"Welcome to the 7th annual Undergraduate Research Conference at Minnesota State University, Mankato. This conference provides an exciting opportunity for the University to showcase the research and creative activity of our undergraduate students. These projects, submitted by 174 students representing five colleges, are the result of collaboration between talented and motivated undergraduate students and their dedicated faculty mentors. This year's conference will again provide a wide array of on-going outstanding scholarly and creative activity on our campus. . . . I applaud the work of these students . . . . The entire University community celebrates the achievements of these outstanding undergraduate students and congratulates all participating students and their faculty mentors." Richard Davenport, President, Minnesota State University, Mankato.
Kayla Howk, Erin Rath, Laura Lindeman, and Amanda Simon Faculty mentor, Patricia Hargrove
Children with Williams syndrome have been described as "children who test as retarded, speak as though gifted, behave sometimes as though emotionally disturbed, and function like the learning disabled" (Semel and Rosner, 2003, p. 1). As a result of this complex pattern of performance, researchers have studied their unique characteristics. Research has typically focused on comprehension by standardized tests. However, less attention has been directed to the ability to understand information from conversations and stories. The purpose of this study was to examine the accuracy of responses to direct questions relating to stories (narratives). Six age and gender matched pairs of adolescents with Williams syndrome and typically developing adolescents listened to a prerecorded narrative and responded to direct questions about the narrative. Out of a possible twenty points, the mean score for participants with Williams syndrome was twelve and the mean score for the typically developing peers was seventeen. This proved to be a statistically significant difference. Results from this study indicate that adolescents with Williams syndrome performed better than expected for individuals with developmental delays, but lower than their typically developing peers.
Katie Trefethren, Kayla Pudwill, and Meggon Anderson Faculty mentor, Patricia Hargrove
This project addressed the communication skills of speakers with Williams syndrome. Speakers with Williams syndrome are of interest to speech-language pathologists because of many puzzling features. Speakers with Williams syndrome "are noted for their well developed vocabulary, relatively complex and syntactically correct sentences, and their ability to spin a good tale. In contrast, their reasoning usually remains at a pre-operational or preschool level, and their typically have difficulty grasping cause-effect relations" (Semel and Rosner, 2003, p. 5).
This research focused on an area of communication called pragmatics which involves the social use of language. Specifically, we looked at the frequency of irrelevant topics produced in a conversation. Twelve participants, six with Williams syndrome and six typically developing peers, individually conversed with a graduate clinician on a topic of their interest. The conversations were analyzed for the frequency of irrelevant topics (an abrupt change in subject matter that has no relation to previous or present subject matter.)
The findings indicated that the participants with Williams syndrome exhibited significantly more introductions of irrelevant topics than their typically developing peers. This suggests that speakers with Williams syndrome may have more difficulty with conversation and pragmatics than expected.
Katie Kendhammer, Cristen Schnabel, Julie Nelson, Martha Winch, and Bethany Holbeck Faculty mentor, Patricia Hargrove
Researchers have shown an interest in children with Williams syndrome because of their unique communication characteristics. Briefly, some aspects of their language skills have been described as superior to their intellectual or cognitive skills, a pattern not expected in most theoretical models. One area of reported strength is their social use of language. In this study, we explored the rate of interruptions in conversational speech by children with Williams syndrome and their gender and age matched peers. Spontaneous speech samples of six adolescents with Williams syndrome and six typically developing peers were analyzed. The rate of interruptions was calculated for each participant. For the participants with Williams syndrome, the mean percentage of their utterances that were interruptions was 0.86. For the typically developing peers, the mean was 2.97. The difference between the two groups was not statistically significant. The results suggest that adolescents with Williams syndrome resemble their age peers in this aspect of conversational speech. This has ramifications for clinical issues as well as the understanding of the relationship between language and cognition.
