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Purpose: The objective of this study was to demonstrate the effect of vocal audiovisual biofeedback in the treatment of puberphonia., Method: This is a report of a single subject research study encompassing intervention and observation of results, involving three phases: baseline, treatment, and follow-up. Therefore, this study applied an A-B case study experimental design with follow-up for observation of treatment outcomes. Self-reported complementary data regarding feelings of voice usage included comparisons between pre and post intervention scores of the Voice Handicap Index (VHI) survey., Results: In this study, acoustic voice parameters measured revealed changes in vocal performance in the desired direction, as demonstrated by visual inspection and estimation of effect size of the data; changes were maintained during the follow-up phase. Examination of VHI results suggested post intervention improvement in functional and psychosocial aspects related to voice use., Conclusions: Based on the results of this study, audiovisual feedback approaches are effective in the treatment of puberphonia. Results will apply to future considerations in the application of technology support for treatment of puberphonia and other voice related disorders., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The communication modalities used, and the articulation and aural-only receptive vocabulary skills were investigated in 19 prelingually profoundly deaf infants who initially utilized Total Communication and who were implanted between the ages of 12 and 29m. Results revealed the children overwhelmingly tended to use voice only modality for an expressive task. Additionally articulation and receptive vocabulary skills approached those of normal hearing peers. Implications of these findings and suggestions for future studies are provided.

Previous research has documented the importance of audition in the development of typical infant vocalization. Of particular interest is the development of canonical babbling, which is related to mastery of the timing elements of speech. Children with severe to profound hearing loss who use hearing aids have demonstrated both delayed and deviant canonical babbling. The vocal development of 12 children has been followed as they have been considered for cochlear implantation. Nine of these children have undergone implantation, and 5 of these children have been followed for more than 1 year after implantation. On average, canonical babbling emerged at 6.5 months after implantation. The time frame in which some children developed words was accelerated in terms of length of auditory experience as compared with normal-hearing peers. Mature oral-motor development is likely the primary contributing factor in this time course. One child who received a cochlear implant began to babble with hearing aids. It is not known whether normal canonical babbling is sufficient evidence on which to base candidacy decisions; however, our data suggest that children who produce canonical babbling maintain and build upon those skills after implantation.