Pro-fono : revista de atualizacao cientifica最新文献

Background: fine motor function of school-aged children with dyslexia, learning disabilities and learning difficulties.

Aim: this study aimed to characterize the fine motor, sensory and perceptive function of school-aged children with dyslexia, learning disabilities and learning difficulties and to correlate these results with the analysis of the children's handwriting.

Method: participants were 80 2nd to 4th graders, ranging in age from 7 to 12 years, of both genders, divided as follows: GI: composed of 20 students with dyslexia, GII: composed of 20 students with learning disabilities, GIII: composed of 20 students with learning difficulties and GIV: composed of 20 good readers. All of the children were submitted to an assessment of the fine motor, sensorial and perceptive functions using the Dysgraphia Scale.

Results: the results indicated that most groups presented a poor performance in tests of FMF7 (fingers opposition), S8 (graphestesia) and P1 (body imitation). GI and GII were the groups that presented the worst performance in most of the tests when compared to GIII and GIV. Regarding handwriting, it was observed that all of the children in GII are dysgraphics.

Conclusion: the presence of motor, sensorial and perceptive alterations is a characteristic of children with learning disabilities and dyslexia. However this characteristic may or may not be found in children with learning difficulties, therefore motor, sensorial and perceptive alterations are responsible for the dysgraphic behavior observed in the children with learning disabilities of the present study.

Background: parturients assisted by a speech therapy care service.

Aim: to characterize the parturient population assisted by the Speech Therapy Care Service, who were participating of the second phase of the Kangaroo Mother Method, in a school maternity, reference for high risk cases, in 2006.

Method: retrospective analytical descriptive study by means of the analysis of 204 medical registers. Descriptive statistical techniques were used as well as the Mann-Whitney test for the comparison of variables without normal distribution. The adopted significance level was of 5%.

Results: the mean age of the mothers was of 24.61 years (SD = 7.36), being 125 (61.27%) from the countryside and 201 (50%) single. Most of the assisted population had been to school for 4 to 5 years (35.29%), most were housewives (76.47%) and had no previous experience concerning breastfeeding (53.43%). The prevalent birth method was Caesarean section (n=98; 48.03%) and 89 (43.62%) reported 1 to 3 sessions of pre-natal care counseling.

Conclusion: the population assisted by the Speech Therapy Care Service was characterized mainly as single precipitous from the countryside, who had low income and no remunerated job, however they presented high schooling in terms of study years. Also a low number of pre-natal counseling sessions was observed, as well as caesarean section, low pregnancy age and extended hospital stay time.

Background: phenylketonuria is an autosomal recessive disorder resulting from the mutation of a gene located in chromosome 12q22-24.1.

Aim: to describe the performance of children with classic phenylketonuria, who were diagnosed and treated early, in the Development Screening Test Denver - II.

Method: participants were 20 children with phenylketonuria, ranging in age from 3 and 6 years, and 10 children with typical language development, paired by gender, age and socioeconomic level to the research group. The plasmatic phenylalanine measure and the neurological, psychological and social information were gathered in the data base of the Neonatal Screening Programs for Metabolic disorder. Assessment consisted on the application of the Development Screening Test Denver II. A descriptive statistical analysis and the Mann Whitney test were used in order to characterize the tested skills. For the measurements of the plasmatic phenylalanine blood levels the values considered for analysis were: below 2 mg/dL, above 4 mg/dL, reference values between 2 and 4 mg/dL, of all exams performed during the participants'lives; maximum and minimum values and values obtained on the day of the screening application.

Results: comparison between the groups indicated statistically significant differences for the personal-social and language areas.

Conclusion: children who were diagnosed and treated early for phenylketonuria present deficits in the personal-social and language areas. Also, even when receiving follow-up and undergoing treatment, these children presented difficulties in maintaining normal plasmatic phenylalanine levels.

Background: speech intelligibility evaluation.

