College: Education and Allied Health Professions
Program Director: Carmen Russell
The Speech-Language Pathology master's program is part of the Department of Communication Disorders and Deaf Education at Fontbonne University. Each year, SLP graduate students are required to make a poster or thesis presentation on a topic of their choice, usually at the annual convention of the Missouri Speech-Language Hearing Association. Materials from those presentations are archived here.
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Effectiveness of the Montessori Method for Dementia Patients
Breanna Baker
Dementia is characterized by a progressive decline in memory and other cognitive domains that can interfere with daily living and independent functioning. Symptoms associated with dementia continue to progress in severity until death occurs. This poster will present the available data on The Montessori Program, a specific treatment method that was initially researched more than twenty years ago and is currently being utilized around the globe in more than ten countries. In 1907, Dr. Maria Montessori discovered that experiential learning led to a deeper understanding of language, mathematics, science, music, social interactions, and much more. Montessori is a method of education that is based on self-directed activity, hands-on learning, and collaborative play. Montessori is used in classrooms where children make creative choices in their learning, while the classroom and highly trained teacher offer age-appropriate activities to guide the process. This poster will review research surrounding this treatment method and its clinical practice when treating those with dementia and the efficacy behind the method.
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Creative Arts Therapy for Individuals with Cognitive-Communication Disorders
Julianne Cadieux
This poster will provide an overview regarding the characteristics and prevalence of cognitive-communication disorders, specifically in terms of dementia. Discussion of cognitive, functional, and affective difficulties among those with dementia will occur. The session will give a description of creative arts therapy, with inclusion of the forms and purpose. The utilization and efficacy of creative arts therapy among those with dementia will be examined. Discussion of the impact of creative arts therapy regarding quality of life (QOL) and its affect on skilled services for dementia patients will occur.
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Walking the Walk: Culturally Responsive Practices in Augmentative Alternative Communication
Aaron M. Doubet
For many Americans, the ability to communicate effortlessly is an impossibility. For these individuals, the provision of Augmentative Alternative Communication (AAC) is of utmost importance. This current pilot study addressed the cultural representations present within stock AAC systems. The pilot study focused on two research questions: If I quantitatively and qualitatively analyze the iconography of AAC systems, in what ways, if any, will the information inform the researcher of potential cultural mismatches evident within the factory stock iconographic programming? If I analyze AAC devices using a deductive qualitative coding scheme, in what ways, if any, will this inform the researcher about the nature of cultural representations within AAC devices in factory stock programming?
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The Use of Aided Language with AAC in Childhood Apraxia of Speech
Caroline Husmann
Individuals with complex communication needs cannot communicate functionally through spoken language (Beck et. al, 2009). The ultimate goal for communication is to build relationships and connections (Walker & Chung, 2021) Augmentative and alternative communication, or AAC, allows these children and adults with speech or language impairments to effectively communicate their wants and needs.
This session will provide an overview of the definition and specific treatment methods for aided language with augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) intervention for children with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS), as well as a brief overview of the definition and symptoms of CAS.
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Familial Response to Augmentative Alternative Communication in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Communities
Amy N. Ingold
The purpose of this presentation is to discuss the current literature regarding augmentative alternative communication devices (AAC) in culturally and linguistically diverse communities. The roles expected of being facilitators of an AAC device may conflict with a family’s cultural identity, values, home-based language, and abilities. This session will provide an overview of the definition, current state, efficacy, and challenges of culturally responsive practices in AAC services. In addition to reviewing the prevalence of AAC in culturally and linguistically diverse communities, facilitator perceptions and competence will be discussed. The literature suggests that cultural identification and literacy are closely tied. These factors should be considered when implanting AAC intervention across the lifespan. Future studies should focus on increased awareness of cultural and linguistic values and their effect on the intimacy of literacy.
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Cochlear Implants, Psychopathology, and Psychosocial Functioning
Aleeza Katz
The relationship between psychosocial functioning and speech intelligibility in CWCI as compared to children with typical hearing is mixed.
• Social competence: Despite documented gains in oral language in CWCI, deficits in social competence remained after several years of implant use (Hoffman et al., 2016).
• Socialization and social integration: CWCI made significant progress over time and achieved ageappropriate social development (Bat-Chava, Martin, & Kosciw, 2005).
