Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology最新文献

The everyday lives of young children with speech sound disorder (SSD) are not well described, with few studies taking a holistic view with interaction in focus. The aim of this study was to investigate how SSD affects communicative activity and participation in everyday life of four children in a Swedish context. The study involved 4 triads: 4 children with SSD aged 4 to 7, their parents (n = 4), grandmothers (n = 2) and pedagogues, i.e. preschool teachers (n = 2). The research design was a case series, including speech language tests, questionnaires and structured interviews. The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) served as an analytical framework. Results showed reduced speech intelligibility in all children. Interrupted thought processes, tantrums and social withdrawal were negative effects of the SSD. Having a friend in the out-of-home environment was a facilitating factor, enabling the children with SSD use their full capacity in social interaction. When knowledge about SSD is shared in all environments, all forces that influence the child positively may be aligned in a collaborative effort and a holistic understanding can be reached. To accomplish this, ICF serves as a valuable conceptual framework.

Purpose: The analysis of acoustic parameters contributes to the characterisation of human communication development throughout the lifetime. The present paper intends to analyse suprasegmental features of European Portuguese in longitudinal conversational speech samples of three male public figures in uncontrolled environments across different ages, approximately 30 years apart.

Participants and methods: Twenty prosodic features concerning intonation, intensity, rhythm, and pause measures were extracted semi-automatically from 360 speech intervals (3-4 interviews from each speaker x 30 speech intervals x 3 speakers) lasting between 3 to 6 s.

Results: Twelve prosodic parameters presented significant age effects at least in one speaker. Group mean comparisons revealed significant differences between the youngest (i.e. 50 years) and the oldest age groups (i.e. 80 years) in seven parameters. The results from the analysis point to a lower and less variable fo, higher fo minimum, wider fo peaks, more vocal effort and more variable global intensity, slower speech and articulation rate, and also more frequent and longer pauses in older ages.

Conclusion: This longitudinal study has the potential to contribute to the characterization of the normal aging process, proving to be significant in the domains of human-machine communication, speech recognition systems, applied linguistics, or the implementation of strategies in communicative contexts with older adults.

Objective: The first aim of the study, to determine the effects of a vocal loading task (VLT) involving reading a passage at a level of 80-85 dBA_(30 cm) for 10 minute (min) on voice. The second aim is to identify the effects of three different therapeutic strategies performed immediately after the VLT on voice.

Method: The sample of the study included 32 normophonic female participants. The research procedure involved three different therapeutic strategies: sterile water nebulization, voiced oral high-frequency oscillation (VOHFO) and the combined application following three different vocal loading tasks performed for 10 min. The assessments were made using acoustic, electroglottographic, perceived vocal effort (Borg CR-10) measurement methods.

Results: The 10 min VLT did not significantly affect the acoustic (except for fundamental frequency-Fo) or electroglottographic parameters of the habitual voice, while it led to an increased level of perceived vocal effort scores and Fo values. Perturbation and perceptual effort decreased after all three therapeutic interventions, but Fo remained higher than baseline; EGG-contact quotient (CQ) decreased after VOHFO-inclusive therapeutic interventions and perceptual effort level did not decrease after nebulization but decreased after VOHFO-inclusive interventions.

Conclusion: The 10 min VLT, which was of a short duration, led to an increased level of perceived vocal effort scores and Fo values. In addition, all therapeutic interventions were found to decrease perturbation and perceived vocal effort. However, according to the EGG-CQ data, the addition of therapeutic factors such as VOHFO to superficial vocal fold hydration procedures may further enhance their beneficial effects on the voice.

Purpose: We propose that rigorous measurement practices combined with frameworks focused on functional capacity can transform physiological variability, traditionally dismissed as "noise," into diagnostic information for precision-based voice care. A conceptual framework integrating vocal capacity, demand response, reserve, and recovery enables individualized monitoring, predictive risk assessment, and proactive intervention, mirroring progress in cardiology and orthopedics where variability became diagnostic. Applied to voice, this approach can transform clinical practice: a teacher's inconsistent perturbation may signal depleted reserve requiring pacing; a singer's instability may reflect insufficient reserve under rehearsal load, guiding recovery scheduling; and a neurological patient's fluctuations may indicate variable demand response, informing targeted intervention.

Conclusions: Variability-informed models can establish individual baselines, track change trajectories, and identify functional thresholds before overt disorder emerges. Embracing physiological variability offers a path to align clinical strategies with functional sustainability, transforming uncertainty into actionable insight for research and clinical practice.

Effective voice education promotes healthy voice use, particularly for kindergarten teachers in demanding environments. This study assessed the effectiveness of a brief, workplace-based voice education program for the preschool teachers. Teachers were quasi-randomly assigned based on work schedules to either the Direct Voice Training Group (N = 31), which received a four-hour face-to-face training session and an educational booklet, or the Educational Booklet Only Group (N = 45). Outcomes were measured using the Vocal Fatigue Index (VFI) and blinded perceptual voice quality assessments via the GRBAS scale at baseline and three months post-intervention. Nonparametric Wilcoxon signed-rank tests assessed statistical significance, with effect sizes (r) calculated. Both groups improved significantly, but the Direct Voice Training Group showed broader improvements, with small to medium effect sizes (r = 0.25-0.38), whereas the Booklet Only Group had limited improvements (r < 0.3). Blinded evaluations confirmed greater benefits for the direct training group. These findings highlight the value of brief, targeted interventions for occupational vocal health, though small to medium effect sizes suggest that more intensive interventions may be required for clinically significant outcomes.

