Student Highlight
UA Speech Langauge Pathology Students Presented at ASHA Convention
The UA Communicative Disorders department is pleased to announce that Speech Language Pathology graduate students Mya McGee and Ashley Patete Hamlin presented their research as poster sessions at the 2011 ASHA convention.
Ashley Patete Hamlin
Ashley Patete Hamlin
Ashley Patete Hamlin is a 5th semester graduate student who presented at the 2011 ASHA Convention in San Diego, CA. Her areas of interest include incorporating Augmentative Alternative Communication into treatment for adult and child speech and language disorders. The title of her presentation is Improving Verbalizations using an SGD in a Child with Pachygyria. Pachygyria is a rare developmental disorder caused by a congenital malformation of the cerebral hemisphere. Symptoms include varying degrees of mental retardation, developmental delays and seizures impacting speech and language development. The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of a high-tech speech-generating device on verbal requesting in a child with Pachygyria. Findings will contribute to the limited research on the clinical management of communicative disorders in young children with Pachygyria. Ashley graduated with honors from the University of Alabama in 2009 with a bachelor’s degree in Communicative Disorders and Spanish. She will graduate with her master’s degree in Speech-Language Pathology in December of 2011.
Mya McGee
Mya McGee is a 2nd semester graduate student who graduated with a B.S. in Speech-Language Pathology and a minor in Spanish from the University of Montevallo in 2011. Her research interests include bilingual speech pathology and early intervention. She presented her research, “Listener Perceptions of Standard American English and 4 Regional Dialects” at the 2011 ASHA Convention in San Diego, CA. Her study analyzed listener perceptions of Standard American English (SAE) and four regional dialects common in the southern region of the United States: African-American English (AAE), Spanish-Influenced English (SIE), Southern White Vernacular English (SWVE) and Appalachian English (Ap. E). Two groups of students, SLP majors and non-SLP majors, responded to a 20-item questionnaire and rated the speakers in four main categories: personal characteristics, socioeconomic status, education, and life style. The participants were not informed of dialects that were present to them. It was hypothesized that because SLP majors have course work in multicultural issues, they would demonstrate less bias toward the various dialects than non-SLP majors. Results did not find significant difference between the groups.