Folia phoniatrica最新文献

Interpretations of figurative language expressions were compared in matched samples of 28 language/learning-disabled (LLD) and 28 academically achieving (non-LLD) adolescents. LLD adolescents performed significantly poorer than their non-LLD age peers. All but 1 of 12 figurative language expressions contributed to the significant group difference. Stepwise discriminant analysis identified 3 figurative expressions as the best single predictors of an LLD group placement. Qualitative analysis indicated that the LLD group produced predominantly literal error interpretations while the non-LLD controls produced predominantly partial and/or incomplete error interpretations. The results indicate that interpretation and matching of figurative language expressions can assess levels of acquisition of metaphoric ability by adolescents and provide suggestions for intervention.

The authors examine the essential aspects of the behaviour of the stutterer as perceived by the ear and discuss the reliability of the appreciation. The method of molecular analysis of speech samples of children aged from 7 to 12 years is described. The conclusion is that using this method, four out of the six categories of children examined show complete concordance and can be repeated as required; this is particularly true insofar as elongations, blockages, repetitions and interjections are concerned. However, one cannot consider as valid criteria the length of the pauses and the quality of breathing during phonation.

Although the usefulness of speech rehabilitation in disorders such as asphasia is now recognized, many clinicians estimate that speech treatments for dysarthrics are of limited value. The conceptual approach to dysarthrias is a physiological approach that emphasizes the component-by-component analysis of the peripheral speech mechanism. The selection and sequencing of treatment procedures follow directly from the physiological nature and severity of involvement in each component.

Generally speaking, there is considerable similarity among European nations with regard to the capacity of children to acquire the ability to express themselves coherently in a second language in spite of individual variations. The established facts should help understand how children acquire the ability to express themselves in the language of the country in which they live and which is not their mother tongue. They also help to situate the child with respect to the school class and age averages. In addition, they permit to evaluate the children's ability to express themselves in their mother tongues and to judge their ability to learn a second language. Consequently, it would be interesting to pursue this investigation at other levels, in particular at the beginning of the European secondary school level with the intent of assisting in determining an adequation of languages in Europe of the ninety threes.

The present paper deals with the problem of the temporal relations between the beginning of the glottal opening at phonation onset and the thyroid cartilage kinematics at the prominentia laryngea. Furthermore, some differences in comparison with a stationary phonation event are discussed here.

From a clinical point of view, unilateral vocal fold paresis means that one of the vocal folds shows reduced mobility. Etiology may be mechanical or supranuclear, but in most cases it is a partial peripheral neurogenic lesion in the muscles innervated by one of the recurrent laryngeal nerves. On the one hand, a retrospective analysis was made of 71 cases with laryngoscopically reduced mobility of one vocal fold: 58 patients had electromyographic signs of partial denervation; 13 had normal electromyographic activity. Possible explanations are mechanical factors, paradoxical reinnervation, or central neurological pathology. On the other hand we reviewed 179 cases with an electromyographic diagnosis of unilateral partial peripheral neurogenic lesion in the muscles innervated by one of the recurrent laryngeal nerves: 119 patients showed a clinically immobile vocal fold, 2 a normally moving vocal fold and 58 a paretic vocal fold. A lot of immobile vocal folds are thus partial denervations. Insufficient amount of functional motor units and paradoxical reinnervation provide possible explanations.

Some time ago audiological screening in infants was mostly performed using musical instruments or equivalents. The use of acoustic evoked potentials and oto-acoustic emissions changed the strategies of hearing assessment in newborns and infants, however, musical instruments are still in use. An adequate interpretation of screening results obtained with musical instruments necessitates a profound knowledge of frequencies and intensities derived from these instruments. In this study spectral analyses of sounds from these instruments were performed. The results may be of value for those using musical instruments as a tool for audiological screening. In addition, the results show that with some instruments intensities able to cause inner ear damage can be generated.

In order to estimate the significance of the psychogenic factor in the etiology of functional voice disorders on the basis of relevant psychological dimensions we compared patients with functional dysphonia, aphonia and a normal control group by means of an empirical-psychological test procedure. Psychogenic conditions proved to be a major factor in the etiology of aphonia, whereas such an interrelation turned out only partially in patients with functional dysphonia. The conclusion can be that psychogenic aspects are not necessarily of exceeding importance in the etiology of functional dysphonia. If no differentiation is made between the two kinds of voice disorders an overestimation of psychogenic influence might occur.