Evaluation of Dysphonic Severity for Cantonese-speaking School-age Children: A Multi-parametric Approach

Abstract

Background Currently, there is a lack of pediatric normative database on how Cantonese dysphonic children manifest differently from vocally healthy Cantonese children in terms of vocal functions. Data reported in the literature on English-speaking children cannot be directly applied to Cantonese-speaking children because Cantonese is a tone language and English is a non-tone language. Voice measures can manifest differently between tone and non-tone languages. Objective The aim of the present study was to evaluate the dysphonic severity for Cantonese-speaking school-age children using a multi-parametric approach. Methods Thirty dysphonic children with laryngeal pathologies and 30 controls with normal voices participated in the study. All children were native Cantonese speakers and were aged from 6 to 12 years. Each child undertook several voice recordings for perceptual, acoustic perturbation, voice range profile (phonetogram) and aerodynamic evaluation. Results The dysphonic group demonstrated significantly more severe voice quality (p<0.001) than the control group. The dysphonic group also demonstrated significantly smaller voice range profile area (p<0.001), shorter maximum phonation time (p<0.001), significantly higher level of jitter and shimmer values (both p<0.01) than the control group. Conclusions The study provides a preliminary database of vocal functions in Cantonese-speaking children. Acknowledgement This study was supported by a grant from the Hong Kong Research Grant Council General Research Fund (HKU 774110M).