Prevalência de alterações de fala em crianças por meio de teste de rastreamento

Prevalence of communication, swallowing and orofacial myofunctional disorders in children and adolescents at the time of admission at a cancer hospital

PURPOSE

Describe the prevalence of communication, swallowing and orofacial myofunctional disorders in a group of children and adolescents at the time of registration at a cancer hospital.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study conducted with children aged ≥2 and adolescents, of both genders, admitted to the Pediatric Oncology Section of the Instituto Nacional de Câncer José de Alencar Gomes da Silva (INCA) from March 2014 to April 2015 for investigation and/or treatment of solid tumors. A protocol was used to record the sociodemographic and clinical information and findings of the speech-language pathology clinical evaluation, which included aspects of the oral sensorimotor system, swallowing, speech, language, voice, and hearing.

RESULTS

Eighty-eight children/adolescents (41.3%) presented some type of speech-language disorder. The most frequent speech-language disorders were orofacial myofunctional disorder, dysphonia, and language impairments, whereas the less frequent ones were dysacusis, tongue paralysis, and trismus. Site of the lesion was the clinical variable that presented statistically significant correlation with presence of speech-language disorders.

CONCLUSION

High prevalence of speech-language disorders was observed in children and adolescents at the time of admission at a cancer hospital. Occurrence of speech-language disorders was higher in participants with lesions in the central nervous system and in the head and neck region.

Association between harmful oral habits and the structures and functions of the stomatognathic system: perception of parents/guardians

Purpose

To verify the occurrence and associate the presence and duration of harmful oral habits with the structures and functions of the stomatognathic system.

Methods

This is a cross-sectional, exploratory study. Participants' participation was formalized by the signing of an Informed Consent Form. The non-probabilistic sample comprised 289 children aged one to 12 years assisted at a Family Health Strategy unit. The data were obtained through a questionnaire to identify harmful oral habits applied to the children's parents and/or guardians. The results were considered at 5% level of significance. The statistical analyses were performed using the SPSS 19.0 software and the chi-squared association test was employed to investigate the categorical variables.

Results

The breastfeeding rate found was 85%; however, only 32.4% of the children were exclusively breastfed until six months of age. The most prevalent habits and those currently maintained were use of conventional bottle (28.62%) and conventional pacifier (23.18%). Significant correlation (p=0.001) was found between keeping the mouth open and oral and oronasal breathing. The presence of habits such as using orthodontic bottle (p=0.016) and orthodontic pacifier (p=0.001) was associated with the breathing mode reported. Habit duration was associated with the perception of changes in speech (p=0.046) and with malocclusion (p=0.014).

Conclusion

The presence and duration of harmful oral habits were associated with the perception of changes in the structures and functions of the stomatognathic system regarding occlusion, breathing, and speech, accounting for a significant portion of the demand for rehabilitation.

Prevalence of phonological disorders and phonological processes in typical and atypical phonological development

PURPOSE

To determine the occurrence of phonological disorders by age, gender and school type, and analyze the phonological processes observed in typical and atypical phonological development across different age groups.

METHODS

The sample consisted of 866 children aged between 3:0 and 8:11 years, recruited from public and private schools in the city of Santa Maria/RS. A phonological evaluation was performed to analyze the operative phonological processes.

RESULTS

15.26% (n = 132) of the sample presented atypical phonological acquisition (phonological disorders). Phonological impairments were more frequent in public school students across all age groups. Phonological alterations were most frequent between ages 4 -to 6, and more prevalent in males than females in all but the youngest age group. The most common phonological processes in typical phonological acquisition were: cluster reduction; nonlateral liquid deletion in coda; nonlateral liquid substitution in onset; semivocalization of lateral liquids in coda; and unstressed syllable deletion. In children with phonological disorders, the most common phonological processes were: lateral and nonlateral liquid substitution in onset position; nonlateral liquid deletion; fronting of fricatives in onset position; unstressed syllable deletion; semivocalization of nonlateral liquid in coda; and nonlateral liquid deletion in coda position.

CONCLUSION

Phonological processes were highly prevalent in the present sample, and occurred more often in boys than in girls. Information regarding the type and frequency of phonological processes in both typical phonological acquisition and phonological disorders may contribute to early diagnosis and increase the efficiency of treatment planning.

[Speech and language disorders in children from public schools in Belo Horizonte]

Objective:

To investigate the prevalence of oral language, orofacial motor skill and auditory processing disorders in children aged 4-10 years and verify their association with age and gender.

Methods:

Cross-sectional study with stratified, random sample consisting of 539 students. The evaluation consisted of three protocols: orofacial motor skill protocol, adapted from the Myofunctional Evaluation Guidelines; the Child Language Test ABFW - Phonology; and a simplified auditory processing evaluation. Descriptive and associative statistical analyses were performed using Epi Info software, release 6.04. Chi-square test was applied to compare proportion of events and analysis of variance was used to compare mean values. Significance was set at p≤0.05.

Results:

Of the studied subjects, 50.1% had at least one of the assessed disorders; of those, 33.6% had oral language disorder, 17.1% had orofacial motor skill impairment, and 27.3% had auditory processing disorder. There were significant associations between auditory processing skills’ impairment, oral language impairment and age, suggesting a decrease in the number of disorders with increasing age. Similarly, the variable "one or more speech, language and hearing disorders" was also associated with age.

Conclusions:

The prevalence of speech, language and hearing disorders in children was high, indicating the need for research and public health efforts to cope with this problem.