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K-State Today

March 6, 2014

Seeking participants in study: Speech of children across the preschool age range

Submitted by Debra Burnett

This is the question posed in a research project by faculty in the program in communication sciences and disorders in the College of Human Ecology.

Debra Burnett and Ann Smit have found that existing ways to measure understandability have severe limitations and they have devised a new questionnaire. The first step toward ensuring a valid assessment tool is to standardize the questionnaire for a group of typically developing preschoolers.

The study is called the "Standardization and Validation of the Caregiver-Parent Understanding-the-Child Questionnaire (CPUCQ)." Burnett and Smit are looking for participants for this study in the age range of 2-6 years of age. The session is scheduled at the parents’ convenience, either on campus or in the home and typically takes 45 minutes.

When they work with the child, they do preliminary screening of speech and hearing as well as video record a speech sample while the child and researcher play with toys. During this time the parent usually stays in the room and fills out the questionnaire.

There is a $15 honorarium to thank the parent and child for participating. If you are interested in participating, contact Ann Smit at 785-532-1481 or asmit@ksu.edu, or contact Debra Burnett at 785-532-0802 or deburnet@ksu.edu.