Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders

Parkinson's disease is an incurable, progressive neurodegenerative brain disorder. Individuals living with Parkinson's disease often face considerable challenges in managing the progressive decline of their symptoms and maintaining their quality of life (Broadfoot et al., 2019). During the progression of PD, 75-90% of individuals will have a speech and voice disorder (National Center for Voice and Speech, 2019). The communication disorder most commonly associated with PD is hypokinetic dysarthria (HKD). Many individuals with PD may have significant difficulty communicating and participating effectively in a variety of speaking situations due to their communication deficits (Dykstra et al., 2015). Addressing an individuals perceived quality of communication and their perceived communication effectiveness should be an essential target during intervention due to the implications it has on the psychological well-being and prognosis for people with PD. Participants in this study were recruited from individuals previously diagnosed with Parkinson's disease attending the SPEAK OUT! & LOUD Crowd® program. The research questions included (1) Does the implementation of the SPEAK OUT! ® and the LOUD Crowd® program have a positive effect on participants’ perceived quality of communication (PQOC), and (2) Do these programs have a significant positive effect on participants perceived communicative effectiveness (PCE)? The Voice Handicap Index (VHI) and the Communicative Effectiveness Survey- Revised (CESR®) were utilized in this research study. The surveys were administered prior to the SPEAK OUT!® training and following the completion of this portion of the program. They were administered every 16 weeks while the participant was in the LOUD Crowd® training during the duration of this project. It was hypothesized that participants' PQOC related to their voice and their PCE will improve following the implementation of this program. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, results from this study only considered baseline scores and post-test 1 scores following the completion of the SPEAK OUT!® program. The results from this study support the hypothesis that the SPEAK OUT!® program has a positive effect on the participants’ PQOC.

This study examines effective strategies of communication with Hispanic students through the use of printed material, specifically recruitment viewbooks used by colleges and universities. The Hispanic market is significant in south Florida. As colleges and universities begin to seek to communicate the benefits of their institutions to this population, it is important to produce printed communication in a manner that appeals to members of the Hispanic culture. Using a qualitative approach through focus group research, Hispanic freshmen students of a community college and upper division students at a public university were asked a series of open-ended questions about their preferences in the use of language, photographs and several design elements of three publications. One college viewbook represented a majority enrollment of Hispanics. The second viewbook represented a university that is culturally diverse. A third viewbook represented a university that has Hispanic enrollment of less than 4%.

This study examined 1994 gubernatorial election coverage by two Florida daily newspapers, The Miami Herald and The Sun-Sentinel, to determine if their coverage was biased. The author conducted content analyses of the titles and terms both papers used to describe the candidates, the total column inches devoted to each candidate, and the number of times the candidate's name appeared in headlines. The results of the analyses were inconclusive for both elections, but in the Republican primary The Miami Herald appeared to show slight favoritism for Jeb Bush, a Miamian. The Sun-Sentinel provided relatively equal coverage for all four major candidates. In the general election both papers mentioned Lawton Chiles more frequently with more attention directed to his stand on issues possibly because of his incumbency.