Examining the efficacy of voice therapy in primary schoool children with dysphonia: vocal function exercises with and without vocal hygiene training

The aim of this study is to determine which of the voice therapy techniques, namely vocal function exercises (VFE; 1st condition) and vocal function exercises with vocal hygiene training (VFE+VH; 2nd condition), is more effective in the treatment of primary school children with voice disorders.A multiple baseline across subjects single subject interaction design with component analysis was used. Four 7;00-12;00 year old male children participated in the study. The research consisted of six different phases. First phase of the study was the baseline phase (A1). The second phase included only the vocal function exercises (B). At the third phase of the study, a combination of vocal function exercises and vocal hygiene recommendations were implemented (B + C). The fourth phase included vocal function exercises (B). The fifth phase of the study included vocal function exercises with vocal hygiene recommendations (B + C). The sixth phase was the follow-up phase of the study (A2). Follow-up sessions were organized in two sessions bi-weekly, two sessions per month, one session in three months and one session in six month. The effectiveness of the therapy was evaluated by measuring the maximum phonation time, s / z ratio, perturbation parameters (jitter, shimmer, NHR, SPI), vocal handicap index score and GRBAS scores taken before and after the therapy.When measures were analyzed, the therapy was observed as effective in increasing the participants? voice quality and recovering the pathologies on the vocal folds. It appeared that the effect of the combined vocal function exercises with vocal hygiene recommendations was cumulative. No significant difference was observed between the therapy programs with and without vocal hygiene recommendations; that is, applying both vocal function exercises and vocal hygiene recommendations together was shown to be effective. The therapy program used in this study is helpful for the participants in producing the expected normal voice and learning the best way to use their voices in different contexts.