Formulation of a program for treatment of childhood dysphonia

Abstract

Dysphonia is a disorder characterized by change in voice quality, pitch, loudness, or vocal effort that impairs communication or reduces voice-related quality of life. Childhood dysphonia has several adverse educational and psychosocial implications. Dysphonic children are not aware or not bothered by their voice disorder. Although dysphonia might, in some cases, improve by itself in adulthood, it can be of important value to treat the dysphonic voice already during childhood. The aim of this study was to adapt and formulate a program of voice intervention for childhood dysphonia and apply it on Egyptian children to explore its effectiveness as a therapeutic tool. This study was conducted on 20 children of both sexes attending the Phoniatrics Unit in Alexandria Main University Hospital complaining of dysphonia. The remediation program aims to improve dysphonia in children using a combination of indirect and direct treatment techniques. It is a modification of The Boone Voice Program for Children combined with new technologies such as the voice games by Kay Elementrics. It is designed to provide the clinician with step-by-step procedures and materials to remediate voice disorders in school-aged children. The program was translated to Arabic and a number of modifications were done in order to adapt it to the Egyptian children. The study showed effectiveness of the remediation program for childhood dysphonia regarding some of the auditory perceptual assessment and acoustic analysis values. Some of the laryngeal examination findings also showed improvement post-therapy. The study showed significant relation between the children’s age, sex, diagnosis, and some pretherapy and post-therapy findings. Data from the current study suggests that voice therapy may prove to be a valid alternative to just planned follow-up.