Purpose: This study examines differences in intrinsic laryngeal muscle control during Mandarin vowel production between native Mandarin speakers and advanced South Korean learners. By analyzing vocal fold vibrations and muscle activation patterns, it provides a biomechanical perspective on second language phonetic challenges.

Method: Twenty native Mandarin speakers (control) and twenty advanced South Korean learners (experimental), all from the same university, participated in the study. Participants produced monosyllabic words while formant frequencies were recorded. A computational vocal fold-airway model simulated vowel production, focusing on the activation of the cricothyroid (CT), thyroarytenoid (TA), and lateral cricoarytenoid (LC) muscles. Simulated formant frequencies were compared with actual recordings to identify muscle control differences.

Results: Native speakers exhibited higher CT and TA activation for /a/ and /i/, while South Korean learners showed reduced activation of these muscles and increased reliance on the LC muscle. For /u/, the native speakers' model revealed lower overall muscle activation, whereas learners over-activated all three muscles.

Conclusions: The findings reveal distinct laryngeal control patterns between native and non-native speakers, emphasizing the role of biomechanical modeling in second language phonetics research. By identifying specific muscle activation differences, this study provides insights into the physiological basis of vowel articulation challenges and lays the groundwork for future research on cross-linguistic phonetic and phonemic acquisition.

Introduction: This study investigated why teachers with voice disorders continue teaching by surveying their motives described in social capital theory.

Methods: Teachers were asked to rate their motives for continued teaching even with voice disorders using online surveys. The five key motives (social capital framework) were: Motive #1 (selfishness), Motive #2 (internal validation), Motive #3 (external validation), Motive #4 (transcendence or altruism), and Motive #5 (belonging).

Results: As teachers' income increased, so did the relative importance of the transcendence motive. Income maintenance (selfishness) accounted for 47% of the total motivation, with teachers with a master's degree and higher incomes being less likely to prioritize this motive. Teachers reporting bad voice quality were more likely to prioritize income (selfishness) and less likely to be motivated by helping others (altruism) or feel connected to other people (belonging).

Conclusion: Voice problems can negatively impact a teacher's sense of fulfilment and motivation beyond financial constraints. These findings highlight the need for implementing preventive measures for voice disorders in schools that can address voice problems before they significantly affect teachers' performance and students' learning. Moreover, competitive teacher salaries and benefits may create a supportive environment where educators feel empowered to focus on their students' needs.

Overview: Non-word repetition (NWR) is one of the most effective predictors of language impairments in children as it has been found to correlate with various language measures and the association between NWR and vocabulary is well documented in typically developing (TD) studies. However, there is a dire need for investigations of language skills in Kuwaiti Arabic individuals with Down Syndrome, and this study set out to fill a gap in this field.

Method: In this paper, we compare the vocabulary and NWR skills of a group of 48 individuals with DS aged 6-20 years to a group of 44 TD children aged 3-10 years matched on nonverbal IQ. Furthermore, we investigate the correlations among these language measures in the two groups and examine whether NWR can predict receptive and expressive vocabulary in these two groups.

Result: Results found DS participants performed significantly less than the TD group on the three language measures (receptive vocabulary t(90)= -3.17, p < .01, expressive vocabulary t(90)= -3.27, p < .01, and NWR t(90)= -8.32, p < .01). Moreover, there were strong correlations between NWR and vocabulary (receptive and expressive) in the TD group but not the DS group.

Conclusion: Findings supported the working memory model and the phonological processing account for the TD group. On the other hand, the poor association between NWR and vocabulary in the DS group might be due to poor phonological discrimination difficulties and speech discrimination difficulties.

Purpose: Neurogenic dysphagia causes complications such as malnutrition, dehydration, and aspiration pneumonia. Therefore, early detection with clinically valid tools is essential. This study aimed to investigate the Eating Assessment Tool-10 (EAT-10) ability to detect swallowing efficiency at three different consistencies in neurogenic dysphagia.

Methods: One hundred twelve patients with neurogenic dysphagia (74 males and 38 females, mean ± SD age 61.83 ± 9.72 years) were included in the study. A Fiberoptic Endoscopic Evaluation of Swallowing (FEES) was performed in the clinic following EAT-10 to assess swallowing efficacy at International Dysphagia Diet Standardization Initiative (IDDSI) consistencies of 0, 3, and 7. The swallowing efficiency of the patients was assessed using the Yale Pharyngeal Residue Severity Rating Scale (YPRSRS). Area under the curve, sensitivity, and specificity values were calculated to evaluate the ability of EAT-10 to discriminate between participants with and without residue and between participants with and without moderate-to-severe residue.

Results: The EAT-10 significantly detected participants with and without residues for three IDDSI consistent: for IDDSI 0 residue in the vallecula and pyriform sinus (cutoff score ≥ 14, p < 0.001), for IDDSI 3 residue in the vallecula and pyriform sinus (cutoff score ≥ 13, p < 0.001), for IDDSI 7 residue in the vallecula and pyriform sinus (respectively, cutoff score ≥ 13, cutoff score ≥ 14, p < 0.001). Additionally, the EAT-10 significantly detected those with and without moderate-to-severe residue.

Conclusions: The EAT-10, frequently used in swallowing clinics, can determine swallowing efficiency in individuals with neurogenic dysphagia. Additionally, it has the power to detect moderate-to-severe pharyngeal residue.