Meghan Darling-White
- Assistant Professor, Speech/Language and Hearing
- Member of the Graduate Faculty
Contact
- (520) 621-1644
- Speech And Hearing Sciences, Rm. 214
- Tucson, AZ 85721
- darlingwhite@arizona.edu
Degrees
- Ph.D. Speech Science
- Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, United States
- Enhancing speech naturalness using respiratory treatment in Parkinson’s disease
Awards
- Distinguish Young Alumni Award
- Purdue University, College of Health and Human Services, Spring 2018
Interests
No activities entered.
Courses
2024-25 Courses
-
Anat+Psio Speech Mech
SLHS 261 (Fall 2024) -
Independent Study
SLHS 399 (Fall 2024) -
Independent Study
SLHS 499 (Fall 2024) -
Neuromotor Speech Dsor
SLHS 575 (Fall 2024) -
Preceptorship
SLHS 391 (Fall 2024)
2023-24 Courses
-
Honors Thesis
ECOL 498H (Spring 2024) -
Honors Thesis
NROS 498H (Spring 2024) -
Independent Study
SLHS 399 (Spring 2024) -
Independent Study
SLHS 499 (Spring 2024) -
Independent Study
SLHS 599 (Spring 2024) -
Anat+Psio Speech Mech
SLHS 261 (Fall 2023) -
Honors Independent Study
SLHS 399H (Fall 2023) -
Honors Thesis
ECOL 498H (Fall 2023) -
Honors Thesis
NSCS 498H (Fall 2023) -
Independent Study
SLHS 399 (Fall 2023) -
Independent Study
SLHS 499 (Fall 2023) -
Independent Study
SLHS 599 (Fall 2023) -
Neuromotor Speech Dsor
SLHS 575 (Fall 2023) -
Preceptorship
SLHS 391 (Fall 2023) -
Preceptorship
SLHS 491 (Fall 2023)
2022-23 Courses
-
Disability Directed Res Exp
FCM 492A (Spring 2023) -
Honors Thesis
NSCS 498H (Spring 2023) -
Independent Study
SLHS 399 (Spring 2023) -
Independent Study
SLHS 499 (Spring 2023) -
Independent Study
SLHS 699 (Spring 2023) -
Anat+Psio Speech Mech
SLHS 261 (Fall 2022) -
Honors Thesis
NSCS 498H (Fall 2022) -
Independent Study
SLHS 399 (Fall 2022) -
Independent Study
SLHS 499 (Fall 2022) -
Neuromotor Speech Dsor
SLHS 575 (Fall 2022) -
Preceptorship
SLHS 391 (Fall 2022) -
Preceptorship
SLHS 491 (Fall 2022)
2021-22 Courses
-
Honors Independent Study
NSCS 399H (Spring 2022) -
Honors Thesis
SLHS 498H (Spring 2022) -
Independent Study
SLHS 499 (Spring 2022) -
Thesis
SLHS 910 (Spring 2022) -
Anat+Psio Speech Mech
SLHS 261 (Fall 2021) -
Honors Independent Study
NSCS 399H (Fall 2021) -
Honors Thesis
SLHS 498H (Fall 2021) -
Independent Study
NSCS 199 (Fall 2021) -
Independent Study
SLHS 399 (Fall 2021) -
Independent Study
SLHS 499 (Fall 2021) -
Neuromotor Speech Dsor
SLHS 575 (Fall 2021) -
Preceptorship
SLHS 391 (Fall 2021) -
Preceptorship
SLHS 491 (Fall 2021) -
Thesis
SLHS 910 (Fall 2021)
2020-21 Courses
-
Honors Independent Study
NSCS 399H (Spring 2021) -
Independent Study
NSCS 199 (Spring 2021) -
Independent Study
SLHS 399 (Spring 2021) -
Independent Study
SLHS 499 (Spring 2021) -
Independent Study
SLHS 599 (Spring 2021) -
Anat+Psio Speech Mech
SLHS 261 (Fall 2020) -
Honors Independent Study
NSCS 399H (Fall 2020) -
Independent Study
SLHS 399 (Fall 2020) -
Independent Study
