Semi-occluded Nasal Tract Exercises (SONTEs): Nasal Tube in Water Exercises Using Nasal Consonants.

OBJECTIVE: This study analyzes the effects of the vocal exercises called semi-occluded nasal tract exercises (SONTEs), which were carried out with a new appliance that extends the nasal cavity as a part of the vocal tract. The acoustic, aerodynamic and electroglottographic (EGG) measurements were compared with those of the traditional semi-occluded vocal tract exercises (SOVTEs) of phonation in water. METHODS: In this study, 34 women were randomly asked to perform phonation in water for 5 min through the nasal and oral routes with the sounds /m/ and /ɔ/, respectively, using a tube with a submersion depth of 5 cm. The acoustic, aerodynamic and EGG measurements before and after the exercises were analyzed using the appropriate statistical methods. RESULTS: No significant difference was found in the time and frequency domain parameters before and after the exercises, except for the amplitude perturbation quotient (APQ) values, which decreased after both exercises. In addition, there was no significant difference in any aerodynamic parameters before and after the exercises, but the mean SPL values significantly increased after both exercises. The oral and nasal peak inspiratory flow rates increased after both exercises, but the increase peaked after the SONTEs implementation. As expected, the EGG-jitter and EGG-periodicity values had a reciprocal interaction with each other, while differences were observed between the values of the vocal fold movements measured in both exercises. CONCLUSIONS: SONTEs may be as effective as the conventional SOVTEs because it made tube phonation into water possible through artificial extension of the nasal cavity and increased the resonant effect by using the positive effects based on the principles of SOVTEs.

The Probable Prevalence and Sociodemographic Characteristics of Specific Learning Disorder in Primary School Children in Edirne.

INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study was to research the probable prevalence of Specific Learning Disorder (SLD) in primary school children in Edirne City and the relationships with their sociodemographic characteristics. METHODS: The sample of our study was composed of 2,174 children who were educated in primary schools in second, third, and fourth grades in the academic year 2013-2014 in Edirne City. The teachers and parents of these children were given Specific Learning Difficulties Symptom Scale, Learning Disabilities Symptoms Checklist (teacher and parent forms), and sociodemographic data forms to fill in. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to assess the risk factors for SLD. RESULTS: Our study revealed that the probable prevalence of SLD was 13.6%; 17% for boys and 10.4% for girls. Reading impairment was 3.6%, writing impairment was 6.9%, and mathematic impairment was 6.5%. We determined that consanguineous marriages, low income, history of neonatal jaundice were found as risks for SLD; born by caesarean, developmental delay of walking, and history of neonatal jaundice were found as risks for mathematic impairment. A history of learning difficulties of parents was a risk factor for forming SLD and subtypes. CONCLUSION: Our findings were consistent with other study results about the prevalence of SLD. The relationships between the probable prevalence rates and sociodemographic data were discussed.