Speech Characteristics in Female Students Training to Be Speech-Language Pathologists.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this retrospective study was to determine the speech characteristics regarding speech intelligibility, voice, articulation, and fluency in future speech-language pathologists (SLPs). Additionally, in 31 SLP students the differences in speech characteristics between the first bachelor and the master year were measured. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS: The data of the screening assessments of 600 future SLPs (mean age: 18.4 years) of the first bachelor year were analyzed (period 1995-2010). To evaluate the students' progress during the program, the speech data of 31 female subjects (mean age: 21.4 years) were evaluated at the end of the program and compared to the original data. A consensus evaluation by 2 SLPs was used. RESULTS: Speech intelligibility and fluency were evaluated as normal in 99% of the students. Perceptual evaluation of vocal quality revealed disordered vocal quality in 27%. The most prominent articulation errors were distortions of vowels and dental and interdental articulation of alveolar consonants. A significant decrease in these distortions after 3 years of education was found (p > 0.05). CONCLUSION: Although an improvement in distortions in the master students was measured, articulation errors and dialect were present in SLP students who intended to work with speech and language disorders.

The impact of palatal repair before and after 6 months of age on speech characteristics.

OBJECTIVE: Optimal timing of palatal repair is still subject of discussion. Although literature provides some evidence that palatal closure prior to 6 months positively influence speech outcome in children with clefts, only few studies verified this hypothesis. The purpose of this study was to describe and compare articulation and resonance characteristics following early (≤6 months) and later (>6 months) palatal repair, performed using the Sommerlad technique. METHODS: Comparison was made between 12 Ugandan children with isolated cleft (lip and) palate following early palatal repair (mean age: 3.3 m) and 12 Belgian patients with later palatal repair (mean age: 11.1 m), matched for cleft type, age and gender. A Ugandan and Belgian age- and gender-matched control group without clefts was included to control for language, culture and other environmental factors. Articulation assessments consisted of consonant inventories and phonetic and phonological analyses that were based on consensus transcriptions. In addition, resonance was evaluated by perceptual consensus ratings and objective mean nasalance values. RESULTS: The Belgian and Ugandan control groups were comparable for the majority of the variables. Comparison of cleft palate groups revealed no clinically relevant significant group differences for consonant inventory or phonological processes. Phonetic analysis showed significantly more distortions in the Belgian cleft palate group due to higher occurrence frequencies for (inter)dental productions of apico-alveolar consonants. Neither perceptual consensus ratings of hypernasality, hyponasality, cul-de-sac resonance and nasal emission/turbulence, nor objective mean nasalance values for oral speech samples revealed significant group differences (p>0.05). CONCLUSION: Articulation and resonance characteristics of young children following palatal repair before and after 6 months of age seem to be at least comparable.

Impact of early synchronous lip and palatal repair on speech.

AIMS: The purpose of this study was to describe articulation and resonance characteristics of Ugandan English-speaking children with cleft lip and palate (CLP) after synchronous lip and palatal closure (Sommerlad technique) prior to the age of 6 months in comparison with an age- and gender-matched control group. METHODS: Eleven Ugandan patients with CLP (mean age 4;9 years), repaired during a synchronous lip and (soft and hard) palatal closure at a mean age of 3.4 months, were included as well as a control group (n = 22) consisting of 2 Ugandan age- and gender-matched noncleft children for each patient (mean age 4;10 years). Objective and perceptual speech assessment techniques were applied. RESULTS: Consonant inventories were significantly smaller in the CLP group. Moreover, phonetic disorders and phonological processes occurred in 91 and 100% of the CLP group, respectively. Perceptual consensus evaluation revealed absence of hyponasality and cul-de-sac resonance in all patients. Hypernasality and nasal emission/turbulence occurred in 18 and 27% of the patients, respectively. No significant group differences were observed regarding the mean nasalance values of oral speech samples. CONCLUSION: Various deviations from normal speech development seem to occur in patients with CLP following synchronous lip and palatal closure before 6 months of age.

