Your Child's Voice Evaluation
At the beginning of your child's visit to the Center for Pediatric Voice Disorders at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, you will be asked questions regarding your child's medical history.
We will be interested to know:
- How long your child has had a problem with his or her voice
- How problems with the voice affect your child in social and school situations
- If your child has had any previous speech or voice therapy
Acoustic Assessment
The speech-language pathologist will make recordings and analyze your child's voice. Measures will be made of how frequently the vocal cords vibrate during speech and how much your child can vary the pitch and loudness of his / her voice.
Aerodynamic Assessment
Aerodynamic assessment measures airflow through the vocal cords and air pressure. In order to make these measurements, your child will wear a mask that will cover his / her mouth and nose. Your child will be asked to hold out vowels and repeated syllables. The mask does not provide any resistance to breathing and most children are very comfortable with this part of the assessment.
Laryngeal Videostroboscopy
We are able to see your child's vocal cords using a procedure called laryngoscopy. Because the vocal cords vibrate too quickly for the human eye to see, we use a strobe light to slow down the image of the vocal folds vibrating. Slowing down the image allows us to view any problems with vocal cord vibration or any lesions on the vocal cords. Your child will be able to see his / her vocal cord's vibrating on a television. We are able to save these exams for later review and comparison.
