Kelly da Silva

Adaptação transcultural do Communication Function Classification System para indivíduos com paralisia cerebral

Purpose: to perform the cross-cultural adaptation of the Communication Function Classification System(CFCS) to the Brazilian population and to determine the applicability of the translated version. Methods: the study consisted of two phases, the first related to the process of transcultural adaptation by means of translation, semantic analysis of the items and backtranslation, with approval of the final version by the authors of the instrument, and the second consisted of instrument testing by applying it to 40 patients with a diagnosis of cerebral palsy. Results: the final version received the seal of the author of the original instrument and was published by her, along with the original version and all other translations, at http://cfcs.us. Sixty percent of the patients (24) were males and 40% (16) were females, ranging in age from 2 years and 4 months to 28 years and two months, with an average age of 7.7 (± 4 6). The instrument was of rapid and easy application and all communication levels were observed. Eight patients were in Level I, nine inLevel II, two in Level III, 13 inLevel IV and eight in Level V. Conclusions: the translated versionof the CFCS adapted to Brazilian Portuguese permitted the classification of daily communication performance of individuals with cerebral palsy into one of five levels of communication. However, further research is needed to determine the sensitivity and specificity of the Brazilian version of the instrument, in addition to the validation of its psychometric properties before it can be extensively used in clinical and research settings.

Characteristics of the emissive prosody of children with autism spectrum disorder

Corresponding address: Patrícia Aparecida Zuanetti HCRP – USP/CEOF – Centro Especializado de Otorrinolaringologia e Fonoaudiologia Avenida Bandeirantes, 3900 CEP: 14048-900 – Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brasil E-mail: pati_zua@yahoo.com.br ABSTRACT Objective: to analyze the prosodic aspects of speech in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Methods: 21 children aged 3 to 6 years participated and were divided into three groups: Group 1 – children with Autism Spectrum Disorder; Group 2 – children with language delay; Group 3 – children with typical language development. Three judges performed a subjective evaluation of the emissive prosody (characterization of pitch, loudness, sentence stress, stressed syllable and others) of the children during interaction time (video recording and use of specific protocols). The equality of proportions test was applied for group comparison (α=0.01). Results: the prevalence of a history of delay for speaking the first words was high in Groups 1 and 2. Regarding the prosodic characteristics, all Group 1 children had difficulties in the use of the stressed syllable, and some in the accentuation of the sentence. On the other hand, no Group 3 children showed these changes and few Group 2 children presented excessively stressed syllable. Conclusion: inappropriate stressing of words seems to be one of the features in the differential diagnosis of verbal children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Hospital cognitive screening of patients with no related complaints

Mailing Address: Raphaela Barroso Guedes-Granzotti Departamento de Fonoaudiologia Rua Laudelino Freire, no 184, 2o andar Centro, Lagarto, Sergipe, Brasil CEP: 49000-000 E-mail: raphaelabgg@gmail.com ABSTRACT Purposes: to characterize the cognitive performance hospitalized adults and elderly patients with no complaints, check the effect of education and age and correlate the results. Methods: cognitive screening was carried out by the Mini Mental State Examination (MEM) and the Verbal Fluency Test, semantics (FVS) and phonological (FVF) in 25 adults and elderly with no cognitive changes complaints admitted in an internal medicine ward. For statistical analyses, the one-way Anova, followed by post hoc Tukey, the bivariate Person correlation and the nonparametric Fisher’s tests were used. Results: a high frequency of cognitive impairment and a moderate correlation among the three tests applied were verified. The educational factor influenced the results of the MEM, the FVF and FVS tests, while the age factor significantly influenced the evidence of MEM and FVS. Conclusion: the data demonstrated that cognitive screening in hospitalized patients without related complaints is important, and that age and education are paramount factors in cognitive performance.

Violence in schools and the voice of teachers

Purpose To correlate self-reporting of voice disorders with habits that impact voice production and situations of violence experienced by teachers. Methods The study involved 41 elementary-school teachers of rural and urban areas. Two instruments were used for data collection: The Vocal Production Condition - Teacher (CPV-P) questionnaire and the Screening Index for Voice Disorders - ITDV. The chi-square test was used to verify association among variables with a significance level of 5%. Results The sample consisted of 8 men and 33 women aged 25-66 years with a median of 39 years. Regarding vocal habits, 33 people (80.5%) mentioned the screaming as usual practice, 40 people (97.5%) declared they talk a lot. As for voice care, 31 people (73.1%) reported drinking water while using their voice. As for the ITDV total score, 30 teachers (73.1%) were above the score threshold set for predisposition to vocal disorders. Statistical analysis revealed a significant association between female participants and complaint of graffiti writings as a type of violence. No significant correlation between the ITDV results with gender and the ITDV with forms of violence evaluated in the study was indicated. Conclusion Self-reporting of voice disorders showed no significant relationship with acts of violence. However, analysis of the context of violence in schools and vocal problems are issues worthy of attention, particularly the observed naturalization of gender inssues, which is seldom problematized.

