This issue includes 13 original articles, an article on Evidence-Based Practice, a case report, and a brief communication. From the 13 original articles, two are in the area of voice (one of them is a foreign article), four in the area of orofacial myology, four in language, including an article on stuttering, and three in the area of audiology.
The first article in the area of voice, a contribution from Maryn and Roy, two distinguished colleagues from the Netherlands and the United States, studied the influence of the type of speech/voice task during clinical evaluation by submitting samples of 39 subjects to five experienced evaluators. The study concluded that sustained vowels are rated significantly more dysphonic than continuous speech, and hence both types of speech/voice tasks should be elicited and judged by clinicians in the auditory-perceptual rating of dysphonia severity.
The second article, from Ugulino, Oliveira and Behlau, analyzed the relationship between the clinician's vocal evaluation and vocal self-assessment and voice-related quality of life of 96 subjects, 48 with vocal complaints and voice deviation and 48 with no vocal complaints and healthy voices. They concluded that the clinician's perception corresponds indirectly to the individual's self-perception of his/her vocal quality and the impact of a voice deviation on their quality of life, and that these information should be used in a complementary way.
The first article in the area of orofacial myology, from Castro, Toro, Sakano and Ribeiro, evaluated the oral functions of chewing, swallowing and speech in 27 healthy and 27 asthmatic children, and found that children with asthma have altered patterns of chewing, swallowing and speech.
The second article in the area of orofacial myology, from Machado, Jr. and Crespo, is a radiographic study with the aim to evaluate the cranial posture of 110 subjects, 55 children with atypical swallowing and 55 children with normal swallowing, both in mixed dentition, and concluded that the angles between the odontoid process and cranial base and the odontoid process and Frankfurt plane are increased in the group with atypical swallowing.
The third article in the area of orofacial myology, from Picinato-Pirola, Mello-Filho and Trawitzki, verified if the number of chewing strokes and the chewing time are influenced by dentofacial deformities, in the habitual free mastication of 15 patients with class II, 15 with class III and 15 in the control group; the authors conclude that, although class III individuals are very heterogeneous on the investigated aspects, dento-facial deformities did not influence the number of chewing strokes and the chewing time.
The last article in the area of orofacial myology, from Weber, Côrrea, Ferreira, Soares, Bolzan and Silva, investigated the frequency of cervical spine dysfunction signs and symptoms in 37 women with temporomandibular disorder and 37 without temporomandibular disorder, and concluded that there was no difference in craniocervical posture between groups and that the coexistence of common signs and symptoms seems to be more related to the shared innervation than the postural alteration itself.
The first article in the area of language, from Cardoso, Rocha, Moreira and Pinto, studied the relationship between social-cognitive performance and different communicative situations in 30 children with different diagnoses (ten within the autism spectrum, ten with mental disabilities, and ten with hearing impairment), and concluded that the socio-cognitive performance can be used as auxiliary tool in therapeutic planning, helping the identification of variables that may interfere in communicative performance.
The second article in the language area, from Bragatto, Osborn, Yaruss, Quesal, Schiefer and Chiari, presents the Brazilian version of the protocol Overall Assessment of the Speaker's Experience of Stuttering - Adults (OASES-A) after application on 18 stutterers. The study proved that the instrument is useful in the assessment and treatment of stutterers, as it provides specialized speech-language pathologists with the self-perception of stutterers' difficulties in communication and of the impact of stuttering on their quality of life.
The third article, from Gonzalez, Cáceres, Benot-Gaz and Befi-Lopes, studied the use of conjunctions in narratives, and investigated the influence of stimuli's complexity in 20 individuals with specific language impairment and the 20 with typical development. The study concluded that both groups had higher use of coordinating rather than subordinating conjunctions, however, typically developing children present a higher number of conjunctions.
The fourth article in the language area, from Brancalioni, Bertagnolli, Bonini, Gubiani and Keske-Soares, analyzed the relationship between auditory discrimination and phonological disorders in 82 children with language disorders, and confirmed that auditory discrimination difficulties were less frequent in older subjects and more affected according to the severity of phonological disorder.
The first study in the area of audiology, a multicentric analysis from Angrisani, Azevedo, Carvallo, Dini and Matas, characterized the Brainstem Auditory Evoked Potential responses of 47 full-term small-for-gestational-age newborns and 39 full-term appropriate-for-gestational-age newborns, and concluded that both, small or appropriate for gestational age, might present transitory or permanent central hearing impairments, regardless of the presence of risk indicators.
The second study in the audiology area, from Sousa, Dias and Pereira, evaluated the auditory ability of temporal resolution and compared the versions of the random gap detection test (RGDT) that use pure tone and clicks as stimuli in 40 young adults with normal hearing. The authors concluded that there is no difference in the performance of individuals regarding the temporal resolution ability, regardless of the auditory stimulus used.
The third audiology article, from Bazilio, Frota, Chrisman, Meyer, Asmus and Camara, investigated the ordering and temporal resolution auditory abilities of 33 rural workers exposed to pesticides, and correlated these results with the degree of exposure to these substances, concluding that the degree of exposure to pesticides is correlated with poorer performance on temporal auditory processing tests, suggesting that pesticides may be harmful to central auditory pathways.
The excellent case report from Costa, Martinho-Carvalho, Cunha and Lewis investigated the auditory and communicative abilities of two siblings diagnosed with Auditory Neuropathy Spectrum Disorder due to mutation in the Otoferlin gene. It was concluded that the acquisition of these abilities involves subjective factors that must be investigated based on the uniqueness of each case.
The Evidence-Based Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology article from Araujo, Zucki, Corteletti, Lopes, Feniman and Alvarenga, about hearing impairment and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, investigated the occurrence of hearing loss in individuals with HIV/AIDS and their characterization regarding type and degree. It concluded that patients with HIV/AIDS may have hearing loss of varied types, degrees and etiologies.
The brief communication of this issue, from Jacinto, Ribeiro, Soares and Cárnio, verified the interference of visual stimuli in the written production of deaf signers with no reading and writing complaints. The authors concluded that the different visual stimuli do not interfere in the textual production of subjects.
I take this opportunity to regret the fact that, in spite of all efforts of national research groups, the support of international colleagues and the assurance that we have been producing research with good quality, with an unique contribution to the area of human communication sciences, disorders and rehabilitation, we have been suffering for not receiving the deserved international visibility to our journals.
Sincerely yours,
Mara Behlau
Scientific editor of JSBFa
Editorial
Publication Dates
-
Publication in this collection
20 July 2012 -
Date of issue
2012