• Social skills and self-esteem: CWCI who were mainstreamed for more than half of the day reported having hearing friends. More than 75% reported good spoken language skills enabled them to participate more fully in all aspects of their lives (Moog et al., 2011)
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Senior Capstone: Lessons Learned Working With A Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Survivor
William Blake Klenke
This presentation outlines what a speech-language pathologist does within their scope of practice and follows the progression of a client that was served at the Eardley Clinic for Speech-Language and Hearing. Following the therapeutic approaches taken to remediate language difficulties, this presentation shows the treatment outcomes and the growth in cognitive functions from the beginning to the end of the semester. It also includes lessons learned as a student clinician through this experience and the knowledge gained as a future Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP).
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What is Known About the Treatment Methods of Bilingual Aphasia?
Alexis LaRose
The growing prevalence of bilingual speakers creates a need for speech language pathologists to determine ethical and evidenced based treatment methods for this population. According to a current research study, approximately 45,000 new bilingual aphasia cases are expected per annum in the United States (Paradis, 2001). This session will provide an overview of the unique recovery process people with bilingual aphasia present with and the current evidence-based treatment methods of multidisciplinary, semantic feature analysis and video-implemented script training, and their efficacy on improving communicative abilities. Future research is needed to enhance efficacy of established treatment methods for people with bilingual aphasia.
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Returning to the Classroom after a Traumatic Brain Injury
Carly McGrath
This session will provide an overview of the issues college athletes may face when returning to the classroom after a concussion. The definition and symptoms of concussion will be reviewed in official medical terms and in college athlete terms. Residual cognitive effects of concussions in college athletes will be discussed. The role of speech-language pathologists in college athletes returning to the classroom after a concussion will also be reviewed.
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The Effects of Therapeutic Alliance in Physical Therapy and Possible Transfer to Intervention in Speech Language Pathology
Meghan Mudd
In this presentation, the techniques used within therapy sessions to strengthen therapeutic alliance between the therapist and client will be discussed along with current tools used to measure therapeutic alliance. Current perspectives on therapeutic alliance in speech language pathology will be discussed and compared to that of therapeutic alliance in Physical Therapy.
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Goal-Oriented Attentional Self-Regulation (GOALS) Treatment for Cognitive Rehabilitation of Veterans with TBI
Alissa Murphy
GOALS is an evidenced-based treatment method for cognitive rehabilitation that targets executive functioning by focusing on two main components: regulation of distractibility and the application of learned skills to self-made goals. GOALS treatment approach has been implemented to assist veterans with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and their resulting cognitive-communication disorders.
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Utilizing Kinesiology Taping within the NICU to Promote Oral Feeding Readiness in Preterm Infants with Oral Motor Dysfunction
Kaylee B. O'Brien
According to the World Health Organization, approximately 15 million babies are born prematurely every year, which greatly increases the risk for feeding difficulties amongst babies being cared for in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Preterm infants often experience prolonged stays in a NICU as medical professionals provide lifesaving and life-sustaining care. Amongst those medical professionals, is a Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) who is the expert in infant feeding. One of the many roles of a NICU SLP is to improve an infant’s oral motor control. In doing so, the SLP will look at ways in which they can increase functional strength and movement control of the lips, cheek, jaw, and tongue.
One way in ensuring this is through the application of Kinesiology Taping, also known as K-Tape (Gonzalez, 2021). However, there is limited research to support the efficacy of NICU SLPs utilizing K-Tape on infants. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to gain perspectives from NICU SLPs regarding their opinions, concerns, and thoughts about the effectiveness of implementing K-Tape as a treatment technique to promote safe and successful feeds.
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Viewing Diveristy as the Cherry on Top: Culturally Responsive Awareness and Practice Guide
Kyla Taylor
Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) and SLP students devote themselves to serving individuals with various communication, swallowing, and hearing disorders across the lifespan. SLPs not only encounter diverse diagnoses, but also diverse ethnicities, cultures, and backgrounds. Significant increases in the number of culturally and linguistically diverse individuals across the United States present a major challenge to monolingual SLPs who are required to serve children and their families from a variety of cultural or linguistic backgrounds (Caesar, 2013). Thus, there is an increase of importance for current and future SLPs to be ready to provide optimal services for clients who represent many backgrounds. An additional key factor to consider is the SLPs level of cultural competence. Cultural competence can be defined as the process through which one develops an understanding of self, while developing the ability to foster responsive, reciprocal, and respectful relationships with others (Battle, 2000). Future and current SLPs can better serve diverse populations when they are aware of their cultural competence, can utilize their knowledge of cultural and linguistic differences to facilitate client-clinician relationship building, and can identify opportunities to value the client’s culture and beliefs in therapy.
