. Harris, Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology Routine audiological assessments include pure-tone thresholds and assessment of the patient’s ability to perceive speech. The performance of speech audiometry materials is very important for determining how well a patient can hear speech. Our research was designed to determine if using different speech audiometry […]

Julie Grandy & April Fitzgerald and Martin Fujiki & Bonnie Burton, Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology Children with specific language impairment (SLI) are those who have difficulty learning language despite relatively normal sensory and intellectual abilities. Research and current literature have shown that there is a relationship between language competence and social competence (Brinton & Fujiki, […]

Lisa Christensen, Maggie Hansen, and Bethany Hillary with Dr. Martin Fujiki, Communication Disorders In the field of speech-language pathology, we encounter many children with what is known as language impairment. This impairment cannot be attributed to intellectual or sensory factors, and has been shown to involve a delay in both semantic (word meanings) and syntactic […]

Tayler Whitmer and Dr. Bonnie Brinton, Communication Disorders In recent studies, assistive robotics has been useful in increasing joint attention skills between a child with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and other individuals (Acerson, 2011). These data also show a potential change in tantrum behaviors before and after intervention sessions with the robot. Tantrum behaviors, although […]