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Objective: A research was conducted to assess the phonological awareness in hearing-impaired children in comparison to normal children. In this context, we discussed about the ability of these children in identification of rhyme and word segmentation to syllables.
Method and Material: The sample of this study is composed of 320 children, 160 normal & 160 hearing-impaired with a hearing-loss. Of over 70 dB, studying in the 1st t 4th grade of the primary schools in Tehran. They are divided into two groups at each level (20 girls & 20 boys).
Results: 1) Hearing-impaired children&aposs scores on test related to rhyme and syllable is lower as compared with normal children. 2) Hearing-impaired children are more potent on test of word segmentation to syllables in comparison to that related to rhyme, while normal children are more successful on test of word segmentation to syllables as compared with that related to rhyme.

Discussion: Hearing is an important factor in phonological awareness. Formal education at special schools doesn&apost compensate for the hearing impairment as to development of the phonological awareness.

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Background and Aim: Human’s voice is observable and measurable like his other behaviours. Investigations have shown that characteristics of voice differ in males and females and possibly in different languages. Clinically, knowing natural voice characteristics is helpful for distinguishing voice pathologies. So the purpose of this study was to measure and compare the fundamental frequency human voice.

Materials and Methods: subjects were young males and females of Iranian Fars, Turk and Kurd races. First the subjects were asked to read some Persian sentences , then their voice samples were analysed by Dr.Speech software.

Results: Fundamental frequency mean is 168±46 Hz and 120±48 Hz for females and males , respectively , which shows significant difference. There is no significant difference between fundamental frequency mean of different races.

Conclusion: There is significant difference between fundamental frequency of males and females , but this difference is not attributable to their mother tongue. Key words: voice, fundamental frequency, Iranian, Fars , Turk , Kurd.

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Background and Aim: Learning language is acquired in early childhood and gradually developed by new words and new structures. Hearing sense is the most important acquisition for learning this skill. Hearing disorders are barriers for natural language learning. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between writing sentences and perception of written sentences in hearing-impaired and normal-hearing students.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among thirty hearing-impaired students with hearing loss of 70-90 dB and thirty normal hearing students. They were selected from 3^rd grade primary school students in Hamadan, a large city in Western Iran. The language skills and non language information was assessed by questionnaire, Action Picture Test, and Sentence Perception Test.
Results: Results showed that there was a significant relation between writing sentences and perception of written sentences in hearing impaired students (p<0.001), (r=0.8). This significant relation was seen in normal-hearing students as well (p<0.001), (r=0.7).
Conclusion: Disability of hearing-impaired students in verbal communication is not only related to articulation and voice disorders but also is related to their disability to explore and use of language rules. They suffer lack of perception of written sentences, and they are not skilled to convey their feelings and thoughts in order to presenting themselves by using language structures.

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Background and Aim: The voice of human being changes during lifetime with different patterns in males and females. In addition to assessment of changes due to aging, some studies examined the voice changes among various languages and ethnical groups. This study is performed to evaluate the fundamental frequency changes in normal 9-50 year-old Persian (Farsi) speaking individuals.
Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 320 voice samples in normal voiceless environment were recorded. The mean of fundamental frequency of vowels and counting is measured by Dr Speech software (real analysis program). Data analysis was performed by MANOVA test and the profiles of their changes were plotted.
Results: The profile of mean of fundamental frequency changes was different in males and females. The mean of fundamental frequency was equal in both genders until 13 years old and the samples of voice had low pitch (Mean: higher than 200 Hz). MFF after 13 years old significantly decreased in males specially in vowels (p<0.001). The changes in vowels and counting were similar. The mean of fundamental frequency in both genders, between 20-40 years old had  relative constancy.
Conclusion: The mean of fundamental frequency changes of vowels and counting in females and males result from diverse dimensions of larynx and other anatomical differences. Significant changes of mean of fundamental frequency in both genders after 13 years old result from puberty in males. The proportional consistence of mean of fundamental frequency between 20-40 years old is probably due to the uniformity of body in this age range.

