Centro de Estudos da Voz

ABSTRACT Purpose To map childhood voice interventions developed in Brazilian public schools and analyze them according to components of the School Health Program (SHP). Research strategies This was a scoping review, structured according to the methodological guidelines of the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI). The research question was, “What childhood voice interventions are developed in Brazilian public schools, and which SHP components are included in these interventions?”. An electronic search was conducted in the MEDLINE, LILACS, Scopus, Web of Science, Embase, and Cochrane databases, along with a manual search of gray literature, citation lists, and expert consultations. The search strategies consisted of free and indexed terms related to the topic and adapted for each source of evidence. Selection criteria The review included studies involving schoolchildren up to 12 years old with voice interventions developed by speech-language-hearing pathologists in public schools, published after 2007. It extracted data regarding the publication, the sample, and childhood voice interventions according to the SHP components. Data analysis Data analysis was descriptive. Results 4,087 studies were found, and 27 were selected. The most common interventions involved students, followed by parents and teachers. Twenty-six studies included assessments of students' health conditions, and one included health promotion and disease prevention actions in an online course for parents and students. The most common assessment procedure was auditory-perceptual evaluation. Conclusion Studies on childhood voice in schools are scarce and prioritize assessment of vocal health conditions.

Background: In recent years, evidence has increasingly highlighted the relationship between auditory processing and vocal function, suggesting that impairments in central auditory mechanisms may influence both the perception and regulation of voice production. Considering this relationship, mapping how auditory processing is assessed in individuals with voice disorders is essential to understanding the sensory contributions to vocal control. This scoping review was conducted to identify and describe the procedures and findings related to auditory processing evaluation in individuals diagnosed with voice disorders. Summary: Following the Joanna Briggs Institute guidelines and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR), this review was registered in the Open Science Framework (OSF) and conducted across six electronic databases (PubMed, LILACS, Scopus, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library) and the gray literature (MedRxiv, ProQuest, Google Scholar, and experts’ references). A total of 1,258 records were screened, and six studies met the inclusion criteria. The selected studies evaluated 97 adults (aged 18–58 years, mean 37.5 years) with behavioral or organic voice disorders. Both behavioral and electrophysiological auditory assessments were identified, with a predominance of behavioral approaches. Temporal ordering abilities – particularly sound pattern recognition involving frequency, duration, and intensity – were the most frequently evaluated auditory skills. Temporal ordering tests appeared in 83.3% of the studies, and nearly half of the participants (49.6%) demonstrated deficits in at least one temporal processing measure. Despite methodological variability across studies, altered results were consistently observed in temporal auditory tasks, underscoring the centrality of temporal processing in voice disorders. Key Messages: Auditory processing assessment in individuals with voice disorders predominantly relies on behavioral measures, especially those involving temporal ordering and sequencing tasks, which are essential for accurate speech and vocal modulation. The recurrent finding of temporal processing deficits suggests that difficulties in organizing and integrating auditory information may contribute to alterations in vocal control and feedback mechanisms. The review highlights the need for standardized assessment protocols and multimodal approaches – combining behavioral and electrophysiological tools – to better elucidate how auditory processing influences voice production and to inform clinical strategies for voice rehabilitation.

To develop a consensus among speech-language pathologists who are voice specialists regarding the criteria for recommending and using photobiomodulation in the context of vocal therapy and training. Seven speech-language pathologists, experts in voice, and with experience in using photobiomodulation in vocal therapy and training participated. The Delphi technique was used to achieve consensus from a panel of experts accessed independently in two phases of collection. In Phase 1, the experts were contacted individually and participated in an interview with 12 questions to gather opinions on the use of photobiomodulation in the investigated context. The experts' responses were used to construct a questionnaire with 55 items presented as statements. The experts were asked to analyze each item and indicate their level of agreement on a five-point Likert scale. The content validity coefficient (CVC) was used to investigate the degree of agreement among the judges and to select the final items of the consensus. Consensus was reached among the experts on 34 items investigated in this study, with a CVC ≥ 0.75. It was observed that 31 items achieved an excellent CVC (≥ 0.78), 14 items with a good CVC (0.60 ≥ CVC ≤ 0.77) and 10 items with a poor CVC (≤ 0.59). The total CVC was considered excellent, with a value of 0.78. There was a consensus among experts about the use of photobiomodulation in vocal habilitation and rehabilitation. It has the potential to improve the criteria for prescribing and using this device by speech-language pathologists. The findings may be useful to improve the criteria for prescribing and the use of this device by speech-language pathologists, in addition to subsidizing the development of future research and clinical recommendations in the area.

New paradigms in social intervention in response to social-political challenges are often rooted in public opinion and street-level bureaucrats’ perception of welfare deservingness. This scoping review examines available evidence on public and street-level views of welfare deservingness and maps state-of-the-art research. It employed PRISMA and produced a narrative synthesis based on studies from 2000 to 2023. The literature searches identified articles due to their relevance to welfare deservingness and the CARIN model. The findings confirm that perceptions of deservingness are key predictors of public support for social policies and influence their implementation. This highlights the connections between public opinion, professional practice and the legitimacy of welfare systems, which is particularly relevant for understanding welfare in Southern Europe, where historical and sociopolitical specificities shape attitudes and research remains limited.