SLHS 499 (Fall 2020) -
Neuromotor Speech Dsor
SLHS 575 (Fall 2020) -
Preceptorship
SLHS 391 (Fall 2020) -
Preceptorship
SLHS 491 (Fall 2020)
2019-20 Courses
-
Honors Thesis
SLHS 498H (Spring 2020) -
Independent Study
SLHS 399 (Spring 2020) -
Independent Study
SLHS 499 (Spring 2020) -
Anat+Psio Speech Mech
SLHS 261 (Fall 2019) -
Honors Thesis
SLHS 498H (Fall 2019) -
Independent Study
SLHS 399 (Fall 2019) -
Independent Study
SLHS 499 (Fall 2019) -
Neuromotor Speech Dsor
SLHS 575 (Fall 2019) -
Preceptorship
SLHS 391 (Fall 2019) -
Preceptorship
SLHS 491 (Fall 2019)
2018-19 Courses
-
Dysphagia
SLHS 557 (Spring 2019) -
Honors Independent Study
SLHS 399H (Spring 2019) -
Independent Study
SLHS 399 (Spring 2019) -
Independent Study
SLHS 499 (Spring 2019) -
Anat+Psio Speech Mech
SLHS 261 (Fall 2018) -
Independent Study
SLHS 399 (Fall 2018) -
Independent Study
SLHS 499 (Fall 2018) -
Independent Study
SLHS 599 (Fall 2018) -
Neuromotor Speech Dsor
SLHS 575 (Fall 2018) -
Preceptorship
SLHS 391 (Fall 2018) -
Preceptorship
SLHS 491 (Fall 2018) -
Workshop
SLHS 597 (Fall 2018)
2017-18 Courses
-
Independent Study
SLHS 599 (Summer I 2018) -
Anat+Psio Speech Mech
SLHS 261 (Spring 2018) -
Dysphagia
SLHS 557 (Spring 2018) -
Independent Study
SLHS 399 (Spring 2018) -
Preceptorship
SLHS 391 (Spring 2018) -
Independent Study
SLHS 499 (Fall 2017)
2016-17 Courses
-
Anat+Psio Speech Mech
SLHS 261 (Spring 2017) -
Dysphagia
SLHS 557 (Spring 2017) -
Independent Study
SLHS 399 (Spring 2017) -
Independent Study
SLHS 499 (Spring 2017) -
Independent Study
SLHS 699 (Spring 2017) -
Preceptorship
SLHS 391 (Spring 2017) -
Thesis
SLHS 910 (Spring 2017) -
Independent Study
SLHS 399 (Fall 2016) -
Independent Study
SLHS 499 (Fall 2016) -
Thesis
SLHS 910 (Fall 2016)
2015-16 Courses
-
Independent Study
SLHS 499 (Summer I 2016) -
Anat+Psio Speech Mech
SLHS 261 (Spring 2016) -
Dysphagia
SLHS 557 (Spring 2016) -
Independent Study
SLHS 399 (Spring 2016) -
Preceptorship
SLHS 391 (Spring 2016)
Scholarly Contributions
Journals/Publications
- Darling-White, M., & Jaeger, A. (2023). Differential Impacts of Sentence Length on Speech Rate in Two Groups of Children With Neurodevelopmental Disorders. American journal of speech-language pathology, 32(3), 1083-1098.More infoThe primary purpose of this study was to examine the effect of sentence length on speech rate and its characteristics, articulation rate, and pauses in children with neurodevelopmental disorders.
- Darling-White, M., & Polkowitz, R. (2023). Sentence Length Effects on Intelligibility in Two Groups of Older Children With Neurodevelopmental Disorders. American journal of speech-language pathology, 32(5), 2297-2310.More infoThe purpose of this study was to examine the impact of sentence length on intelligibility in two groups of older children with neurodevelopmental disabilities.
- Darling-White, M., Huber, J. E., MacPherson, M. K., Francis, A. L., & Exner, A. H. (2023).