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Background and Aim: Vocal cord nodule is one of the voice disorders causes hoarseness and breathy voice. Voice therapy is one of the treatment approaches. We aimed to find out the effects of voice therapy on vocal acoustic characteristics in these patients.
Methods: In this case series, five women with vocal nodule (14 to 45-year-old) participated in a 9-week voice therapy program developed by Boone. Vocal hygiene and voice practices were measured every day using a questionnaire. Moreover, structure and movements of vocal folds were examined using videolaryngostroboscope by a laryngologist before and after voice therapy to evaluate the effectiveness of program. For collecting voice samples we used sustained /æ/ in comfortable loudness for all patients and data were analyzed using Speech Studio.
Results: After voice therapy, fundamental frequency in four of five subjects were decreased but it was not significant (p=0.225). However, jitter in all of five subjects was significantly decreased (p=0.043). After voice therapy, shimmer in three of five subjects were decreased that was not significant (p=0.345).
Conclusion: Voice therapy can be used for the remedy of acoustic vocal characteristics and elimination or contraction of vocal cord nodule.

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Background and Aim: Voice disorders assess with the help of laboratory equipments and perceptual evaluation. Voice samples involve vowel prolongation, text-reading or conversational speech. In Iran, Rainbow text and Grandfather text, were developed for assessing voice.
Methods: This study was cross-sectional and descriptive-analytical. Mean and fundamental frequency variations range in 120 normal males and females aging from 20-59 years old were studied. Voice samples of reading both texts were gathered and compared.
Results: Mean fundamental frequency in males in Grandfather text was 137.93 with SD 1.2 and in Rainbow text was 135.09 with SD 1.1 (p>0.05), in females Grandfather and Rainbow texts were 206.07 with SD 0.9 and 204.23 with SD 2.1, respectively (p>0.05). Fundamental frequency variations range in Grandfather text in males was 88.10 with SD 0.8 and in females was 116.77 with SD 1.3 and in Rainbow text in males was 90.92 with SD 1.1, in females was 116.08 with SD 1.2 (p>0.05). Mean fundamental frequency of males in each text didn&apost show significant difference in age groups and just in 50-59 age group of the female population showed significant difference. Fundamental frequency variations range didn&apost show significant difference in males and females in both texts.
Conclusion: These two texts were the same in measurement of average and fundamental frequency variations range in adults. Significant difference showed between 50-59 age group of the female population and other groups.

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Background and Aim: prosody is a very important factor in communication and includes such parameters as: duration, intonation, pitch, stress, rhythm etc. Intonation is the pitch variation in one sentence. Duration is the time taken to utter a voice. The aim of the present study was to evaluate some parameters of prosody such as duration and intonation curve in interrogative sentences among normal Farsi speaking adults in order to determine the characteristics of this aspect of language with an emphasis on laboratory testing.
Methods: This study was performed as a cross-sectional one. The participants included 134 male and female Farsi speaking individuals aging between 18-30 years. In this study two interrogative sentences with open and closed answers were used. The voice samples were analyzed by Dr.speech -real analysis software. Data analysis incorporated unilateral analysis of variance and an intonation curve was drawn for each sentence.
Results: The parameter of duration among men and women was significantly different (p≤0.001). Duration in open questions was significantly longer than yes/no questions (p≤0.001). The intonation curve of the two groups were similar.
Conclusion: Men and women use duration changes, for making difference in prosody. On the whole, duration among women is longer than men. In open questions, the duration of sentences is mostly due to the question word. The intonation curve in open questions has more amplitude. Women show much more changes in basic frequency for transferring interrogative state in their expressions.

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Background and Aim: Evaluation of voice problem involves perceptual, acoustic, aerodynamic and physiological measure. In recent years assessment of patients point of view use as a essential part of evaluation. The aim of this study was construct a questionnaire for assessment of physical, functional and emotional voice problems in adults.
Methods: This study is a kind of constructing battery. Based on a comprehensive study of many foreign questionnaires, "The voice symptoms assessment" questionnaire in adult was produced. Its content validity was determined according to the judgment of 7 speech and language pathologists. This questionnaire administered to 60 voice patients (20 female and 40 male) between 18 to 60 years old that could read and write in Persian. The reliability of this questionnaire is determined by the method of Cronbach Alpha and split half.
Results: Content validity index of this questionnaire was 0.94. Cronbach Alpha was high (more than 0.7) and Spearman-Brown coefficient of split half was 0.96. Correlatoin Coefficient was statistically significant between 3 parts and total questionnaire (p<0.01).
Conclusion: "The voice symptoms assessment" questionnaire in adult has good content validity and reliability and reflects the wide range of physical, functional and emotional problems in voice patients. This questionnaire is simple for patients to complete and easy to score. It seems that use of this questionnaire, as part of a complete voice evaluation will be helpful in future.

