title: Epidemiology of communication disorders in childhood phoniatric clinical practice.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Language acquisition and development require an understanding of physical and psychosocial aspects during diagnosis and treatment. At this point, a partnership between phoniatric physicians and other health professionals is often a determinant for favorable prognosis.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To identify the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of a pediatric population attending a phoniatric clinical practice.
  
  
  METHODS
  
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional cohort. Retrospective, epidemiological study of 297 children, seen in phoniatric appointments between 1976 and 2005. Outcome variables were referral origin, gender, age, mean age, diagnosis, and treatment approach.
  
  
  RESULTS
  66% were male and 34% were female, with a mean age of 6.4 years. The largest number of referrals for phoniatric treatments came from speech therapists (38%). The predominant complaint was alteration in speech (35%); the diagnostics in speech, language, and fluency (49.5%) are noteworthy. Considering the total of the patients analyzed, 28.2% were referred for speech therapy and 11.8% for psychotherapy.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The studied population is predominantly male, the diagnosis points to a higher incidence in cases of impairment in speech, language, and fluency; the most common treatment was speech therapy.
authors.affiliation: Program of Graduate Studies in Phonoaudiology, Pontifícia Universidade de São Paulo (PUC-SP), São Paulo, SP, Brazil; Clínica Interdisciplinar Prof. Dr. Mauro Spinelli, São Paulo, SP, Brazil. Electronic address: martagimenezbap@uol.com.
authors.forename: Marta Gonçalves Gimenez
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Baptista
authors.affiliation: Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (PUC-SP), São Paulo, SP, Brazil; Derdic, Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (PUC-SP), São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Beatriz Cavalcanti Albuquerque Caiuby
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Novaes
authors.affiliation: Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (PUC-SP), São Paulo, SP, Brazil; Derdic, Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (PUC-SP), São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Mariana Lopes
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Favero
mesh_terms: D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D002663:Child Language; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003147:Communication Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013070:Speech Therapy
keywords: Child language; Desenvolvimento da linguagem; Distúrbios da fala; Epidemiologia; Epidemiology; Language development; Linguagem infantil; Speech disorders