A terapia vocal é a opção inicial de tratamento em casos de alterações vocais decorrentes do envelhecimento. Existem poucas propostas de intervenção específicas para esta situação e as análises dos seus efeitos são limitadas. O tratamento ocorre tradicionalmente na frequência de uma ou duas vezes semanais, no entanto algumas propostas sugerem uma abordagem intensiva, não havendo clareza quanto à melhor forma de aplicação. Sendo assim, este estudo tem o objetivo de verificar os efeitos de um programa de Terapia Vocal para idosos (TVI) e se há diferenças entre a administração do tratamento no formato intensivo e convencional. Foram encaminhados para terapia vocal 27 idosos randomizados em dois grupos, sendo que o Grupo Intensivo (GI) realizou 16 sessões quatro vezes por semana e o Grupo Convencional (GC), 16 sessões duas vezes semanais. Para a comparação dos efeitos da terapia foram avaliados os aspectos de qualidade de vida por meio do protocolo Qualidade de Vida em Voz (QVV), qualidade vocal por meio da avaliação perceptivoauditiva e laríngeos por meio da análise perceptivo-visual dos exames. O profissional que aplicou o tratamento foi cego quanto aos procedimentos de avaliação, realizados na semana anterior ao início dos atendimentos, na semana seguinte ao término do mesmo e um mês após. O programa TVI envolveu exercícios de diversas técnicas com potencial para melhorar os aspectos vocais impactados pelo envelhecimento Finalizaram o tratamento 25 idosos, 13 do GI e 12 do GC. Os resultados evidenciaram melhora quanto a qualidade de vida relacionada a voz e em relação à qualidade vocal, mas não nos aspectos laríngeos. Após um mês foi mantida a melhora no QVV e na qualidade de voz, soprosidade e instabilidade durante emissões sustentadas e qualidade vocal e rugosidade na fala. Não foram observadas diferenças entre a terapia intensiva e convencional à exceção do arqueamento de pregas vocais que diminuiu em 38,46% dos participantes do GI e em nenhum do GC. A conclusão do estudo é de que o programa TVI traz benefício na qualidade de vida relacionada a voz e na qualidade vocal de idosos, de maneira que a melhora é observada imediatamente e um mês após o tratamento. Além disso, a terapia no formato intensivo traz benefícios semelhantes à terapia convencional, porém o modelo intensivo pode trazer mais benefícios em relação ao arqueamento de pregas vocais. Os aspectos individuais de cada paciente devem ser considerados no momento da escolha da frequência do tratamento. / The voice therapy is the initial treatment option in cases of vocal changes due to aging. There are few specifics intervention proposals for these cases and the assessments of its effects are limited. The treatment traditionally occurs at the frequency of once or twice a week, however some methods suggests an intensive approach, there is no clarity as to the best way for applying. Therefore, this study aims to verify the effects of the method Vocal Therapy for Elderlies (VTE) and whether there are differences between the treatment administration in the intensive and conventional format. Underwent the vocal therapy 27 elderly randomized into two groups, whereas the Intensive Group (IG) accomplished 16 sessions four times a week and the Conventional Group (CG) 16 sessions twice a week. For the comparison of the effects of therapy were evaluated aspects of quality of life through the voice-related quality of life (V-RQOL) protocol, vocal quality through the auditory perceptual and laryngeal through the visual perceptive analysis of the exams. The professional who administered the treatment was blind as to the assessment procedures, accomplished in the week before the beginning of the sessions in the week following the end of it and one month after. The VTE method involved exercises of various techniques with potential to improve the vocal aspects impacted by aging. Finished the treatment 25 elderly, 13 in IG and 12 of CG. The results showed improvement as the voice related quality of life and in relation to perceptual vocal quality, but not in the laryngeal aspects. After a month was maintained improvement in V-RQOL and general vocal quality, breathiness and instability during sustained vocal emissions and general vocal quality and roughness in speech. No differences were found between the intensive therapy and conventional except the vocal fold bowing that decreased in 38.46% of participants of the IG and in none of the CG. The conclusion of the study is that the VTE method brings the benefit of voice related quality of life and vocal quality, so that the improvement is observed immediately and a month after the treatment. In addition, the therapy in intensive format provides similar benefits to conventional therapy, but the intensive approach can bring more benefits in relation to the vocal fold bowing. The individual aspects of each patient must be considered at the choice moment of the frequency of the treatment.