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Background and Aim: Children with severe and profound hearing loss have difficulties in communicating with others and educating at school. Effects of learning environment on children&aposs language skills have been recently focused and educating those students in ordinary schools has been proposed. According to this view, we compared perception of antonyms and synonyms as a semantic aspect of language in students of ordinary, integrated and special schools.
Methods: It was an analytic cross-sectional study. Three groups of students were enrolled: normal-hearing students of ordinary schools and hearing-loss students of integrated and specials schools. Each group consisted of 25 students in fifth grade of elementary schools in Tehran city. Two written tests were used. Subjects wrote synonyms and antonyms for each word in the tests.
Results: Results denoted significant differences between scores of normal-hearing and hearing-loss students and also between hearing-loss students of integrated schools and hearing-loss students of special schools (p<0.05). In all three groups of the students, perception of antonyms was better than antonyms (p<0.001). Speech processing rate in normal-hearing students were higher than both groups of hearing-loss students (p<0.001).
Conclusion: The differences between normal-hearing and hearing-loss students shows that similar to other language skills, perception of synonyms and antonyms as a semantic aspect of speech is related to the hearing conditions and type of education. Moreover, the differences between two groups of hearing-loss students represent that speech stimulants and interaction with normal-hearing children could improve semantic aspect of speech in hearing-loss students.

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Background and Aim: Verb is one of the most important aspects of a sentence, and verb deficit is a noticeable part of developmental language disorders. In Iran, there is no standard test for evaluating this aspect of language in children. This study aimed to develop and evaluate a picture verb test for 36-54 month-old normal Persian-speaking children, and assess its ability to differentiate between children.
Methods: A list of verbs that could be depicted was collected and content validity was assessed by seven speech therapist. 55 verbs were selected. Then, three pictures were prepared for each verb and one of those pictures was chosen by the same seven specialists. 106 children aged 36-54 months participated in this study. They were divided into three groups (36-42, 42-48, and 48-54 months). Reliability of this test was assessed by Spearman&aposs correlation and internal consistency. Correlation between children&aposs scores and their age was calculated.
Results: Content validity index of all verbs were 1. Spearman&aposs correlation of 0.89 and internal consistency of 0.60 was obtained. By deletion of item method, the Kuder-Richardson score was enhanced to 0.71. There was a significant correlation between children&aposs ability to respond and their age (r=0.76, p < 0.001).
Conclusion: This test is a suitable tool for assessment of verbs in 36-54 month-old Persian-speaking children and can differentiate between three groups under study.

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Background and Aim: Studies have shown that most children before age 4 are able to comprehend and express wh-question. In the Persian language, a case study has confirmed these results. The aim of this study is to evaluate the ability of 4-6 year olds to comprehend and express wh-question.
Methods: Seventy two 4-6 year-old Persian-speaking children were selected randomly. Wh-words consist of: what, where, who, why, and when. In the part of comprehension subjects answered questions about two pictures, and in the part of expression they asked questions elicited by a speaking puppet about four pictures. Descriptive analysis and student&aposs t-test were used for data analysis.
Results: In comprehension 4-6 year-old children gained the complete score (2) with SD=0 in all wh-words. However, 4-5 year old children gained the score of 1.89 with SD of 0.32 for the word when. In expression, independent t-test showed the maximum score of 3.52 with SD of 0.84 related to questions with who. 5-6 and 4-5 year old subjects had significant differences in questions with what (p=0.005), where (p=0.003), who (p=0.012), and when (p<0.001). Most errors were expressed in question with when.
Conclusion: Subjects of this study had the ability to comprehend and express wh-words. Comprehension of wh-words is easy for 4-6 year-old children they are able to use them in questions, but have some application errors.

