Characteristics of a Dysphonic Population Referred for Voice Assessment and/or Voice Therapy.

Objective: The aim of this study was to define patient characteristics of a dysphonic population in terms of voice disorder, gender, age, and subjective and objective vocal parameters and to explore the relevant characteristics of the most frequent groups of voice disorders.

Patients And Methods: Patient records from 4,447 subjects referred for voice assessment and/or voice therapy were analyzed.

Results: Significantly more cases of dysphonia were structural as compared to nonstructural.

Awareness and reactions of young stuttering children aged 2-7 years old towards their speech disfluency.

Unlabelled: Awareness has been an important factor in theories of onset and development of stuttering. So far it has been suggested that even young children might be aware of their speech difficulty. The purpose of the present study was to investigate (a) the number of stuttering children aware of their speech difficulty, (b) the description of reported behavioural expression of awareness, (c) the relationship with age-related variables and with stuttering severity.

Characteristics of stuttering in Dutch-speaking individuals.

Clinical diagnostic procedures to distinguish stuttering from non-stuttering individuals partially rely on the observation of characteristics of stuttered words or syllables. The purpose of this study was to examine the sensitivity and specificity of such a procedure, and to describe the observed characteristics of stuttered words. Methods involved the recording of the frequency, duration, and physical tension of stuttered words in conversational speech samples (total 43, 100 words) and in an oral reading task (total 43, 100 words).

Characteristics of stuttering-like disfluencies in Dutch-speaking children.

Unlabelled: The purpose of this study was to compare the characteristics of stuttering-like disfluencies in a group of native Dutch-speaking children who stutter (n=693), with a group of normally fluent children (n=79). Methods involved the observation of stuttering-like disfluencies in participants' conversational speech samples (total 77,200 words), particularly the frequency, duration and physical tension of instances of stuttering. Findings indicate that stuttering-like disfluencies exhibited by children who stutter are significantly more frequent, longer in duration and involve more physical tension when compared to those of normally fluent children.

Effects of age, sex, and disorder on voice range profile characteristics of 230 children.

In this study, the effect of age, sex, and disorder on the vocal performance of 230 children 6 to 11 years of age was investigated by means of the voice range profile (VRP). Ninety-four control children and 136 children with disorders were studied. The VRPs were quantitatively described by frequency and intensity characteristics, as well as by morphological characteristics.

Normative voice range profiles of untrained boys and girls.

Normative voice range profiles (VRPs) are calculated for a group of untrained boys and girls between 6 and 11 years based on 35 and 39 recordings, respectively. All individuals had healthy voices. These normative VRPs contain 95% prediction intervals (PI) for both frequency and intensity.