Nele Baudonck

Impact of thyroidectomy without laryngeal nerve injury on vocal quality characteristics: An objective multiparameter approach

The main purpose of this study was to determine the impact of thyroidectomy on the subjective and objective vocal quality using the Dysphonia Severity Index. It was hypothesized that objective measures of vocal function and other vocal characteristics would change (temporarily or permanently) from the presurgical to the postsurgical conditions, even with the entire preservation of the laryngeal nerve, due to the surgical approach and other influencing factors.

Comparison of the overall intelligibility, articulation, resonance, and voice characteristics between children using cochlear implants and those using bilateral hearing aids: A pilot study

The purpose of this study was to determine and to compare the overall intelligibility, articulation, resonance, and voice characteristics in children using cochlear implants (CI) and children using conventional hearing aids (HA). Nine prelingually deaf children using CI and six children with a prelingual severe hearing loss using HA, were selected to participate. Objective (DSI, nasalance scores) as well as subjective assessment techniques (perceptual evaluations) were used. Both the CI and HA children demonstrated normal vocal quality and resonance but showed the presence of articulation disorders. In the CI children, intelligibility was significantly better compared to the HA children. Significantly more phonetic and phonological disorders were present in the HA children. The results of this study show a poorer intelligibility of the HA children in comparison with the CI children which is probably due to the occurrence of significantly more phonetic and phonological disorders. Future detailed analysis in a larger sample of CI and HA children may help further clarify the issue of speech and voice characteristics and may demonstrate an important prognostic value.

The Impact of Vocal Warm-Up Exercises on the Objective Vocal Quality in Female Students Training to be Speech Language Pathologists

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of a specific vocal warm-up (WU) program-focused on the improvement of the dynamics of the extrinsic and intrinsic laryngeal muscles-on the objective vocal quality in Dutch female students who are getting trained to be speech language pathologists (SLPs). Hypothetically, one can assume that the objective vocal quality will increase after vocal WU exercises in SLPs in comparison with the matched control group that receives no WU program. METHODS This was a pretest-posttest control group design study, in which 45 female future SLPs were randomly assigned into two groups. The experimental group received a well-defined vocal WU program, whereas the control group took 30 minutes of vocal rest. Objective assessment techniques (aerodynamic, vocal range, acoustic measurements, and Dysphonia Severity Index [DSI]) were used. RESULTS After vocal WU, a significant increased DSI value, increased vocal performance (with lower intensity and higher frequency), and increased fundamental frequency (F₀) were measured. CONCLUSIONS Clinically, there is clear evidence that warming up the vocal mechanism is beneficial to the objective vocal quality and the vocal performance in future SLPs. To what extent the repetition of these vocal WU exercises has the possibility to maintain increased objective vocal quality in these future professional voice users is subject to further research.

A comparison of the consonant production between Dutch children using cochlear implants and children using hearing aids

OBJECTIVES The main purpose of the present study was to compare the consonant error patterns of Dutch prelingually deaf CI children with prelingually hearing-impaired hearing aid (HA) children. The authors hypothesized that subjects using conventional hearing aids would have poorer consonant production skills. Additionally, the impact of the age at implantation (CI) and the degree of hearing loss (HA) was determined. METHODOLOGY This is a comparative study of 29 prelingually deaf CI children (m.a. 9;0 y) and 32 prelingually hearing-impaired HA children (m.a. 9;11 y) who received their first hearing aid before the age of 2 years. Nineteen CI children were implanted before the age of 5 years. Nine HA children had thresholds above 90dB (range: 91-105dB), 15 between 70 and 90dB (range: 72-90dB) and 8 below 70dB (range: 58-68dB). Speech samples of all the children were elicited by means of a picture naming test and were video-recorded for further phonetic and phonological analysis. RESULTS Considerably more phonetic and phonologic errors were observed in the HA children with thresholds above 70dB (range: 72-105dB). No notable differences could be found between deaf CI children and HA children with thresholds below 70dB. Even children implanted after the age of 5 years showed significantly fewer phonetic and phonological errors than HA children. CONCLUSION The consonant production of implanted children is more adequate than the consonant production of HA children with a hearing loss of 70dB or more. In addition, the results also indicate that even after the age of 5 years, implantation can still have an advantageous effect on a childs consonant production.