The Effects of Speech Task on Lexical Stress in Parkinson's Disease
. American Journal of Speech-language Pathology, 32(2), 1-17. doi:10.1044/2022_ajslp-22-00185More infoPurpose: Hypokinetic dysarthria associated with Parkinson's disease (PD) is characterized by dysprosody, yet the literature is mixed with respect to how dysprosody affects the ability to mark lexical stress, possibly due to differences in speech tasks used to assess lexical stress. The purpose of this study was to compare how people with and without PD modulate acoustic dimensions of lexical stress—fundamental frequency, intensity, and duration—to mark lexical stress across three different speech tasks. Method: Twelve individuals with mild-to-moderate idiopathic PD and 12 age- and sex-matched older adult controls completed three speech tasks: picture description, word production in isolation, and word production in lists. Outcome measures were the fundamental frequency, intensity, and duration of the vocalic segments of two trochees (initial stress) and two iambs (final stress) spoken in all three tasks. Results: There were very few group differences. Both groups marked trochees by modulating intensity and fundamental frequency and iambs by modulating duration. Task had a significant impact on the stress patterns used by both groups. Stress patterns were most differentiated in words produced in isolation and least differentiated in lists of words. Conclusions: People with PD did not demonstrate impairments in the production of lexical stress, suggesting that dysprosody associated with PD does not impact all types of prosody in the same way. However, there were reduced distinctions in stress marking that were more apparent in trochees than iambs. In addition, the task used to assess prosody has a significant effect on all acoustic measures. Future research should focus on the use of connected speech tasks to obtain more generalizable measures of prosody in PD. - Darling-White, M., Anspach, Z., & Huber, J. E. (2022). Longitudinal Effects of Parkinson's Disease on Speech Breathing During an Extemporaneous Connected Speech Task. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 65(4), 1402-1415. doi:10.1044/2022_jslhr-21-00485
- Darling-White, M., Goffman, L., Lundine, J. P., Burdo-Hartman, W., Craig, B. Α., Brown, B., Arkenberg, R. E., Mitchell, S. S., & Malandraki, G. A. (2022). Swallowing and Motor Speech Skills in Unilateral Cerebral Palsy: Novel Findings From a Preliminary Cross-Sectional Study. Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research, 65(9), 3300-3315. doi:10.1044/2022_jslhr-22-00091More infoOur purpose was to start examining clinical swallowing and motor speech skills of school-age children with unilateral cerebral palsy (UCP) compared to typically developing children (TDC), how these skills relate to each other, and whether they are predicted by clinical/demographic data (age, birth history, lesion type, etc.).Seventeen children with UCP and 17 TDC (7-12 years old) participated in this cross-sectional study. Feeding/swallowing skills were evaluated using the Dysphagia Disorder Survey (DDS) and a normalized measure of mealtime efficiency (normalized mealtime duration, i.e., nMD). Motor speech was assessed via speech intelligibility and speech rate measures using the Test of Children's Speech Plus. Analyses included nonparametric bootstrapping, correlation analysis, and multiple regression.Children with UCP exhibited more severe (higher) DDS scores (p = .0096, Part 1; p = .0132, Part 2) and reduced speech rate than TDC (p = .0120). Furthermore, in children with UCP, total DDS scores were moderately negatively correlated with speech intelligibility (words: r = -.6162, p = .0086; sentences: r = -.60792, p = .0096). Expressive language scores were the only significant predictor of feeding and swallowing performance, and receptive language scores were the only significant predictor of motor speech skills.Swallowing and motor speech skills can be affected in school-age children with UCP, with wide variability of performance also noted. Preliminary cross-system interactions between swallowing, speech, and language are observed and might support the complex relationships between these domains. Further understanding these relationships in this population could have prognostic and/or therapeutic value and warrants further study.
- Kovacs, S., & Darling-White, M. (2022). A Descriptive Study of Speech Breathing in Children With Cerebral Palsy During Two Types of Connected Speech Tasks. Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR, 65(12), 4557-4576.More infoThis study examined speech breathing during two connected speech tasks in children with cerebral palsy (CP) and typically developing (TD) peers. Understanding how the respiratory system supports speech production during various speech tasks can help researchers construct appropriate models of speech production and clinicians remediate speech disorders effectively.
