ÌÇÐÄVlog

SPHS faculty are leading research teams organized to examine digital technologies and consumer health informatics in the care and management of health and disability. The SPHS Department was awarded funding ($300,000 across 3 years) through the Presidential Visionary Grant at ÌÇÐÄVlog to launch this line of inquiry.

Three digital interventions resulted from this initiative.

1. Tackling Tinnitus: Team Leader - Dr. Vinaya Manachaiah

2. Success with Stories: Team Leader - Dr. Monica L. Bellon-Harn and Dr. Lekeitha Morris

3. Conversation Connection: Team Leader - Dr. Jamie Azios

4. iVoice: Team Leader - Ms. Abigail Dueppen

Research dedicated to the understanding of consumer health informatics in SPHS are on- going. Recent publications include:

Bellon-Harn, M., Manchaiah, V., & Sashikanth, S. (in press). A Content Analysis of YouTube Videos Related to children with speech and language disorders. Journal of Consumer Health Information.

*Bellon-Harn, M., Ulep, A., Manchaiah, V., & Dueppen, A. (online version). Voice Online: A cross-sectional study of the portrayal of voice disorders in YouTube videos. Perspectives.

*Bellon-Harn, M., Manchaiah, V., & Kunda, K. (online version). Quality, readability and suitability of English-language Internet information about children with speech and language disorders. Digital Health Journal.

Manchaiah, V., Kelly-Campbell, R., Bellon-Harn, M., & Buekes, E. (online version). Quality, readability and suitability of hearing health related materials: A descriptive review. American Journal of Audiology.

Bellon-Harn, Ni, J., & Manchaiah, V. (online version). Twitter usage about Autism Spectrum Disorder. Autism.

*Manchaiah, V., Bellon-Harn, M., Godina, I., & Beukes, E. (online version). Portrayal of hearing loss in YouTube videos: An exploratory cross-sectional analysis. American Journal of Audiology.

Ni, J, Bellon-Harn, M., Zhang, J., Li, Y., & Manchaiah, V. (online version). Twitter usage using common reference to tinnitus. American Journal of Audiology.

Manchaiah, V., Bellon-Harn, M., Kelly-Campbell, R., Buekes, E., Bailey, A., & Pyykkő, Ilmari. (online version). Media use by older adults with hearing loss: An exploratory survey. American Journal of Audiology.

*Manchaiah, V., Bellon-Harn, M., Michaels, M., & Buekes, E. (online version). A Content Analysis of YouTube Videos Related to Hearing Aids. American Journal of Audiology.

Bellon-Harn, M., Manchaiah, V., & Morris, L. (2020). Autism Online: A cross-sectional study of the portrayal of Autism Spectrum Disorders in YouTube videos. Autism, 24(1), 263-268.

Dueppen, A., Bellon-Harn, M., & Manchaiah, V. (2019). Suitability of English language Internet-based information for voice disorders. Journal of Voice, online version.

Azios, J. H., Bellon-Harn, M., Dockens, A. L., & Manchaiah, V. (2019). Quality and readability of English-language internet information for aphasia. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 21(1), 1-9.

Dueppen, A., Bellon-Harn, M., Radhakrishnan, N., & Manchaiah, V. (2019). Quality and readability of Internet-based information for voice disorders. Journal of Voice, 33(3), 290-296.

* Bellon-Harn, M. L., Smith, D. J., Dockens, A. L., Manchaiah, V., & Azios, J. H. (2018). Quantity, quality, and readability of online information for college students with ASD seeking student support services. Reading Improvement, 55(1).

Manchaiah, V., Dockens, A., Flagge, A., Bellon-Harn, M., Azios, J., Kelly-Campbell, R. & Andersson, G. (2018). Quality and readability of English-language Internet information for tinnitus. Journal of the American Academy of Audiology, 30(1), 31-40.

The focus of the social ACCESS lab is to promote life participation and support social engagement for individuals with communication disorders. Key values guiding this socially centered work at all levels include Acceptance, Community, Connection, Education, Service, and Support.

The goals for Social ACCESS Lab programs are to increase 1) access to social infrastructure for disempowered communicators through a combination of socially geared clinical programming, 2) support for communicative success, 3) advocacy and education to promote inclusion practices, 4) education of future clinicians, and 5) research inquiry related to these clinical and educational practices.

Director: Karen Whisenhunt Saar, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, Assistant Professor of Speech-Language Pathology

(kwsaar@lamar.edu)

Current clinical programming associated with the Social ACCESS Lab:

• interACT: summer inclusion theatre partnership with Beaumont Community Players 
• Cognitive Stimulation Therapy: group services for individuals living with dementia offered within the ÌÇÐÄVlog SLP clinic

For information related to clinic program enrollment, contact the Speech-Language Pathology clinic at (409) 880-8171

The primary goals of this lab include (1) to provide of clinical services in the assessment of balance and dizziness; (2) to conduct research in vestibular physiology in both health and pathology; and (3) to improve balance and treat vestibular disorders.

This lab functions to satisfy goals in the areas of teaching, research, student training, and community service. The aims of this lab are to study human voice production, assess measures of voice produced by patients and implement treatment strategies, explore vocal parameters of professional voice users such as singers and actors, design programs towards prevention of voice disorders and enhancement of voice in clients to meet the vocal demands they face in their daily life. The state-of-the-art equipment in this lab enables students both within the department and across campus learn vocal arts and science and evaluation of disorders.

This lab develops custom research interfaces to investigate the perception of different sounds by cochlear implant users. The overall goal is to determine whether auditory processes not currently incorporated in cochlear implants (such as adaptation) can provide a more natural hearing experience through the implant. Another important issue is how to facilitate the understanding of speech in background noises, which is presently a serious problem for cochlear implant users.

This lab is equipped with instrumentation necessary to record and analyze a wide range of auditory-evoked potentials from human subjects. The general goal of most of the experiments conducted in this laboratory is to evaluate the extent to which these evoked potential measures can be used to predict performance on a range of different listening tasks and diverse disorders and pathologies.