Purpose: This study examined the effects of an intensive voice treatment Lee Silverman Voice Treatment (LSVT LOUD) on children with Down syndrome (DS) and motor speech disorders. Method: A Phase I, multiple baseline, single-subject design with replication across nine participants with DS was used. Single-word intelligibility, acoustic measures of…

Quality of life is a construction used to measure an individual's perspective on their well-being. In modern research, voice and speech disorders have been recognized as indicators of impaired quality of life in children. The aim of this research is to analyze the characteristics of quality of life in children with voice and speech disorders and…

Increasing the proportion of children with voice, swallowing, speech, or language disorders who receive intervention services is a Healthy People 2020 goal (1). Timely receipt of intervention services is shown to be effective for treatment of communication disorders (2-5). Using data from the 2012 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), this…

Speech-language pathology has different practice and research histories, standards, methods, and challenges in different countries and regions. Awareness of these different realities may contribute to the scientific development of the field and improve the services delivered to different populations. Sharing solutions to similar problems in…

The paper presents an approach to voice therapy programing for young children who are hypernasal. Some general principles underlying the approach are presented and discussed, including use of language patterns appropriate to the child's age and cognitive and linguistic development. (Author/CL)

The study examined the speech production strategies used by 4 young children (30- to 32-months-old) with cleft palate and velopharyngeal inadequacy during the early stages of phonological learning. All the children had had primary palatal surgery and were producing primarily single word utterances with a few 2- and 3-word phrases. Analysis of each…

A study compared the laryngeal behavior associated with the perceptually fluent speech of 3-to-7-year-old stutterers (N=8) to that of normally fluent peers (N=8). Analysis of electroglottograph readings indicated that normally fluent children exhibited significantly more typical patterns during consonant-vowel and vowel-consonant transitions than…

This paper offers practical suggestions for vocal hygiene programs designed to prevent, identify, and treat vocal abuse by young children. Suggestions include construction of homemade instructional materials and use of commercially available resources. (DB)

The speech of four phonologically disordered children (ages four and five) with place and voice errors affecting initial stop consonants was described through phonological and acoustic analyses. The presence of productive phonological knowledge, as inferred from acoustic data, facilitated rapid generalization of correct production of the treated…

Spectrographic measures of voice onset time (VOT) were made for three phonologically disordered children with an emerging voicing contrast. These measures were related to adult listeners' perception of voicing of the initial stop consonant. Results showed that VOT's utility for predicting perceived voicing was not high. (Author/JDD)

Parents of 834 children (ages 3-7) rated 16 voice usage items (such as talking loudly, talking on the telephone, and singing) for frequency of occurrence. Results indicated that, as the child's age increased, voice usage became more conservative. Frequency tables for vocal behaviors across age were developed. (Author/JDD)

This article describes an approach to the treatment of young children whose speech problems are classified in the category of "persistent sound system disorder." The approach fosters development of stimulability skills through broadening of the phonetic inventory early in the treatment process. A case study illustrates treatment…

Data were collected on 731 patients (age birth to 18) at a children's hospital otolaryngology clinic. Most frequent laryngeal pathologies were subglottic stenosis, vocal nodules, laryngomalacia, and vocal fold paralysis. Laryngeal pathologies were more common to males than females, were most common in the youngest patients, and were distributed…

Study sought to determine if young children's knowledge regarding potentially abusive hearing and voice behaviors can be changed through education. An interactive educational program, Ears for Listening, Voice for Speaking (ELVS), was presented to 66 kindergarten students. After participation in the program, a statistically significant increase…

Provided is a program of behavioral objectives for use with speech handicapped preschool and elementary level children in the areas of articulation disorders, language disorders, stuttering, tongue thrust, and voice. Communication disorders are defined as substandard behaviors which interfere with the student's ability to perform acceptably for…