- Darling-White, M., & Banks, S. W. (2021). Speech Rate Varies With Sentence Length in Typically Developing Children. Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR, 64(6S), 2385-2391.More infoPurpose The primary purpose of this study was to examine the effect of sentence length on speech rate and its characteristics, articulation rate and pauses, in typically developing children. Method Sixty-two typically developing children between the ages of 10 and 14 years repeated sentences varying in length from two to seven words. Dependent variables included speech rate (syllables per second), articulation rate (syllables per second), and proportion of time spent pausing. Results Speech rate and articulation rate significantly increased with increases in sentence length, but proportion of time spent pausing did not increase with sentence length. There were no significant main effects of age. Conclusions This is the first study to suggest that sentence length differentially impacts the component parts of speech rate, articulation rate and pause time. Increases in sentence length led to increases in speech rate, primarily due to increases in articulation rate and not increases in pause time. Articulation rate appears to be highly sensitive to the impact of sentence length, while a higher cognitive-linguistic load may be required to see sentence length effects on pause time.
- Baylor, C., Baylor, C., Darling-White, M., & Darling-White, M. (2020). Achieving Participation-Focused Intervention Through Shared Decision Making: Proposal of an Age- and Disorder-Generic Framework. American journal of speech-language pathology, 29(3), 1335-1360.More infoIntroduction The World Health Organization's International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health calls on speech-language pathologists (SLPs) to provide care that impacts all aspects of an individual's experience with a communication disorder, including their participation in valued life situations. However, SLPs often report feeling unprepared to implement and document interventions that target life participation. The purpose of this article is to propose a framework to guide participation-focused intervention practices. This age- and disorder-generic framework is designed to be applicable with clients across the variety of settings in which SLPs work. Method In this clinical focus article, we draw on past research and clinical experience to propose a restructuring of World Health Organization's International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health components such that participation is the primary focus and outcomes indicator for intervention. In this framework, a specific communicative participation situation is identified and assessed quantitatively, and a corresponding participation-focused goal is established through shared decision making. Following that, assessments are conducted and goals are established in the areas of communication skills, physical and social environments, and personal perspectives. Results The proposed framework provides a concrete organizational structure as well as assessment, goal-writing, and intervention examples to assist SLPs in translating theoretical biopsychosocial frameworks into clinical practices. Conclusions SLPs can and do provide holistic communication services to clients to help them achieve their life participation goals. This article provides an example as to how we can document the need for, as well as the value and impact of our important work, meeting the diverse life participation needs of clients. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.12360758.
- Darling-White, M., & Huber, J. E. (2020).
The Impact of Parkinson's Disease on Breath Pauses and Their Relationship to Speech Impairment: A Longitudinal Study
. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 29(4), 1910-1922. doi:10.1044/2020_ajslp-20-00003 - Darling-White, M., & Huber, J. E. (2020). The Impact of Parkinson's Disease on Breath Pauses and Their Relationship to Speech Impairment: A Longitudinal Study. American journal of speech-language pathology, 1-13.More infoPurpose The purposes of this longitudinal study were to (a) examine the impact of Parkinson's disease (PD) progression on breath pause patterns and speech and linguistic errors and (b) determine the extent to which breath pauses and speech and linguistic errors contribute to speech impairment. Method Eight individuals with PD and eight age- and sex-matched control participants produced a reading passage on two occasions (Time 1 and Time 2) 3 years and 7 months apart on average. Two speech-language pathologists rated the severity of speech impairment for all participants at each time. Dependent variables included the location of each breath pause relative to syntax and punctuation as well as the number of disfluencies and mazes. Results At Time 1, there were no significant differences between the groups regarding breath pause patterns. At Time 2, individuals with PD produced significantly fewer breath pauses at major syntactic boundaries and periods as well as significantly more breath pauses at locations with no punctuation than control participants. Individuals with PD produced a significantly greater number of disfluencies than control participants at both time points. There were no significant differences between the groups in the number of mazes produced at either time point. Together, the number of mazes and the percentage of breath pauses at locations with no punctuation explained 50% of the variance associated with the ratings of severity of speech impairment. Conclusion These results highlight the importance of targeting both respiratory physiological and cognitive-linguistic systems in order to improve speech production in individuals with PD.
