Ivonaldo Leidson Barbosa Lima

Severity of Voice Disorders in Children: Correlations Between Perceptual and Acoustic Data

OBJECTIVES The aims of this study were to verify whether there is correlation between perceptual and acoustic data and to verify which measures are useful to identify the severity of voice deviation in children. METHODS The participants were 71 children aged 3-9 years. The severity of voice deviation, roughness, breathiness, strain, and instability was evaluated by three speech therapists, experts on perceptual voice evaluation. A visual analog scale was used; speech material consisted of a sustained vowel sound /ε/ and the counting of numbers from one to 10. The means and standard deviations of fundamental frequency (F(0)), jitter, shimmer, and glottal-to-noise excitation (GNE) ratio were extracted from the sustained vowel, and the mean and variability of F(0) were extracted from automatic speech (counting). Perceptual and acoustic data were correlated. RESULTS Most children had mild voice deviation, with strain, instability, and breathiness as predominant voice qualities. F(0) measures correlate with strain to phonate. Shimmer and GNE correlate with general degree of voice deviation and with the roughness, breathiness, and instability parameters. GNE and F(0) mean in connected speech were the only measures that distinguished voices regarding severity of voice deviation. CONCLUSIONS There was a correlation between perceptual and acoustic measures from these childrens voices. Children with high-pitched voices had higher voice deviations. GNE is a measure that reliably distinguishes the severity of voice deviation and may be useful in the screening and evaluation of childrens voices.

Análise acústica de vozes infantis: contribuições do diagrama de desvio fonatório

PURPOSE:to analyze the discriminating power of the phonatory deviation diagram (PDD) in assessing the predominant voice type and severity of voice deviance in children.METHODS:samples of the sustained vowel /e/ were collected from 93 children. The severity of voice deviance and vocal quality were assessed with the aid of a visual analog scale. The PDD was used in the acoustic analysis, with an assessment of the distribution of the voice signals according to the area, quadrant, shape, and density in the diagram. The results were obtained from the statistical analysis of the variables using the test for equality of proportions, chi-squared test (Χ(2)), and Spearmans correlation. The level of statistical significance was set at ≤ 5% across analyses.RESULTS:a positive and statistically significant correlation was found between the classification based on the PDD quadrants and the severity of voice deviance for all the parameters analyzed except strain, which showed a negative correlation. Statistically significant differences were also noted in the proportion of children with voice roughness, breathiness, strain, and instability in relation to the area, quadrant, and shape in the PDD. There were no significant differences between the proportion of children with and without voice deviation for the evaluated parameters regarding the distribution of the voice samples in the quadrants.CONCLUSION:the PDD was capable of distinguishing the predominant vocal quality based on the distribution of the signals in the quadrants, although it could not discriminate between healthy and disordered childrens voices.

Preferências dos ouvintes em relação ao sotaque regional em contexto formal e informal de comunicação

Purpose to analyze the preferences of listeners as the regional accent and accent softened in the context of formal and informal communication. Methods three TV news presenter recorded vehicle-phrases in situations of regional and soft accent. The recordings were presented to 105 judges, who heard pairs of words and asked which of the two pronunciations preferred to talk about television news presenters (formal context), for native speakers of the local community (informal context) and to the speech itself (context informal). Results the presence of listeners preferred the understated accent in a formal context (presentation of television news in all language variants studied (p <0.0001) and, on the other hand, preferred the presence of regional accents (p <0.0001) in informal context. however, speaks for itself, within the informal context, there was a general preference for regional accent or understated, statistical significance only for palatalization of / S / in medial coda (p <0.0001) and not palatalization of dental (p <0.0001), both characteristics of regional accents, and the non-occurrence of monophthongization (p <0.0001) and matching vowel (p <0.0001), characterized as understated accent. Conclusion listeners prefer to speaks with an accent softened in a formal communication but prefer the regional accent within an informal context, especially in less educated speakers.

