"The Fourth Annual Undergraduate Research Conference recognizes and celebrates undergraduate research and creative activities at Minnesota State University, Mankato. Our faculty is committed to working side by side with students and organizing this conference has revealed both the long and productive record of undergraduate research on campus and the many benefits that occur as the result of faculty mentoring undergraduate students. Students involved in these efforts have better retention rates, excel academically, and are more competitive in the job market and graduate school admissions. . . . The conference featured oral and performance based/visual arts presentations, and poster presentations from four campus colleges. Our congratulations to the students and their faculty members." Karen A. Boubel, Interim President, Minnesota State University, Mankato.
Jackie Christensen, Laura Brandt, Ryan Stoneburner, Amy Schmitz. Faculty mentor, Patricia Hargrove
The purpose of this research was to compare the type token ratios (the number of different words divided by the total number of words) of children with Williams Syndrome to those of typically developing peers. Williams Syndrome has several characteristics including developmental delay; however, language skills are reported to be superior to motor and other cognitive skills.
Subjects included six typically developing children and six children with Williams Syndrome. Each of the children listened to an audiotape version of a story and retold it to his/her parent who had not been present during the playing of the audiotape. Audiotapes of the children's versions of the stories were transcribed and entered into the computerized Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (SALT).
SALT computed the type token ratio (the number of different words divided by the total number of words), the number of word roots, and the number of words produced by the subjects. The results indicated that there are some similarities and some differences between children with Williams Syndrome and their typically developing peers on these measures.
Williams Syndrome impacts physical, cognitive, behavioral, and motor development. The purpose of our research was to compare the occurrence of abandoned utterances of children with Williams Syndrome to those of their typically developing peers. Our subjects consisted of six children with Williams Syndrome ages 10-17 years, and six typically developing children ages 3-8 years.
Our procedure started by matching each typically developing child with a Williams Syndrome child. Matches were based on gender and language performance on the vocabulary subtest of the Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test. Each individual provided a sample of speech through the retelling of a story. The data was entered into a computerized language evaluating system known as the Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (SALT).
Our results concluded that there was a significant difference of p=.032 and determined that children with Williams Syndrome have a higher probability of abandon utterances than their typically developing peers.
Karine Murray, Vickie Benda, Sara Hanson, Becca Meger Faculty mentor, Patricia Hargrove
Williams Syndrome is a genetic birth defect affecting 1 in 20,000 live births. Person with Williams Syndrome share common facial features, heart conditions, and language abilities.
Research was conducted to compare the mean length of utterance in morphemes and in words in narratives (stories) of children with Williams Syndrome and those of typically developing peers. The subject involved in the research study were six children from each group matched according to linguistic capabilities. Two different transcribers transcribed an audio taped language sample with the differences reconciled by a third evaluator.
The data were entered into the computerized Systematic Analysis of Language Transcription known as SALT. According to the Mann-Whitney U test, results indicated no significant differences in the mean length of utterance of morphemes or words.
Sara Lindquist, Allyson Segar, Mary Skarohlid, Teresa Weng Faculty mentor, Patricia Hargrove
Williams Syndrome (WS) is a genetic disorder accompanied by development delay. Based on the literature, children with WS are very talkative but lack depth and content in the language, and may have word-finding problems. Often, when speakers have word-finding problems, they will produce false starts, repetitions, or reformulations, which will disrupt the forward flow of speech. These disruptions are referred to as mazes.
The purpose of this project was to determine if children with WS produce more mazes during the retelling of narratives than typically developing children. Samples of speech were collected from children with WS and typically developing children. Speech samples were analyzed using Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (SALT).
We predicted that children with WS would produce more mazes than typically developing children .The results, however, indicated that there was no significant difference in the number of mazes produced by children with WS and the number of mazes produced by typically developing children.
Christen ConradFaculty mentor, Patricia Hargrove
Williams Syndrome is associated with mental retardation, impaired motor skills, selected behavioral disturbance, visuospatial deficits, and language skills that are superior to those expected based on the knowledge of the level of nonverbal intelligence. The objective of the study was to explore oral story retelling skills of speakers with Williams Syndrome and children who are developing language typically.
Six speakers with Williams Syndrome (WS) and six typically developing speakers served as subjects. Each child individually listened to an audiotape of the same story as their parent or guardian waited outside. Upon completion of this, the examiner invited the parent back in for the child to take their turn at retelling the story to them.
All verbalizations produced by the subjects were transcribed by students in Communication Disorders who had undergone academic and clinical training in transcribing. The transcriptions were analyzed using Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (SALT), using a 3-point scale. The 3-point scale served as a measuring tool to quantify how many content words were successfully recalled by each child and the nature of the errors.
The results indicate, thus far, that there are no significant differences between the two groups of children.
