Research Symposium

BIO

Cheyenne Croft is a current honors 2nd year student at Florida State University studying in collaboration with the context lab. She is currently studying to earn two degrees: A Bachelor of Science in psychology with a minor in child development and a Bachelor of Arts in creative writing with a minor in philosophy. Her research interests lay in exploring clinical psychology practices in children with autism spectrum disorder and using her research to advocate for her community. Cheyenne is hopeful to rejoin FSU for her doctorate degree program in earning her Ph.D. in clinical psychology. Currently at the context lab Cheyenne is working with Ananda Eaton and Dr. Haughbrook to produce a meta-analysis inspired by the research presented for this project.

Impacts of Early Identification and Intervention of Environmental Barriers on Children's Speech Development

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to understand the environmental barriers in children’s speech development, potential speech intervention services available to children, and a brief overview of how effective these services were. This study started as a literature review to survey the field of psychology’s current understanding of the impacts environmental barriers have on speech development but is currently evolving into a meta-analysis with a particular interest in SES and ASD moderators. It was revealed in the literature that there was a correlation between the initial two hypotheses: (1) When an environmental barrier in speech is identified and addressed the better a child’s developmental outcomes will be and (2) the earlier environmental barriers are addressed the better a child’s developmental outcomes will be. Eight articles out of twenty-two reviewed were relevant to the study conducted. It is now the interest of this analysis to study the environmental barriers unique to socioeconomic status, what intervention services are accessible to children with various SES, and how addressing these barriers earlier in a child’s life could influence their development compared to children receiving similar interventions later in life. This project has expanded into a meta-analysis and is preliminarily sharing findings of the research.

Keywords: Environment, barriers, speech, intervention,