title: Hearing performance and voice acoustics of cochlear implanted children.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The voice of hearing-impaired individuals has been described extensively, and exhibits abnormalities in quality, articulation and resonance. Having an understanding of the aspects that may have an impact on voice characteristics of cochlear implant users is important for users and for professionals in this field.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To verify the existence of correlation between age, time of device use, voice detection threshold, hearing category score and language category score with acoustic data of voices of cochlear implanted children.
  
  
  METHODS
  Retrospective study. Fifty-one children ranging in age from 3 years to 5 years and 11 months who unilaterally used cochlear implants participated. Acoustic analysis of the sustained vowel/a/, sequential speech and spontaneous speech was performed. The results were correlated with demographic data and hearing test results.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Children with worse voice detection threshold showed higher frequency in the sustained vowel (p≤0.001) and in the spontaneous speech (p≤0.005).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There was a correlation between the voice detection threshold and the frequency values of the sustained vowel and spontaneous speech of the studied population.
authors.affiliation: Hospital Universitário de Brasília (HUB/UnB), Brasília, DF, Brazil. Electronic address: anacrisccoelho@yahoo.com.br.
authors.forename: Ana Cristina
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Coelho
authors.affiliation: Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, Faculdade de Odontologia de Bauru, Universidade de São Paulo (USP), Bauru, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Alcione Ghedino
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Brasolotto
authors.affiliation: Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, Faculdade de Odontologia de Bauru, Universidade de São Paulo (USP), Bauru, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Maria Cecília
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Bevilacqua
authors.affiliation: Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, Faculdade de Odontologia de Bauru, Universidade de São Paulo (USP), Bauru, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Adriane Lima Mortari
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Moret
authors.affiliation: Hospital Universitário de Brasília (HUB/UnB), Brasília, DF, Brazil; Post-Graduate Program in Health Sciences, Universidade de Brasília (UnB), Brasília, DF, Brazil.
authors.forename: Fayez
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bahmad Júnior
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D002675:Child, Preschool; D019929:Cochlear Implantation / Q000295:instrumentation*; D003054:Cochlear Implants; D012048:Correction of Hearing Impairment; D003638:Deafness / Q000534:rehabilitation; D006320:Hearing Tests; D006801:Humans; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013997:Time Factors; D014831:Voice; D014833:Voice Quality
keywords: Cochlear implant; Implante coclear; Qualidade da voz; Voice; Voice quality; Voz