The impact of menopause on vocal quality.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to measure and describe the effect of menopause on vocal characteristics by comparing premenopausal and postmenopausal women (not taking hormone therapy [HT]). METHODS: Thirty-eight postmenopausal women (mean age, 58 y) not taking HT participated in the study. The control group consisted of 34 premenopausal women (mean age, 48 y). To determine the vocal characteristics in both groups, objective (aerodynamic measurements, vocal range measurements, acoustic analysis, electroglottography, and a determination of the Dysphonia Severity Index) and subjective (perceptual evaluation, videostroboscopic evaluation, and Voice Handicap Index) assessment techniques were used. RESULTS: Postmenopausal women showed a good overall vocal quality, with a Dysphonia Severity Index value of 3.3. Significant differences in aerodynamic parameters (vital capacity and phonation quotient), vocal range (lowest frequency), and acoustic parameters (fundamental frequency [F0] during reading, variation of F0, F0 tremor intensity index, and amplitude tremor intensity index) were found between the premenopausal and postmenopausal women. However, when controlling for age, only phonation quotient and F0 during reading were significantly lower in the group of postmenopausal women. For the perceptual evaluation, significant differences in grade of dysphonia, breathiness, and strained vocal quality were found. CONCLUSIONS: Postmenopausal women not taking HT had a good overall vocal quality. However, in comparison with premenopausal women, they showed a lower habitual F0 in continuous speech.

The objective vocal quality, vocal risk factors, vocal complaints, and corporal pain in Dutch female students training to be speech-language pathologists during the 4 years of study.

The purpose of the present cross-sectional study was to determine the objective vocal quality and the vocal characteristics (vocal risk factors, vocal and corporal complaints) in 197 female students in speech-language pathology during the 4 years of study. The objective vocal quality was measured by means of the Dysphonia Severity Index (DSI). Perceptual voice assessment, the Voice Handicap Index (VHI), questionnaires addressing vocal risks, and vocal and corporal complaints during and/or after voice usage were performed. Speech-language pathology (SLP) students have a borderline vocal quality corresponding to a DSI% of 68. The analysis of variance revealed no significant change of the objective vocal quality between the first bachelor year and the master year. No psychosocial handicapping effect of the voice was observed by means of the VHI total, though there was an effect at the functional VHI level in addition to some vocal complaints. Ninety-three percent of the student SLPs reported the presence of corporal pain during and/or after speaking. In particular, sore throat and headache were mentioned as the prevalent corporal pain symptoms. A longitudinal study of the objective vocal quality of the same subjects during their career as an SLP might provide new insights.

The prevalence of lisping in gay men.

UNLABELLED: This study evaluated the stereotype that gay men lisp. Two clinicians who were unaware of the specific purpose of the study and the populations involved judged randomized audio-recordings of 175 gay males, 100 heterosexual males and 100 heterosexual females for the presence of lisping during reading of a standardized text. In the gay males a significantly higher prevalence of lisping was found than in the heterosexual males and females. Breakdown of the results of the gay participants in two different age groups showed a higher prevalence of lisping in the younger age group than in the older age group. No relation was found between lisping and age of coming-out or lisping and the probability of being gay as assessed by a questionnaire about sexual orientation. The origin of the high prevalence of lisping in gay men needs further investigation. LEARNING OUTCOMES: The readers of this article will able (1) to discuss articulatory behaviour as a possible marker that may distinguish gay from heterosexual men (2) to discuss the prevalence of lisping in gay men.

Outcome of laryngeal manual therapy in four Dutch adults with persistent moderate-to-severe vocal hyperfunction: a pilot study.

A relatively new management strategy for the treatment of voice disorders is the use of laryngeal manual therapy. The main purpose of the present pilot study is to document the outcome of vocal quality after a well-defined laryngeal manual therapy (LMT) program. Four Dutch professional voice users with a persistent moderate or severe muscle tension dysphonia were studied pretreatment (1 week before LMT) and posttreatment (1 week) after completion of manual therapy (25 sessions). These subjects had received several months of traditional voice therapy, without any success. To measure and compare, the effect of LMT objective and subjective assessment techniques were used. Perceptual voice assessment included a perceptual rating of the voice using the GRBAS scale. Furthermore, the vocal quality in this population was modeled by means of the Dysphonia Severity Index (DSI). All of the subjects selected for LMT showed improvement in perceptual vocal quality and DSI values. As the DSI is a weighted variable including aerodynamic and acoustic measures, small improvements (closer to 5) are very indicative of vocal quality improvement. The use of LMT in professional voice users with persistent moderate-to-severe muscle tension dysphonia, especially in some subjects who have not responded to traditional voice therapy, is supported by this pilot study.