Purpose: Individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often exhibit auditory processing issues, including poor speech recognition in background noise and dichotic processing (integration of different stimuli presented to the two ears). Auditory training could mitigate these auditory difficulties. However, few auditory training…

This study examined the effectiveness of an ultrasound visual biofeedback (UVB) training on speech-language pathology (SLP) students' assessment of sonographic tongue configuration. This study examined the presence of a functional relation between an ultrasound visual biofeedback (UVB) training within the Participatory Adult Teaching Strategy…

Purpose and Method of Study: The purpose of this causal-comparative quantitative study was to investigate the effect of classroom audio distribution (CAD) technology implementation on the percentage of elementary school students in special education as a potential strategy to improve the learning process for at-risk students. Fourteen K-5 and K-6…

Exposure to high sound levels may lead to a variety of hearing abnormalities, including Noise-Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL). Pre-professional university music majors may experience frequent exposure to elevated sound levels, and this may have implications on their future career prospects (Jansen, Helleman, Dreschler & de Laat, 2009). Studies…

At its most basic level, sight-reading can be defined as the production of accurate pitch and rhythm from a previously unseen musical score. For vocalists, sight-reading principally involves the production of pitches by determining their relationship within a tonal framework. The ability to mentally conceive tonal function and convert it into…

The ultimate goal for many choral directors is to develop independent musicians within the ensemble. The ability to sing a series of pitches and rhythms at first sight is widely understood to be a fundamental building block of independent musicianship. Yet sight-reading is not simply a holistic skill. There are separate components of…

In our pilot studies, we found that many introductory physics textbook illustrations with supporting text for sound standing waves of air columns in open-open, open-closed, and closed-closed pipes inhibit student understanding of sound standing wave phenomena due to student misunderstanding of how air molecules move within these pipes. Based on…

Purpose: In this study, the authors examined how signal clarity interacts with the use of sentence context information in determining speech-in-noise recognition for children with cochlear implants and children with normal hearing. Method: One hundred and twenty sentences in which the final word varied in predictability (high vs. low semantic…

Language immersion students' lexical, syntactic, and pragmatic competencies are well documented, yet their phonological skill has remained relatively unexplored. This study investigates the Spanish vowel productions of a cross-sectional sample of 35 one-way Spanish immersion students. Learner productions were analyzed acoustically and compared to…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine sentence-recognition performance for a large, diverse group of nonnative speakers of English on the recently developed Basic English Lexicon (BEL) sentence materials and to determine whether BEL sentence lists are equated in difficulty for this population. Method: The BEL sentences were presented…

This perceptual study describes changes in how listeners perceive VCV elements within successive truncations taken from an iambic phrase containing l (e.g. "a leaf", or "a load") spoken by four male speakers of General American English. Evidence of the respective roles of dorsal gestural affiliation between l and the reduced…

Purpose: To explore the use of noninvasive functional imaging and "virtual" lesion techniques to study the neural mechanisms underlying motor speech disorders in Parkinson's disease. Here, we report the use of positron emission tomography (PET) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to explain exacerbated speech impairment following…

A survey of sound levels was taken in several Texas schools to determine the amount of noise and sound present by size of class, type of activity, location of building, and the presence of air conditioning and large amounts of glass. The data indicate that class size and relative amounts of glass have no significant bearing on the production of…

Describes one Texas high school's efforts to obtain funding for a new music facility and the planning process behind its design. Acoustics and storage space considerations are discussed. (GR)

The concept of waves is fundamental due to its occurrence throughout the natural world. Because the concept occurs in so many places, students come to the classroom with prior knowledge, as well as misconceptions, about waves. Students have misconceptions about what is waving in a wave, what properties of the medium determine wave speed, and how…