Aim: to develop and validate items for a speech intelligibility assessment scale based on the speech of individuals with phonological disorder (PD) who present common phonological repair strategies (RS) in the Brazilian Portuguese language (BP), through the testing of its effectiveness in classifying the speech of these subjects. Also to observe the speech intelligibility generated by the use of RS and possible interference of factors such as gender, age, literacy and contact of the judges with children.

Method: spontaneous narratives of five children with typical PD and one control subject were recorded in a compact disc (CD) and presented to 103 judges, with normal hearing abilities, with ages ranging from 18 to 39 years and with elementary, high-school and undergraduate backgrounds.

Results: results indicate the statistical validity of the scale and that the type of RS if fundamental for speech intelligibility. There was no statistical interference of the investigated variables of gender, age, literacy and contact with children in the performed judgments.

Conclusion: the scale items were validated and demonstrated efficacy in the assessment of speech intelligibility of the studied cases.

Background: syllable deletion (SD) frequently occurs in Specific Language Impairment and can indicate a deviant factor in the phonologic acquisition process of these subjects.

Aim: to verify the occurrence of SD in the spontaneous speech of children with SLI and to verify the influence of word extension and syllable stress in this process.

Methods: participants were 27 children with SLI, aged between 3:0 and 5:11 years, in a weekly speech treatment, who presented 50% of correct answers in specific phonology assessment tasks or who presented speech intelligibility within levels that allowed assessment through spontaneous speech. Speech samples were obtained during a play interaction situation between the researcher and the child and through speech elicited by the presentation of a picture. The occurrence of SD was analyzed considering the following parameters: extension of the produced words, preference for stressed or unstressed syllables, position of the syllable within the word were SD occurred.

Results: there was a preference for the production of dissyllabic words (X2 = 72,49; p < 0,001); the occurrence of SD was significantly higher in polysyllabic words (X2 = 11,22; p < 0,004) and on initial syllables (X2 = 34,99; p < 0,001). Unstressed syllables were more often reduced (Z= -5.79, p <0001).

Conclusion: the preference for the production of dissyllabic words reassures the difficulty of these children with complex syllabic structures and, in part, explains their spontaneous speech unintelligibility. The predominance of unstressed syllable deletion indicates the preference for producing the nucleus of words, where emphasis is given to the stressed syllable during language expression.

Background: expressive vocabulary and auditory processing in children with phonological disorder.

Aim: to compare the performance of children with phonological disorder in a vocabulary test with the parameters indicated by the same test and to verify a possible relationship between this performance and auditory processing deficits.

Method: participants were 12 children diagnosed with phonological disorders, with ages ranging from 5 to 7 years, of both genders. Vocabulary was assessed using the ABFW language test and the simplified auditory processing evaluation (sorting), Alternate Dichotic Dissyllable - Staggered Spondaic Word (SSW), Pitch Pattern Sequence (PPS) and the Binaural Fusion Test (BF).

Results: considering performance in the vocabulary test, all children obtained results with no significant statistical. As for the auditory processing assessment, all children presented better results than expected; the only exception was on the sorting process testing, where the mean accuracy score was of 8.25. Regarding the performance in the other auditory processing tests, the mean accuracy averages were 6.50 in the SSW, 10.74 in the PPS and 7.10 in the BF. When correlating the performance obtained in both assessments, considering p>0.05, the results indicated that, despite the normality, the lower the value obtained in the auditory processing assessment, the lower the accuracy presented in the vocabulary test. A trend was observed for the semantic fields of "means of transportation and professions". Considering the classification categories of the vocabulary test, the SP (substitution processes) were the categories that presented the higher significant increase in all semantic fields.

Conclusion: there is a correlation between the auditory processing and the lexicon, where vocabulary can be influenced in children with deviant speech acquisition.

Background: success and difficulties in the treatment of psychogenic dysphonia.

Aim: to discuss the limitations of speech therapy for psychogenic dysphonia associated with other diseases.