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Background and Aim: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a progressive neurological disorder resulting from significant decrease of dopamine in the brain. The main and most common symptom of speech disorder associated with Parkinson’s disease, which is kind of dysarthria, is reduction in speech intelligibility. Since this disorder represents damages to acoustic aspects, researchers are attracted to study the relationship between these two disorders. In this study, we assessed the comparison of speech vowels between normal people and patients with Parkinson’s disease.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 18 voice samples of patients with Parkinson’s disease and the same number of samples from normal people in a voiceless environment were recorded and analyzed by Praat software. Data analysis was performed by independent samples and Mann-Whitney tests.

Results: All variables investigated in two groups showed significant differences. In adults with Parkinson’s disease , F1-F0 in low vowels showed a considerable reduction in respect to normal people (p <0.001). In addition, F2-F1 in high vowels represented a significant decrease in these patients (p<0.05).

Conclusion: The results indicate that Parkinson’s disease affects formant frequency in patients compared with normal people. Reduction in speech intelligibility can be accurately measured using acoustic procedure.

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Backgrand and Aim: The measurement of speech intelligibility refer to determining the measure of speech intelligibility in communication. The speech intelligibility is used for decision-making in intervention, the determination of intervention goals, and the measurement of intervention outcomes. This study aimed to investigate the speech intelligibility among the children aged 36 to 60 months.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 360 healthy children (180 girls and 180 boys) were chosen among children of kindergardens in Khorramabad city, Iran. Speech sample of subjects was collected by calling pictures of Hydari et al 2010, speech intelligibility measurement test (2010). The voices of the subjects were tape-recorded and speech intelligibility of children was studied within 12 age-groups arranged by two months.

Results: The minimum speech intelligibility was concerned to 36 and 37 months old and the maximum was concerned to 58 and 59 months old. There was a significant differences among age-group 36 and 37 months old with 44 and 45 months old and above, age-group 38 and 39 months old with 55 and 54 months old and above, and age-group 40 and 41 months old with 58 and 59 months old (p<0.05 for all). There was no significant difference among other age groups. There was no significant difference between boys and girls.

Conclusion: Speech intelligibility has the highest growth during the age of 36 to 46 months and it had lowest growth during the age of 46 months and elder range.

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Background and Aim: Attention has causal role in speech and language processing. Studies are limited about relation between attention and language development. As a result, the purpose of this study was to investigate the difference shifting attention function in children with developmental stuttering and fluent speech.

Methods: Thirty children who stutter (21 boys and 9 girls) and thirty children who did not stutter (21 boys and 9 girls) were evaluated. Shifting attention function was investigated using Wisconsin card sorting test. The data were analyzed via Kolmogorov-Smirnov, independent t, and Mann-Whitney U-tests.

Results: Between group analysis showed significant differences for all of the indexes in Wisconsin card sorting test . The number of categories completed in children who stutter was significantly less than that control group (p<0.05). But preservative errors, total errors, total tries, time of test performance and try for first pattern in children who stutter was more than in the control group and data differences were significant for all of the indexes (p<0.05).

Conclusion: The findings of this study show that children with and without stuttering are different in shifting attention function and children who stutter have weaker function in shifting attention. The findings were linked to emerging theoretical frameworks of stuttering development and that were taken to suggest a possible role for attention processes in developmental stuttering.

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Background and Aim: In the process of assessing the nasalance scores in patient’s speech, it is vital to know about normative data in the speech of normal subjects. The main objective in this study was to obtain normative data on nasalance scores in normal Persian-speaking children aged 3.5 to 6.5 years.

Methods: In this cross-sectional and comparative study, nasalance was measured in the speech of 112 children (55 boys and 57 girls) in Tehran, Iran. After auditory screening and speech assessments, the subjects who get the sufficient criterions entered the study. Speech sample was obtained by imitation and repeating sentences (14 oral and 3 nasal sentences) and mean nasalance score was measured by Nasal view software.

Results: A mean nasalance score of 46.25% was obtained for nasal sentences and a mean score of 43.67% for fricative sentences, 43.41% for affricative sentences and 42.21% for stop sentences. There was higher nasalance scores in girls but the difference was not significant (p=0.201) there was a significant difference in nasalance scores between different age groups in stop (p=0.037), fricative (p=0.036) and nasal sentences (p=0.032).

Conclusion: Findings of this study prepared good statistical data about nasalance scores in normal Persian-speaking children aged 3.5-6.5 years. The study also revealed that nasalance scores can be different in sentences with same manner of articulation and can be affected by presence or absence of nasal consonants and even age.