Os professores são profissionais da voz que vêm sendo amplamente estudados por pesquisadores nacionais e internacionais. Pesquisas apontam alta prevalência de alterações vocais dentre os docentes. Um dos critérios para o estabelecimento da prevalência de alteração vocal baseia-se na auto-percepção do professor, denominado de disfonia auto-referida. Conhecer o quanto a alteração vocal pode trazer conseqüências para a vida do professor e para o exercício de sua profissão está de acordo com o proposto pela Organização Mundial da Saúde que sugere avaliar o impacto de uma doença sob o ponto de vista do paciente e não do avaliador. O objetivo desta pesquisa foi comparar medidas de qualidade de vida e voz entre grupo de professores que referiu alteração vocal e grupo de professores que não referiu alteração vocal. Participaram deste estudo 97 professores de 11 escolas da rede municipal de Bauru. Todos os professores responderam a três protocolos psicométricos de qualidade de vida e voz (IDV, QVV, PPAV) além de um questionário para caracterização da amostra. Os resultados demonstraram que 39,8% dos professores reportaram alterações vocais no momento da realização da pesquisa. Quando se compararam medidas de qualidade de vida e voz, entre o grupo com alteração de voz e o grupo sem alteração vocal, diferenças estatisticamente significantes foram observadas: entre a pontuação total do IDV e nas três sub-áreas (orgânica, emocional e funcional); entre a pontuação total do QVV e na pontuação dos dois domínios (funcionalidade física e sócio-emocional) e entre a pontuação total do PPAV e nas cinco sessões (severidade do problema vocal, efeito no trabalho, efeito na comunicação diária, efeito na comunicação social e emoção). Também foi verificado que a dimensão orgânica do protocolo IDV tem mais impacto entre as dimensões deste protocolo, tanto para o grupo com alteração quanto para o grupo sem alteração vocal, indicando desconforto laríngeo e dificuldade ao falar. Com relação ao protocolo QVV, o domínio que apresentou mais alto escore foi o da funcionalidade física, também indicando desconforto laríngeo e impacto vocal na comunicação em professores com e sem alteração. Com relação ao PPAV nenhuma sessão prevaleceu sobre a outra no grupo sem alteração vocal. Para o grupo com alteração vocal, três sessões, comunicação diária, efeito no. trabalho e emoções têm maior impacto que a comunicação social. Os escores de limitação e de restrição foram calculados. Foi observado que a limitação da atividade é maior que a restrição das atividades tanto no grupo com queixa vocal quanto no grupo sem queixa vocal. Concluiu-se que os professores que referiram alteração vocal perceberam o impacto da alteração vocal em diferentes dimensões da qualidade de vida e voz e na realização de suas atividades diárias em maior proporção do que os professores que não referiram alteração vocal. / Teachers are voice professionals who have been widely studied by national and international researchers. Studies show a high prevalence of vocal alterations among teachers. One of the criteria for the establishment of vocal alteration prevalence, is based on teachers´ self-perception, termed as self-reported dysphonia (when the teacher him/herself reports the vocal alteration). To know the degree in which vocal alteration may affect a teacher´s life and his/her career, is consistent with that proposed by the World Health Organization, which suggests assessing the impact of a disease, taking into account the patient´s point of view and not the evaluator´s. This study aimed at comparing voice disordered quality of life (VQOL) measures between a group of teachers who reported vocal alteration and a group of teachers who did not, by verifying the teacher´s perception as for the impact of vocal alteration in the different dimensions of voice quality of life. Ninety-eight teachers, from 11 municipal schools of Bauru and in different grades (infantile and fundamental teaching and education of adolescents and adults), participated in this study. All teachers answered three psychometric protocols of voice quality of life: Voice Handicap Index (VHI), Voice-Related Quality of Life (V-RQOL), and the Voice Activity Participation Profile (VAPP), besides a questionnaire for the characterization of the sample. The result shows that 39.8% of teachers reported vocal alteration. When comparing voice measures between the groups with and without vocal alteration, statistically significant differences were observed: the total score of VHI and its dimensions (physical, emotional and functional); total score of V-RQOL and its dimensions (physical and socio-emotional functioning), and total score of VAAP and its dimensions (severity of vocal problem, effect on work, effect on daily communication, effect on social communication and emotion). It was verified, too, that the physical dimension of VHI has a greater impact among the dimensions of this protocol, both for the group with complaint and the one without complaint, indicating a laryngeal discomfort and difficulty at speaking. As for VRQOL, the most striking dimension was the physical functioning domain, also indicating the laryngeal discomfort and the impact of voice on communication, in teachers with and with no complaint. As for VAAP, no domain prevailed over the others, in the group with no complaint. For teachers with complaint, three domains, i.e., daily communication, work and emotions have a greater impact than social communication. The limitation and restriction scores were calculated as well, and it was observed the limitation of activities is greater than the restriction of activities, both in the group with and the group without complaint. One may conclude that the teachers who reported vocal alterations, better realize the impact of voice in different dimensions of voice quality of life.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Objective: Voice defines a person’s identity. Teachers are professional voice users and about 10-18% experience a voice disorder at any given time. Voice disorder negatively impacts listener perceptions. The current study aims to identify student attitudes towards teachers with voice disorders. Specifically, the aims include: (a) if a voice disorder will lend to a negative perception towards individuals with voice problems, and (b) if the perception of individuals with a voice disorder will be different between a teacher and a non-teacher. Methods: Six voice samples, each lasting a minute long was obtained for three different female speakers to represent non-dysphonic, mildly dysphonic and a moderately severe dysphonic voice. Twenty-six high school students (including males- 4, females- 22) in the 9th and 10th grades served as participants. All participants listened to two different sets of voice recordings. During each set, participants listened to three randomized voice types. For the second set of recordings, the participants were asked to imagine the voice was that of their teacher. For each voice recording in each set, the participants completed a semantic differential questionnaire to rate the personality of the speaker based on the voice they heard. The semantic differential questionnaire included 12 differential rates on a 100mm visual analog scale. Additionally, for the second set of recordings, participants completed a series of open-ended questions to assess the ease of listening to and the perceived approachability of the voice. Results and Conclusions: Descriptive data analysis indicated a general difference in listener perceptions between a mild and moderately severe voice sample. Participants perceived the moderately severe voice sample to be a sick, boring, sad, quiet and scared irrespective of a teacher or non-teacher. The data were consistent for the moderately severe sample on open-ended questions as well. Participants reported they would not feel comfortable approaching the teacher or asking the teacher to repeat information; additionally, the students reported the sample as difficult to listen to. Preliminary descriptive analysis of the data revealed that the teachers’ voice quality influences students’ perceptions of their teacher. Data from this study can lead to identifying appropriate measures in the preventive care of a teacher’s voice.