Method: evaluation protocols and therapy registrations were used for discussion of the case.

Results: the patient arrived with a significant voice change and after evaluation psychogenic dysphonia was diagnosed. The treatment involved vocal activation and modification of the fixed adjustment. Positive changes were observed such as stability in vocal patterns and reduction of hoarseness, roughness, breathiness and throat discomfort and in the quality of life related to voice, but these changes were not sustained since other existing health problems aggravated.

Conclusion: speech therapy may be limited, although challenging, when psychogenic dysphonia occurs concomitantly to other diseases.

Background: interrelation of phonetics, phonology and auditory processing in English Language Teaching.

Aim: to determine whether prior contact with English phonetics favors general learning of this language (L2), i.e. second language, in Portuguese speakers; to verify performance of these individuals in an auditory processing test prior to and after being taught L2.

Method: participants of the study were eight college students who had only studied English in high school. These participants were divided into two groups: control group - were only enrolled in English classes; experimental group - were enrolled in English phonetic classes prior to their enrollment in English classes. Participants were submitted to an auditory processing test and to an oral test in English (Oral Test) prior to and after the classes. Data were analyzed in the same way, i.e. prior to and after the classes.

Results: these were expressed statistically by T-Student's test. Analyses indicated no difference in performance between groups. Scores indicated better performance of the control group for answering questions in English in the Oral Test. The experimental group had better performance in the auditory processing test after being enrolled to English phonetic classes and English course.

Conclusion: prior basic knowledge of English did not enhance general learning (improvement in pronunciation) of the second language, however, it improved the ability of temporal processing in the used test.

Background: acoustic vocal characteristics of young male adults.

Aim: to characterize the acoustic measurements of the glottal source of young male adults with normal voices and larynx and to compare these results to the standard measurements proposed by the software used for this assessment.

Method: 25 young male individuals (20 to 40 years), who presented normal voices and larynx, were selected. All subjects had the prolonged vowel [a] emission analyzed by the Multi Dimensional Voice Program Advanced (MDVPA). The Lilliefords test, with a significance level of 5%, was used to verify the normal distribution of the results of each measurement. The parameters with normal distribution had their means compared to the standard measurements proposed by the program using the T Test (significance level of 5%).

Results: the group was characterized by 18 means of acoustic measurements. Measurements of frequency disturbance and amplitude were the ones that most differed from the standard measurements, presenting higher values. Approximately half of the measurements presented normal distribution.

Conclusions: the measurements of jitter and shimmer of young male adults with normal voices and larynx were high. Measurements of fundamental frequency, noise and instability remained within the expected values. Approximately half of the measurements presented normal distribution prevailing those of jitter and shimmer, indicating that these measurements can be used as a reference.

Background: children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) have difficulties with speech processing. These difficulties affect the development of phonologic representations.

Aim: to evaluate the abilities of children with normal language development (NLD) and those with SLI in distinguishing words from non-words in a lexical decision task.

Method: two groups were involved in this study: the Control Group (GC), with no language disorders, composed by 36 subjects, and the Research Group (RG), with 18 subjects, all diagnosed with SLI, aging form 4 to 8:9 years. Children from both groups were arranged in three subgroups, according to the receptive vocabulary. Forty eight three syllable words were selected, being 24 real words and 24 that were manipulated in order to obtain non-words. Three variables were considered: (a) modification extension, (b) modification positioning and (c) modification type. Children had to decide whether a phonological sequence consisted of a word or a non-word.

Results: even though children were matched by lexical age, there were differences between GC and RG. The RG presented more difficulty in lexical decision, not only for words but also for non-words. Both groups, with lexical age of 4 years, struggled more in this task when compared with groups with lexical age of 5 and 6 years.

Conclusion: children with SLI presented deficit in phonological representation when compared with children with NLD. This difference in performance can be explained by differences in the formation and retention of working memory representations, auditory discrimination and motor planning and execution.