Vocal Characteristics of Middle-Aged Premenopausal Women

Aging influences the laryngeal anatomy and physiology, leading to altered vocal quality. In middle-aged women, the voice is affected by a combination of aging and menopausal transition. However, in many studies about vocal aging, the menopausal transition is not taken into account. The purpose of this study was to measure and describe the effect of aging on the vocal characteristics by comparing young women (between 20 and 28 years) and middle-aged premenopausal women (between 45 and 52 years). To determine the vocal characteristics in both groups, objective (aerodynamic measurements, vocal performance measurements, acoustic analysis, and a determination of the Dysphonia Severity Index) and subjective assessment techniques (perceptual evaluation, videostroboscopic evaluation, and Voice Handicap Index) were used. The middle-aged premenopausal women showed a smaller frequency and intensity range, a lower habitual fundamental frequency, and a higher soft phonation index compared with the young women. The results of this study are important when studying the voices of middle-aged women. Vocal characteristics of middle-aged women differ from young women, and these changes cannot only be because of hormonal changes during the menopause.

Objective vocal quality in children using cochlear implants: a multiparameter approach.

OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to determine the objective vocal quality in 36 prelingually deaf children using cochlear implant (CI) with a mean age of 9 years. An additional purpose was to compare the objective vocal quality of these 36 CI users with 25 age-matched children with prelingual severe hearing loss using conventional hearing aids (HAs) and 25 normal hearing (NH) children. STUDY DESIGN The design for this cross-sectional study was a multigroup posttest-only design. METHODS The objective vocal quality was measured by means of the dysphonia severity index (DSI). Moreover, perceptual voice assessment using the GRBASI scale was performed. RESULTS CI children have a vocal quality by means of the DSI of +1.8, corresponding with a DSI% of 68%, indicating a borderline vocal quality situated 2% above the limit of normality. The voice was perceptually characterized by the presence of a very slight grade of hoarseness, roughness, strained phonation, and higher pitch and intensity levels. No significant objective vocal quality differences were measured between the voices of the CI children, HA users, and NH children. CONCLUSIONS According to the results, one aspect of the vocal approach in children with CI and using HAs must be focused on the improvement of the strained vocal characteristic and the use of a lower pitch and intensity level.

The prevalence of lisping in gay men.

UNLABELLED This study evaluated the stereotype that gay men lisp. Two clinicians who were unaware of the specific purpose of the study and the populations involved judged randomized audio-recordings of 175 gay males, 100 heterosexual males and 100 heterosexual females for the presence of lisping during reading of a standardized text. In the gay males a significantly higher prevalence of lisping was found than in the heterosexual males and females. Breakdown of the results of the gay participants in two different age groups showed a higher prevalence of lisping in the younger age group than in the older age group. No relation was found between lisping and age of coming-out or lisping and the probability of being gay as assessed by a questionnaire about sexual orientation. The origin of the high prevalence of lisping in gay men needs further investigation. LEARNING OUTCOMES The readers of this article will able (1) to discuss articulatory behaviour as a possible marker that may distinguish gay from heterosexual men (2) to discuss the prevalence of lisping in gay men.

Speech Intelligibility of Flemish Children as Judged by Their Parents

Objective: Reduced intelligibility is a central concern in speech-impaired children, especially for parents. The main purpose of this study was to develop normative data for the intelligibility of Flemish-speaking boys and girls (age 2;06–5;0 years) as judged by their parents. Additionally, the influence of familiarity, gender and age of the child was determined. Patients and Methods: Word, sentence and story productions of 163 healthy children (83 boys and 80 girls) between 2;06 and 5;0 years were transcribed by their own parents. Speech intelligibility was determined according to the intelligibility index described by Shriberg. Additionally, a panel of 12 unfamiliar judges listened to the recordings of a subgroup of 24 randomly selected children. Results: Speech intelligibility improved with increasing age and was around 90% for children aged 4;6–5;0 years. Boys and girls performed equally on the task. For the intelligibility of words, mothers scored significantly better than unfamiliar listeners did. Conclusion: The reported normative speech intelligibility data provide important reference information for speech pathologists who assess child speech. Moreover, it enables them to measure the effect of a specific therapeutic approach and the spontaneous transfer to daily speech.

