《LANGUAGE IMPAIRMENTS WITHOUT AUTISM》.pdfVIP

USING THE AUTISM DIAGNOSTIC OBSERVATION SCHEDULE (ADOS) TO DISCRIMINATE BETWEEN CHILDREN WITH AUTISM AND CHILDREN WITH LANGUAGE IMPAIRMENTS WITHOUT AUTISM A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in The Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders by Whitney Nicole Dolan B.A., Louisiana State University, 2007 May 2009 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, I would like to extend many thanks to my thesis advisor, Dr. Janna Oetting. I truly appreciate the many hours you dedicated to working on this project with me, and your insight, encouragement and support along the way has been amazing. Your dedication, love, and knowledge base of research and child language is an inspiration to me. I would also like to thank my committee members, Dr. Jan Norris and Dr. Paul Hoffman for offering their time to contribute their ideas, insight, and suggestions to this project. Next, I would like to thank Janet Ketchem, Lesley Otts, CCC-SLP, and Ellen Thomas, CCC-SLP at the Frank C. McMains Child Developmental Center for opening your doors to me once again, and for offering your time and your wonderful clients to be participants in this study. I could not have done it without your help and generosity. I would also like to thank