Relação entre o desempenho em aritmética e a memória de trabalho fonológica em crianças

Purpose To compare the results of Loop Phonological Working Memory (LPWM) in children without global learning alterations, with lower and average/higher arithmetic performance. Methods The study was conducted with 30 children, between the ages of seven and nine years old, who attended the second or third grade of elementary school in the public network. Exclusion criteria were children with suggestive signs of hearing loss, neurological disorders, poor performance in the reading comprehension test or in speech therapy. The children included in the study were submitted to the subtest of arithmetic of Academic Achievement Test for division into two groups (G1 and G2). The G1 was composed of children with low performance in arithmetic and G2 for children with average/higher performance in arithmetic. All children were submitted to PWM assessment through the repetition of pseudowords test. Statistical analysis was performed using the Mann-Whitney test and a p-value <0.05 was considered significant. Results The study included 20 girls and 10 boys, mean age 8.7 years. The G1 was composed of 17 children and G2 of 13 children. There was a statistically significant difference between the groups studied for the repetition of pseudowords with three and four syllables. Conclusion The results of this study provide support for the hypothesis that changes in phonological working memory are related to difficulties in arithmetic tests.

Linguagem oral e escrita de crianças soropositivas para o HIV: um acompanhamento longitudinal

Introdução: A incidência de distúrbios do Sistema Nervoso Central (SNC) em portadores de HIV pode variar de 30% a 90% em pacientes pediátricos, sendo a idade, a intensidade e o comprometimento imunológico, fatores importantes. Objetivo: Avaliar a leitura e a escrita de crianças com HIV e comparar com o desenvolvimento fonológico e com marcadores clínicos e imunovirológicos da AIDS. Métodos: Estudo longitudinal com 26 crianças, 12 meninos e 14 meninas, que haviam contraído a infecção pelo HIV por transmissão vertical. Foram avaliadas quanto aos aspectos fonológicos da linguagem oral e reavaliadas cinco anos depois, quanto aos aspectos fonológicos e de leitura e escrita. Os dados obtidos foram avaliados de acordo com o estadiamento clínico da AIDS, carga viral e contagem de moléculas CD4, nos dois momentos. Resultados: Observou-se relação entre o desenvolvimento fonológico e o desempenho acadêmico, na leitura e escrita de crianças com HIV. Não foi detectada relação entre os aspectos fonológicos, quanto às habilidades de leitura e escrita com estadiamento clínico e aos marcadores imunovirológicos da AIDS. Conclusão: Crianças infectadas com HIV representam um grupo de risco para alterações da linguagem oral e escrita, que não dependem da gravidade e quadro clínico, ou do perfil imunovirológico da AIDS. Além disso, a relação observada entre as mudanças no desenvolvimento fonológico e o desenvolvimento da leitura e da escrita confirma a hipótese do deficit fonológico como uma das causas das dificuldades no processo de alfabetização.

Principais alterações encontradas nas narrativas escritas de crianças com dificuldades em leitura/escrita

Objetivo: analisar as producoes escritas de criancas com dificuldades em leitura/escrita. Metodos: 171 criancas, matriculadas no 4o/5o do ensino fundamental constituiram dois grupos: G1 (n=50) - criancas sem dificuldades em leitura/escrita, G2 (n=121) - criancas com dificuldades nessas tarefas. Cada crianca, apos observar uma figura estimulo, deveria escrever um texto. Foi analisado a grafia, os erros ortograficos, as variaveis linguisticas e o conteudo deste. Resultados: em G2 observou-se alteracoes em relacao a grafia; maior percentual de ocorrencia de erros ortograficos e de diversos tipos; mesma proporcao no uso de substantivos, adjetivos e pronomes, porem dificuldade na conjugacao verbal e no uso de adverbios temporais. Em relacao ao conteudo, apenas descreveram a cena e demonstraram vocabulario restrito e pouca criatividade. Conclusao: a producao escrita de criancas com dificuldade em leitura/escrita apresentou diversas falhas entre as quais: alteracoes na grafia, presenca de erros ortograficos e limitacao na construcao de texto, restringindo-se a simples descricao do desenho estimulo, com pouca articulacao de ideias e sem criacao de personagens, local e tempo para a sua historia. Este conjunto de falhas compromete a inteligibilidade do texto pelo leitor e demonstra que a elaboracao escrita e uma tarefa complexa para essas criancas.