Relative fundamental frequency (RFF) is an acoustic measure that quantifies short-term changes in fundamental frequency during voicing transitions surrounding a voiceless consonant. RFF is hypothesized to be decreased by increased laryngeal tension during voice production and has been considered a potential objective measure of vocal hyperfunction. Previous studies have supported claims that decreased RFF values may indicate the severity of vocal hyperfunction and have attempted to improve the methods to obtain RFF. In order to make progress towards developing RFF into a clinical measure, this dissertation aimed to investigate further the validity and reliability of RFF. Specifically, we examined the underlying physiological mechanisms, the auditory-perceptual relationship with strained voice quality, and test-retest reliability. The first study evaluated one of the previously hypothesized physiological mechanisms for RFF, vocal fold abduction. Vocal fold kinematics and RFF were obtained from both younger and older typical speakers producing RFF stimuli with voiceless fricatives and stops during high-speed videoendoscopy. We did not find any statistical differences between younger and older speakers, but we found that vocal folds were less adducted and RFF was lower at voicing onset after the voiceless stop compared to the fricative. This finding is in accordance with the hypothesized positive association between vocal fold contact area during voicing transitions and RFF. The second study examined the relationship between RFF and strain, a major auditory-perceptual feature of vocal hyperfunction. RFF values were synthetically modified by exchanging the RFF contours between voice samples that were produced with a comfortable voice and with maximum vocal effort, while other acoustic features remained constant. We observed that comfortable voice samples with the RFF values of maximum vocal effort samples had increased strain ratings, whereas maximum vocal effort samples with the RFF values of comfortable voice samples had decreased strain ratings. These findings support the contribution of RFF to perceived strain. The third study compared the test-retest reliability of RFF with that of conventional voice measures. We recorded individuals with healthy voices during five consecutive days and obtained acoustic, aerodynamic, and auditory-perceptual measures from the recordings. RFF was comparably reliable as acoustic and aerodynamic measures and more reliable than auditory-perceptual measures. This dissertation supports the translational potential of RFF by providing empirical evidence of the physiological mechanisms of RFF, the relationship between RFF and perceived strain, and test-retest reliability of RFF. Clinical applications of RFF are expected to improve objective diagnosis and assessment of vocal hyperfunction, and thus to lead to better voice care for individuals with vocal hyperfunction. / 2021-09-25T00:00:00Z

No description available.

Research efforts to determine the needs of special populations has increased in the field of human factors. The majority of these efforts are focused on the physically disabled. Little attention has been paid to the learning disabled, and specifically, the learning disabled adult. A single factor between subject design was utilized to evaluate the effectiveness of using a voice synthesizer to increase reading comprehension levels of learning disabled adults. The independent variable was presentation mode. The Passage Comprehension subtest of the Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests-Revised was presented via the computer. Subjects were required to complete the test under one of two conditions: with voice feedback or without voice feedback. Dependent measures included total correct answers and reaction time. Also, using a seven-point Likert scale, subjective data regarding various aspects of the voice synthesizer was collected. The Passage Comprehension subtest of the Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery-Revised was also administered to each subject by the experimenter. Comparisons of total scores were then made between the different administration formats. Analysis of the data was conducted using ANOVAs and t-tests. Results indicated no significant differences. Such results were attributed to the small sample size, the subject's potential familiarity with the type of test administered, and compensation skills already developed and maintained by the learning disabled subject. It was concluded that additional research was needed in order to understand the effects of using a voice synthesizer to increase reading comprehension levels and in adapting training programs in industry for the learning disabled. / Master of Science

Thesis (M.A.)--Miami University, Dept. of Speech Pathology and Audiology, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 35-38).