A presença de doenças crônicas aponta a necessidade de promover o controle e prevenção dos agravos, visto que são as principais causas de mortes. Esse estudo tem a finalidade de descrever os problemas de saúde e o autocuidado de pessoas idosas assistidas por uma unidade básica de saúde, no município de João Pessoa- PB. Essa pesquisa trata-se de um estudo exploratório, descritivo, de abordagem quantitativa, realizada com 50 pessoas idosas acompanhadas nas consultas de HIPERDIA, pertencentes a uma microárea de uma unidade básica de saúde. A coleta de dados foi realizada no mês de abril do corrente ano, na própria unidade de saúde. Cada entrevista durou uma média de 20 minutos. Ao término da coleta, os dados foram dispostos em uma planilha do Excel para análise descritiva e quantitativa. Verificou-se que 56% da amostra são do sexo feminino e compreende a faixa etária entre 60 a 69 anos; 50% não alfabetizados; 46% viúvos e 86%vivem com um salário mínimo; 62% apresentam hipertensão arterial, 22% diabetes mellitus e 20% osteoporose; 72% monitoram a pressão arterial; 68% não realizam atividade física e 86% não se alimenta de forma saudável, fatores necessários para controle pressórico, glicêmico e de massa muscular. Foi identificado que é imprescindível pensar na pessoa idosa para além do biológico e em todos os níveis de saúde, principalmente a atenção primária à saúde reconhecendo o espaço e dando vez e voz a dúvidas, pensamentos e as necessidades das pessoas idosas com condições crônicas, para que o processo terapêutico seja guiado para o conhecimento, autocuidado e assim, se construir um cuidado transformador baseado na promoção à saúde da pessoa idosa.

ABSTRACTPurposeto carry out the cross-cultural adaptation of the Vocal Congruence Scale (VCS) and the Transgender Scale Congruence (TSC) instruments into Brazilian Portuguese.Methodsthe study was developed in two stages: cross-cultural adaptation and pre-test. 1. Cross-cultural adaptation: it was composed of a team of two speech therapists and two non-speech therapists, being responsible for the translation of the instruments into Portuguese (a speech therapist and a non-speech therapist native to Brazilian Portuguese - BP and English speakers, independently, with subsequent consensus achieved by the researchers; back-translation of the instruments into English (a speech therapist and a non-speech therapist who are native speakers of English and speakers of BP); analysis of the final version by a committee (a translator, a methodologist, and three speech therapists). Data were analyzed descriptively and inferentially.ResultsIn the cross-cultural adaptation process of the VCS there were adjustments in five items of the questionnaire, four of them in terms of form and one in terms of content. necessary adjustments regarding form in five items. In the pre-test, for all VCS and TSC items, the non-applicable option had a significantly lower proportion than the instrument response key options (p<0.001, for all). Finally, a translated and adapted version for Brazilian Portuguese of the Vocal Congruence Scale (VCS) and the Transgender Scale Congruence (TSC) instruments was obtained.ConclusionThe VCS and TSC were transculturally adapted to Brazilian Portuguese and named as Vocal Congruence Scale and Transgender Person Congruence Scale.

ABSTRACT Purpose To compare the acoustic measurements of Cepstral Peak Prominence Smoothed (CPPS) and Acoustic Voice Quality Index (AVQI) of children with normal and altered voices, to relationship with auditory-perceptual judgment (APJ) and to establish cut-off points. Methods Vocal recordings of the sustained vowel and number counting tasks of 185 children were selected from a database and submitted to acoustic analysis with extraction of CPPS and AVQI measurements, and to APJ. The APJ was performed individually for each task, classified as normal or altered, and for the tasks together defining whether the child would pass or fail in a situation of vocal screening. Results Children with altered APJ and who failed the screening had lower CPPS values and higher AVQI values, than those with normal APJ and who passed the screening. The APJ of the sustained vowel task was related to CPPS and AVQI, and APJ of the number counting task was related only to AVQI and CPPS numbers. The cut-off points that differentiate children with and without vocal deviation are 14.07 for the vowel CPPS, 7.62 for the CPPS numbers and 2.01 for the AVQI. Conclusion Children with altered voices, have higher AVQI values and lower CPPS values, when detected in children with voices within the normal range. The acoustic measurements were related to the auditory perceptual judgment of vocal quality in the sustained vowel task, however, the number counting task was related only to the AVQI and CPPS. The cut-off points that differentiate children with and without vocal deviation are 14.07 for the CPPS vowel, 7.62 for the CPPS numbers and 2.01 for the AVQI. The three measures were similar in identifying voices without deviation and dysphonic voices.