Vocal characteristics during child development: perceptual-auditory and acoustic data.

Objective: To analyze perceptual-auditory and acoustic characteristics of childrens voices of different age ranges. Patients and Methods: Ninety-three 3- to 10-year-old children grouped from 3 to 5, 6 to 7, and 8 to 10 years served as participants. The severity of vocal deviation and the parameters of roughness, breathiness, strain, and instability were assessed using a visual analog scale. We calculated the mean and standard deviation of fundamental frequency (F₀), jitter, shimmer, and glottal-to-noise excitation ratio for the sustained vowel, and the mean of F₀ variability for connected speech. Results: The most affected voices were in the age range 8-10 years, and only the phonation tension level was reduced as a result of aging. There were significant differences between children aged 3-5 years and the other age ranges for F₀ mean for sustained vowels and F₀ variability. Conclusion: Children aged 8-10 years had the highest severity of vocal deviation. There was a significant reduction of phonation tension and measure of F₀, jitter, and shimmer after the age of 5 years.

Speech-language therapy stimulation in children with Down’s syndrome

Objective: to analyze the contributions of speech-language therapy to the language development of children with Down syndrome (DS). Methods: eleven children with DS participated in the research. The children were between zero and five years of age, of both genders and attending a university extension project involving eight therapy sessions following stimulation guidelines. Children were evaluated before and after speech-language stimulation. The stimulation guidelines were based on the following aspects of language development: coordination of sensorimotor schema, constitution of object permanence, gestural/body imitation, imitation of utterances, deferred imitation and use of symbolic schema, communicative intent, receptive vocabulary and expressive vocabulary: words and phrases. The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the institution. Data were analyzed quantitatively. Results: there were significant differences in the preand post-speech-language intervention in the following skills parameters: gestural/body imitation, imitation of utterances, deferred imitation and use of symbolic schema, communicative intent and receptive vocabulary. Conclusion: early stimulation of linguistic and cognitive aspects is important in the development of children with DS, as evidenced by the immediate development of speech-language skills in children after the intervention.

Prosódia e transtornos da linguagem: levantamento das publicações em periódicos indexados entre 1979 e 2009

This study has as its subject the relationship between prosody and language disorders, this relationship being investigated from the survey of publications indexed in international databases. The analysis of the articles showed that there is a growth in publications that relate to language disorders deficits production and perception of speech prosody. It also reinforces that the loss or difficulty in skills relating to prosody, pragmatic compromises the function of language, and therefore the interaction of the subject in its social environment. Aphasia is a disorder most studied, probably also influenced by the global increase of the elderly population. And the more thematic publications was found in speech perception.

CARACTERÍSTICAS VOCAIS DE CANTORES POPULARES DA CIDADE E JOÃO PESSOA

Objective: to analyze the vocal characteristics of singers from the city of Joao Pessoa. Materials and Methods: A vocal assessment of 20 vocal singers was carried out - professionals and amateurs, of both sexes, aged between 16 and 53 years old. The assessment consisted in the measurement of the maximum phonation time of the singer through the emission of the vowel /e/ in modal tone, followed by the fricative phonemes /s/ and /z/ until the end of expiration. In addition, we conducted an analysis of the subjects singing a known song, in which they could acknowledge some difficulty regarding the vocal weaving. Results: The means of the maximum time of emission were 26.6 seconds for the phoneme /s/, 23 seconds for /z/ and 15 seconds for the vowel /e/. 70% of the singers showed upper respiration pattern, 75% pneumophonoarticulatory incoordination, 50% adequate intensity, 50% laryngeal resonance, 85% imprecise articulation, 70% modal registration of chest, 50% abrupt vocal attack, and 50% mild vocal attack. Conclusions: The singers showed various vocal characteristics, some favorable to the exercise of their professional activity, and others that can compromise their health and vocal performance. DESCRIPTORS: Voice. Voice Quality. Music. Larynx. Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences.