Editorial
Dear colleagues,
We provide the September 2012 issue of JSBFa, which features 15 contributions from many areas of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, with particular focus on the specialties of orofacial myology and language. The orofacial myology area contributed with five Original Articles: two about breastfeeding, one about mastication, and two specifically addressing aspects of swallowing. Audiology contributed with one article about noise and work environment. The language area produced five original articles: two in the area of phonology, one about written language, one palatographyc investigation of alveolar soundsof Brazilian Portuguese, and one about the concreteness of words. The two case reports also regard language aspects: one about pragmatic evaluation and the other about distinctive features. The voice area contributes with an article for the session Evidence-Based Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, regarding voice disorders in teachers, and also with a Brief Communication on the voice handicap in popular and classical singers.
The first article in the area of orofacial mycology, from Scheeren, Mengue, Devincenzi, Barbosa and Gomes, describes the initial breastfeeding conditions of 26 mother/infant dyads, highlighting that, although most premature infants present a satisfactory initiation on breastfeeding, specifics practices are essential for its effectiveness. The second article, from Crestani, Souza, Beltrami and Moraes, investigated the association among type of breastfeeding, presence of child development risks, socioeconomic and obstetric variables in 182 mother/child dyads, and concluded that low weight, prematurity, and presence of intercurrences at birth might be associated to mixed feeding, even if mothers present physical and time availability for breastfeeding. The third article, from Mangilli, Sassi, Sernik, Tanaka and Andrade, characterized the motor control of the masseter and temporal muscles in 22 adults with normal occlusion, and concluded that the association of electromyography and ultrasound techniques provides important information about the physiology of skeletal muscles, with good correlation between both approaches. The fourth article, from Spadotto, Gatto, Cola, Silva, Schelp, Domenis and Dantas, identified the acoustic signal components of swallowing in 14 healthy individuals, by using a specific software, and found the visualization of three bursts of sound during swallowing, with great variability in the responses. The fifth article in this area, also about swallowing, is from Cassol, Galli, Zamberlan and Dassie-Leite, and analyzed the self-perception of 102 healthy elderly subjects about swallowing difficulties related to the aging process. It was verified that, in general, these individuals do not self-report significant changes regarding the quality of life in swallowing, and that well-adapted dental prosthesis minimizes swallowing problems.
The contribution of audiology is from Servilha and Delatti, and refers to the correlation between noise in the workplace and auditory and extra-auditory symptoms referred by 84 university professors. The study concludes that, although the university environment was considered noisy, there was no association with auditory and extra-auditory symptoms.
The first article in the area of language is from Mezzomo and Luiz, who investigated and compared the use of repair strategies during the acquisition of /R/ in simple onset, produced by 120 children with typical phonological acquisition from two different cities in the Southern of Brazil. The study concludes that the repair strategies can diverge according to the dialect being used, and this must be considered in phonological therapy. The second study in this area is from Silva, Ferrante, Van Borsel and Pereira, and described the typical course of phonological acquisition in Brazilian Portuguese of 480 children from Rio de Janeiro, with the aim to help speech-language pathologists in their assessment and treatment of children with speech sound disorders. The third article is from Jesus and Reis, and provided the detailed articulatory description of both form and extension of the contact tongue-palate in the production of different alveolar phones in Portuguese, by using electropalatography. The fourth study is from Calais, Lima-Gregio, Arantes, Gil and Borges, and presented the judgment of the concreteness of a set of 162 Brazilian Portuguese words, conducted by 50 undergraduate students; it revealed three concreteness categories, contributing to the choice of words with a high degree of concreteness for the development of a speech recognition test. The last original article is from Santos and Befi-Lopes, who investigated whether the performance in linguistic tasks would predict the spelling abilities and quality of the written production of 82 fourth grade students, and concluded that the linguistic abilities analyzed were predictive of the orthographic performance.
The first case report is from Bretanha and Lopes-Herrera, who analyzed five children with typical language development to verify the moment with more reliable data in the language assessment process to survey children's pragmatic profile. The second case report, from Bagetti, Ceron, Mota and Keske-Soares, had the aim to compare the phonological changes due to the application of a speech therapy approach based on distinctive features, using the Modified Maximal Oppositions Model on the treatment of seven children with phonological disorder.
The section Evidence-Based Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology presents the article from Santana, Goulart and Chiari, which analyzes the scientific literature regarding the practice of health surveillance of workers, related to voice disorders in teachers. The study concluded that the main aspect of these researches is identifying risk factors associated with voice disorders in teachers.
Finaly, the Brief Communication from Moreti, Ávila, Rocha, Borrego, Oliveira and Behlau analyzed 118 self-assessment protocols of singing voice handicap from different singing styles. It showed similarities in evaluating the consequences of the presence of technical problems or vocal disorders, with better perception of their own voice in the group of classical singer.
It's interesting to notice an increase on the evaluation criteria and a greater sophistication on diagnostic approaches, whether using clinical assessment, self-assessment protocols or instrumental evaluations. This issue will provide a good update for speech-language pathologists and audiologists who seek for excellence on clinical care.
Mara Behlau
Scientific editor of JSBFa
Publication Dates
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Publication in this collection
31 Oct 2012 -
Date of issue
2012