A comparison of vowel productions in prelingually deaf children using cochlear implants, severe hearing-impaired children using conventional hearing aids and normal-hearing children.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to compare vowel productions by deaf cochlear implant (CI) children, hearing-impaired hearing aid (HA) children and normal-hearing (NH) children. Patients and Methods: 73 children [mean age: 9;14 years (years;months)] participated: 40 deaf CI children, 34 moderately to profoundly hearing-impaired HA children and 42 NH children. For the 3 corner vowels [a], [i] and [u], F1, F2 and the intrasubject SD were measured using the Praat software. Spectral separation between these vowel formants and vowel space were calculated. Results: The significant effects in the CI group all pertain to a higher intrasubject variability in formant values, whereas the significant effects in the HA group all pertain to lower formant values. Both hearing-impaired subgroups showed a tendency toward greater intervowel distances and vowel space. Conclusion: Several subtle deviations in the vowel production of deaf CI children and hearing-impaired HA children could be established, using a well-defined acoustic analysis. CI children as well as HA children in this study tended to overarticulate, which hypothetically can be explained by a lack of auditory feedback and an attempt to compensate it by proprioceptive feedback during articulatory maneuvers.

A comparison of the perceptual evaluation of speech production between bilaterally implanted children, unilaterally implanted children, children using hearing aids, and normal-hearing children

Abstract Objective: The purpose of this study was to compare the perceptual evaluation of several speech characteristics between bilaterally implanted children (biCI), unilaterally implanted children (uniCI), children using hearing aids (HA), and normal-hearing children (NH). Design: Perceptual evaluations of intelligibility, phonation, resonance, and articulation were compared between the several subgroups. Study sample: Thirteen biCI children, 14 uniCI children, 10 HA children using hearing aids and 11 NH children participated. Results: The biCI children did not show statistically significant differences with the NH children for overall intelligibility, phonation, and resonance. Yet, significantly more distortions and consonant cluster reductions were observed in the biCI children compared with the NH children. In comparison with the uniCI and HA children, the NH as well as the biCI children obtained better evaluations for intelligibility, phonation, resonance, and articulation of consonants. Conclusions: The results of this study demonstrated a possible additional beneficial effect of bilateral implantation on several speech characteristics of prelingually deaf children and as a consequence highlighted the interest of further research. Sumario Objetivo: El propósito de este estudio fue comparar la evaluación perceptual de algunas características del habla entre niños implantados bilateralmente (biCI), niños implantados unilateralmente (uniCI), niños usuarios de auxiliares auditivos (HA) y niños con audición normal (NH). Diseño: Se compararon las evaluaciones perceptuales de inteligibilidad, fonación, resonancia y articulación entre los subgrupos. Muestra de estudio: 13 niños biCI, 14 niños uniCI, 10 niños HA y 11 niños NH. Resultados: Los niños biCI no mostraron diferencias estadísticamente significativas globales con los niños NH para la inteligibilidad, la fonación y la resonancia. No obstante, se observaron más distorsiones y reducciones de grupos de consonantes en los niños biCI, comparados con los niños NH. En comparación con los niños uniCI y los niños HA, los niños NH así como los niños biCI obtuvieron mejores evaluaciones para inteligibilidad, fonación, resonancia y articulación de consonantes. Conclusiones: Los resultados de este estudio demostraron un posible efecto benéfico adicional de la implantación bilateral en algunas características del habla de niños sordos prelingüísticos y como consecuencia, resaltan el interés de investigaciones adicionales.