Maria Cecília Bevilacqua

Publications (2)0.85 Total impact

• Article: Cochlear implanted children present vocal parameters within normal standards.

  Lourdes Bernadete Rocha de Souza, Maria Cecília Bevilacqua, Alcione Ghedini Brasolotto, Ana Cristina Coelho
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  ABSTRACT: to compare acoustic and perceptual parameters regarding the voice of cochlear implanted children, with normal hearing children. this is a cross-sectional, quantitative and qualitative study. Thirty six cochlear implanted children aged between 3y and 3m to 5y and 9m and 25 children with normal hearing, aged between 3y and 11m and 6y and 6m, participated in this study. The recordings and the acoustics analysis of the sustained vowel/a/and spontaneous speech were performed using the PRAAT program. The parameters analyzed for the sustained vowel were the mean of the fundamental frequency, jitter, shimmer and harmonic-to-noise ratio (HNR). For the spontaneous speech, the minimum and maximum frequencies and the number of semitones were extracted. The perceptual analysis of the speech material was analyzed using visual-analogical scales of 100 points, composing the aspects related to the overall severity of the vocal deviation, roughness, breathiness, strain, pitch, loudness and resonance deviation, and instability. This last parameter was only analyzed for the sustained vowel. The results demonstrated that the majority of the vocal parameters analyzed in the samples of the implanted children disclosed values similar to those obtained by the group of children with normal hearing. implanted children who participate in a (re) habilitation and follow-up program, can present vocal characteristics similar to those vocal characteristics of children with normal hearing.
  International journal of pediatric otorhinolaryngology 05/2012; 76(8):1180-3. · 0.85 Impact Factor
• Article: Systematic analysis of the benefits of cochlear implants on voice production.

  Ana Cristina Coelho, Alcione Ghedini Brasolotto, Maria Cecília Bevilacqua
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  ABSTRACT: PURPOSE: To perform a systematic analysis of the research regarding vocal characteristics of hearing impaired children or adults with cochlear implants. RESEARCH STRATEGY: A literature search was conducted in the databases Web of Science, Bireme, and Universidade de São Paulo's and CAPES' thesis and dissertations databases using the keywords voice, voice quality, and cochlear implantation, and their respective correspondents in Brazilian Portuguese. SELECTION CRITERIA: The selection criteria included: title consistent with the purpose of this review; participants necessarily being children or adults with severe to profound pre-lingual or post-lingual hearing loss using cochlear implants; and data regarding participants' performance on perception and/or acoustic analysis of the voice. RESULTS: Twenty seven papers were classified according to the levels of evidence and quality indicators recommended by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). The designs of the studies were considered of low and medium levels of evidence. Six papers were classified as IIb, 20 as III, and one as IV. CONCLUSION: The voice of hearing impaired children and adults with cochlear implants has been little studied. There is not an effective number of studies with high evidence levels which precisely show the effects of the cochlear implantation on the quality of voice of these individuals.
  Jornal da Sociedade Brasileira de Fonoaudiologia. 01/2012; 24(4):395-402.