The Relationship Between Speech and Language Disorders and Working Memory: Children with Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder and Typical Development.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the speech, language, and communication skills of school-age children with attention deficit and hyperactive disorder. METHOD: The sample of the study consists of attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (n = 47) participants who are combined type and attention-deficit-dominant type, and the control group (n = 40) typically developing participants. Turkish School Age Language Development Test, Turkish Articulation and Phonology Test, Working Memory Scale, and Predictive Cluttering Inventory were applied to all participants. RESULTS: SPSS program was used in the analysis of the data. Mann Whitney U and One Way ANOVA analyzes were performed to find the difference between the groups. As a result of the statistical analysis, a significant difference was found between the participants with typical development and those with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder in terms of word count (p < .001). It was determined that participants with typical development outperformed participants with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder in all tests. There was no difference in the two subtypes of the attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder group (p > .001). CONCLUSION: It has been concluded that language, speech, and working memory skills of children with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder are lower than their peers with typical development. Speech and language skills and working memory must be taken into consideration in assessment and intervention children with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder.

Voice Therapy Efficacy in Pediatric Professional Voice Users With Vocal Fold Nodules: A Preliminary Study.

INTRODUCTION: Vocal fold nodules are the most common diagnosis in children with dysphonia. It is also frequently seen in professional voice users who uses their voice as an occupational tool. It can be caused by excessive or hyperfunctional use of the voice leading to phonotrauma. Children who learn the Quran by heart and recite it use their voices excessively and it causes voice problems. Voice therapy can play an important role in regulating phonotraumatic behaviors and improving voice quality, thereby replacing surgical intervention in some cases or acting as a complementary therapy to improve eventual therapeutic outcomes. OBJECTIVES: Our aim was to find the efficacy of group voice therapy compared to individual voice therapy in a group of pediatric professional voice users who go to the same religious school. METHODS: To determine group therapy efficacy, 24 students between the age of nine and 14, were evaluated and 16 of them had vocal fold nodules. Therapy sessions started with 16 students whose ages ranged from nine to 14 with a mean of 11,3 ± 1,4 years old. They were divided into two groups: group and individual therapy groups. Treatment comprised both direct and indirect voice therapy and lasted 6 weeks. Three of the participants were dropped out due to absence. Pre- and post-therapy measures were collected from 13 participants using perceptual evaluation, videostroboscopy measures, and the pediatric voice handicap index to determine the efficacy of group voice therapy compared to individual voice therapy with a group of pediatric professional voice users with vocal fold nodules. RESULTS: As a result of our study, eight of participants were found to have healthy vocal folds; the s/z ratio was significantly different between groups and within group therapy participants pre- and post-therapy. No significant difference was found in other parameters; except noise harmonic ratio (NHR). NHR was found significantly different between pre- and post-therapy when individual therapy and group therapy were compared. Although both treatments were shown to be beneficial in the management of vocal fold nodules, individual therapy was found to be somewhat more effective. CONCLUSION: In pediatric voice therapy, group therapy is an effective option to reach out to more individuals with voice disorders. It can be beneficial for time management and cost effectiveness in voice therapy.

Validation and Test-Retest Reliability of Acoustic Voice Quality Index Version 02.06 in the Turkish Language.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of the present study was to investigate the validity (both concurrent and diagnostic) and test-retest reliability of Acoustic Voice Quality Index (AVQI) version 2 (AVQI 02.06) in Turkish speaking population. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Two hundred and fifty five native Turkish subjects with normal voices (n = 128) and with voice disorders (n = 127) were asked to sustain the vowel [a:] and read aloud the Turkish phonetically balanced text. To determine the test-retest reliability of AVQI, 20 dysphonic (ie, around 15% of the group), and 20 normophonic (ie, around 15% of the group) were reassessed 15 minutes after the first AVQI determination. A three middle seconds of sustained vowel [a:] and a sentence with 25 syllables was concatenated, and AVQI analysis was conducted. The auditory-perceptual evaluation was performed by five experienced raters with Grade (G) from GRBAS Protocol. RESULTS: There was a statistically significant correlation between AVQI scores and auditory-perceptual evaluation of overall voice quality (rs = 0.717, P < 0.001). AVQI gave a threshold of 2.98 for the dysphonic voice. The values of intraclass correlation coefficient with two-way mixed-effects model, single-measures type, absolute agreement definition showed an excellent test-retest reliability for AVQI in Turkish language (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.986). CONCLUSION: AVQI v.02.06 is a valid and robust tool in differentiating dysphonic and normal voice, and has excellent test-retest reliability in Turkish language.

The Turkish Version of the Consensus Auditory-Perceptual Evaluation of Voice (CAPE-V): A Reliability and Validity Study.

OBJECTIVE: The Consensus Auditory-Perceptual Evaluation of Voice (CAPE-V) was developed to assess voice quality. The aim of this study was to develop a Turkish adaptation of CAPE-V and to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Turkish version. METHODS: To adapt the CAPE-V protocol to Turkish, six sentences were constructed to meet the phonetic requirements. The validity of the Turkish version of the CAPE-V was tested with inter-rater reliability, intrarater reliability, and GRBAS versus the CAPE-V judgments. Ninety-nine dysphonic and 83 healthy subjects were enrolled. RESULTS: High inter-rater and intrarater reliability (ICC > 0.88, r > 0.81, respectively) were obtained for all vocal parameters. The differences in the six CAPE-V parameters between healthy and dysphonic subjects were statistically significant (P < 0.0001). The correlations between CAPE-V and GRBAS scales were high in overall severity-grade and roughness parameters (r = 0.85, r = 0.82, respectively), the lowest correlation was the strain parameter (r = 0.66). CONCLUSION: The Turkish version of CAPE-V is a reliable and valid instrument for auditory-perceptual evaluation of the Turkish speaking population.