Vocal nodules in school age children

Abstract

IntroductionVocal nodules are the most common organic and functional lesions among the paediatrics population, being the main cause of dysphonia during childhood. In Portugal, a few studies that describe the vocal parameters in school age children with this pathology were found. The objective of this paper is to analyse the perceptual and acoustic vocal parameters of school age children with vocal nodules and to compare them with a group of children without vocal nodules. MethodologyThe perceptual and acoustic parameters of 5 children, of both genders, aged from 7 years and 2 months to 12 years and 10 months, where clinical diagnosis of vocal nodules were analysed. The following assessment instruments were used: software Praat, GRBASI scale, maximum phonation time and s/z coefficient. The obtained data was compared to children without vocal nodules. The Mann–Whitney U test, with p<.05 significance level, in SPSS Statistics, version 22.0 was used for statistical analysis. The results are presented as mean and standard deviations. ResultsStatistically significant differences were registered between the group of vocal nodules vs. the group without vocal nodules, on the following parameters: fundamental frequency, shimmer, HNR, maximum phonation time for /a/ e /z/, s/z coefficient and GRBASI. On jitter and maximum phonation time for /s/ there were no statistically significant differences. Discussion and conclusionsThis study underlines the importance of assessing the perceptual and acoustic parameters in children with vocal nodules.