Determination of phonatuary aerodynamic characteristics in turkish speaking children

Voice production is an aerodynamic process, and therefore the evaluation of airflow and air pressure provides meaningful information about the individual's phonation system. The main aim of this study is to determine the normative aerodynamic data in Turkish speaking children between age of 4.00-17.11 year, and to determine the age and / or gender-dependent variability of this data. Participants were 120 children between the ages of 4-17.11 years. Four groups were formed as follow; group I; 4.00 – 5.11 years, group II; 6.00 – 9.11 years, group III; 10.00 – 13.11 years and group IV; 14.00 – 17.11 years. There were thirty children (15 female, 15 male) in each group. Children with hearing loss, voice and speech disorders were excluded from the study. KAY-PENTAX PAS Model 6600 instrument was used for aerodynamic assessment, 56 different parameters were evaluated under 6 protocols. There were statistically significant differences in 49 parameters according to age and / or gender variables. These differences can be explained by the changes in the respiratory and laryngeal systems of girls and boys. Statistically significant differences were found (p<0.05) between 4 groups in expiratory airflow duration, expiratory volume, mean pitch, phonation time, peak expiratory airflow, mean expiratory airflow, SPL range, pitch range, target airflow, mean airflow during voicing, aerodynamic power, aerodynamic resistance and acoustic ohms parameters under five protocols except for the running speech protocol. For running speech protocol; significant differences were found (p<0.05) between group 2, group 3, and group 4 in seven parameters. Except for the running speech protocol, statistically significant differences (p<0.05) were found in all other five protocols according to sex (female > male) variable. It is conculuded that aerodynamic assessment can be used as an effective method for both diagnosing and determining the effectiveness of the intervention. Keywords: Voice, aerodynamic analysis, pediatric voice, pediatric voice profile, phonatory aerodynamic system