Abstract

DADALTO, Eliane Varanda; NIELSEN, Carmem Silva Carvalho Barreira; OLIVEIRA, Eduardo Augusto Moscon  and  TABORDA, Anelize. Prevalence of communication disorders in scholars of the municipal elementary school network of Vila Velha/ES. Rev. CEFAC [online]. 2012, vol.14, n.6, pp. 1115-1121.  Epub Mar 29, 2012. ISSN 1982-0216.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S1516-18462012005000024.

PURPOSE: to check the prevalence of communication problems in Vila Velha County Schools. METHOD: 15 municipal elementary schools took part in the study. 1103 children were evaluated in five stages: a) assessment, b) presentation of proposal and training of school community c) speech triages d) hearing triages e) presentation of results to school community. RESULTS: on hearing screening of 1103 children being screened, 22.4% failed, demonstrating some kind of hearing impairment. The speech screening of 1014 assessed children - 30.4%. had some type of alteration in communication: 32.5% alteration in oral motor function, 25% showed to have a speech disorder, 17.8% voice alterations, 8.8% language impairment (oral or written) and 15.9% had a combination of two or more alterations. CONCLUSION: the most common communication problems in order of frequency were: problems in oral motor function, speech disorder, voice alterations, hearing impairment and oral and written language impairment. We have also found many children with more than one communication trouble.

Keywords : Language Development Disorders; Auditory Screening; School Health; Education.