- Darling-White, M., Sakash, A., & Hustad, K. C. (2018). Characteristics of speech rate in children with cerebral palsy: A longitudinal study. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 61, 2502-2515. doi:10.1044/2018_JSLHR-S-17-0003
- Darling-White, M. (2017). Toward a Measure of Communicative Participation for Children with Developmental Speech Disorders. SEMINARS IN SPEECH AND LANGUAGE, 38(3), 184-190.
- Darling-White, M., & Huber, J. E. (2017). The impact of Expiratory Muscle Strength Training on Speech Breathing in Individuals With Parkinson's Disease: A Preliminary Study. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY, 26(4), 1159-1166.
- Huber, J. E., & Darling-White, M. (2017). Longitudinal Changes in Speech Breathing in Older Adults with and without Parkinson's Disease. SEMINARS IN SPEECH AND LANGUAGE, 38(3), 200-209.
- Chagdes, J. R., Huber, J. E., Saletta, M., Darling-White, M., Raman, A., Rietdyk, S., Zelaznik, H. N., & Haddad, J. M. (2016). The relationship between intermittent limit cycles and postural instability associated with Parkinson’s disease.. Journal of Sport and Health Science, 5(1), 14-24. doi:10.1016/j.jshs.2016.01.005
- Stathopoulos, E., Huber, J. E., Richardson, K., Kamphaus, J., DeCicco, D., Darling-White, M., & Fulcher, K. (2014). Increased vocal intensity due to the Lombard effect in speakers with Parkinson’s disease: Simultaneous laryngeal and respiratory strategies.. Journal of Communication Disorders, 48, 1-17. doi:10.1016/j.jcomdis.2013.12.001
Presentations
- Darling-White, M., & Polkowitz, R. (2022, November). Sentence length effects on intelligibility in older children with neuromotor disorders. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention. New Orleans, LA.
- Allison, K., Nip, I., Darling-White, M., & Connaghan, K. (2019, November). Assessing dysarthria in children: Translating research into practice. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention. Orlando, FL: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
- Darling-White, M. (2019, December). Amazon Mechanical Turk: What Is It and How Might We Use It for Research in the Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences. Colloquium for SLHS Department at UA. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona.
- Darling-White, M. (2019, September). Assessment and Treatment of Dysarthria in Children. Grunewald-Blitz Conference in Pediatric Communication Disorders. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences.
- Darling-White, M., Banks, S. W., & Lawson, J. (2019, November). Acoustic changes in response to child-friendly cues for loud and clear speech. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention. Orlando, FL: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
- Darling-White, M. (2018, January). Thinking about communicative participation in motor speech disorders. Colloquium for SLHS Department at UA. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona.
- Darling-White, M. (2018, Spring). Respiratory function during speech production in children with CP. Health and Kinesiology Seminar Series at Purdue University. Lafayette, IN: Purdue University.
- Kiefer, B., Darling-White, M., Rountrey, C., Snyder, S., & Huber, J. E. (2018, March). Therapeutic effects of SpeechVive on prosody in Parkinson's disease. Biennial Conference on Motor Speech. Savannah, GA.
- Baylor, C., & Darling-White, M. (2017, November). Life participation is the big picture: Practices for children and adults with motor speech disorders. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention. Los Angeles, CA: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
- Swink, N. M., Darling-White, M., & Bunton, K. E. (2017, April). Evaluating the effect of instruction and task on the acoustic characteristics of speech production in older adults. Arizona Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention. Tucson, AZ.
- Darling-White, M. (2016, August). Dysarthria in cerebral palsy. L4 Community Forum. Tucson, AZ.
- Darling-White, M. (2015, December). Research in Speech-Language Pathology. Professional Roles Workshop hosted by the Sonoran UCEDD. Tucson, AZ.
- Darling-White, M. (2015, October). Speech intervention for children with cerebral palsy: Where we are and where we’re going. Homecoming Event for the UA Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences. Tucson, AZ.
Poster Presentations
- Darling-White, M., & Banks, S. (2020, February). An examination of the relationship between sentence length and speech rate in typically developing adolescents. Biennial Conference on Motor Speech. Santa Barbara, CA.