Background and Aim: Objective measurement is general and acoustic measurements in particular have become a substantial aspect of stuttering assessment during the last few decades. Measurements do not replace the perceptual judgment, but they allow a more precise diagnosis, provide more evidence for therapeutic interventions, and are useful as feedback for patients in therapy. The purpose of this investigation was to compare some adult male stutterers&apos and nonstutterers&apos acoustic features.
Materials and Methods: Adult male stutterers and nonstutterers participated this case-control  study. Their fluent reading of 20 sentences in Farsi, prolongation of  vowels /a/ and /i/, and rhythmic counting from 1 to 20 were analyed with Dr. Speech software.
Results: There were no significant differences between two groups in fundamental frequency (f₀) and standard deviation of f₀ in three speech samples (vowels /a/ and /i/, reading 20 sentences, and rhythmic counting from 1 to 20). No significant difference were between two groups for jitter and shimmer.
Conclusion: Non significant differences between two groups are somewhat due to investigation of this parameters in fluent speech of stutterers  and nonstutterers.

Background and Aim: In recent years, several tools for assessment of quality of patient life have been designed especially for dysphonics. Nowadays, we have useful assessments in health system that are refered for numerous clinical decisions. In this way, this investigation compares clinician and patient perception in dysphonic and normal voiced for first time.

Methods: This study was carried out on 30 dysphonic and 30 subjects with normal voice. Their age, sex and job were same. In two groups, Consensus Auditory - Perceptual Evaluation of Voice (CAPE-V) was used for evaluation of clinician perception and Voice Handicap Index - 30 (VHI-30) for assessment of patient perception. After collecting data, they were analyzed by Mann- witney and Wilcoxon tests.

Results: The research revealed that mean of total and each section score of VHI-30 have significant difference between dysphonic and control group (p<0.01). Comparison of total and every parameter score of CAPE-V and speed also indicated significant difference between two groups (p<0.01). Study of reliability shows weak reliability (r=0.34) between clinician and patient perception of voice in dysphonics.

Conclusion: Dysphonic patients percept their voice problem different and severe rather than clinicians that shows physical, psychological and social affects of dysphonia. This research confirms that patient - based assessment of voice is necessary to be part of common assessments of dysphonia.

Background and Aim: Vocal abuse and misuse are the most frequent causes of voice disorders. Consequently some therapy is needed to stop or modify such behaviors. This research was performed to study the effectiveness of vocal hygiene program on perceptual signs of voice in people with dysphonia.
Methods: A Vocal hygiene program was performed to 8 adults with dysphonia for 6 weeks. At first, Consensus Auditory- Perceptual Evaluation of Voice was used to assess perceptual signs. Then the program was delivered, Individuals were followed in second and forth weeks visits. In the last session, perceptual assessment was performed and individuals&apos opinions were collected. Perceptual findings were compared before and after the therapy.
Results: After the program, mean score of perceptual assessment decreased. Mean score of every perceptual sign revealed significant difference before and after the therapy (p≤0.0001). «Loudness» had maximum score and coordination between speech and respiration indicated minimum score. All participants confirmed efficiency of the therapy.
Conclusion: The vocal hygiene program improves all perceptual signs of voice although not equally. This deduction is confirmed by both clinician-based and patient-based assessments. As a result, vocal hygiene program is necessary for a comprehensive voice therapy but is not solely effective to resolve all voice problems.

Background and Aim: Laryngeal muscles contribute in sound production play a key role in specific language. Needle electromyography is the specific complementary method for muscle activity evaluation which is awfully painful and needs serenity of patient. The purpose of this study was to use Surface electromyography as a probable new approach for evaluation of laryngeal muscles activity.
Methods: 34 healthy women and 34 healthy men aged 20-30 years old were enrolled in this study. Each individual was seated in an armchair. Recording electrodes were placed bilaterally (right and left) in the low anterior neck at approximately one centimeter from midline on thyroarytenoid and cricothyroid muscles. Silent activity and fricative voice (/z/ , /ž/) and voiceless (/s/ , /š/) activities were recorded for ten seconds followed by 10 seconds of rest, for 5 repetition. All data were processed and frequency and non linear measurements were assessed. And were compared in time and frequency domain.
Results: Muscle activity in fricative voice in both groups was greater than rest condition (p<0.05). Moreover, muscle activity median frequency was significantly more in men than women (p<0.001).
Conclusion: Activity evaluation of thyroarytenoid and cricothyroid muscles using surface electromyography is difficult in women. That may be due to anatomical features such as length and width of neck in women.

Background and Aim: Glottic closure pattern is one of the most important stroboscopic signs in judging the normality of laryngeal function. According to the recent researches, complete glottic closure is not the only pattern in normal phonation. The aim of this study was to investigate the glottic closure pattern in normal subjects and to understand the role of sex in having different glottic closure patterns.
Methods: In a cross-sectional study, 80 subjects (58 females and 22 males mean age of 21.19 years) were randomly selected from a population of 218 students. After taking a full medical history and performing perceptual and voice self assessment, subjects without any vocal disorders were recruited. Videolaryngoscopic assessment was performed during producing the vowel sound /i/ in habitual, high, low, loud and soft levels of phonation. Glottic closure patterns were analyzed in different phonation and also were compared between males and females.
Results: Although complete closure was the most frequent pattern, Y posterior chink was the second pattern in males (20.2%) and females (39.4%) in all phonation. The results revealed significant difference between males and females in glottic closure pattern (p=0.001). Moreover, significant differences were observed in habitual (p=0.004), high (p=0.006) and soft (p=0.02) phonations between males and females however, the differences in low (p=0.7) and loud (p=0.19) phonations between males and females were not significant.
Conclusion: Y posterior chink, as well as complete closure, are likely to be normal findings in people with normal voice. Besides, gender has a significant influence on glottic closure pattern.

Background and Aim: Internal evaluation is an important part of organization monitoring. One of the Ministry of Health&aposs policies is to encourage educational departments to conduct internal evaluations. The aim of internal evaluation of department of speech therapy was appraising its education, research and treatment qualities and determining its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOTs) to identify the ways of overcoming weakness and threats.
Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in 10 phases to evaluate 10 factors. Participants were undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate students, academic staff, director of the department along with the patients. The internal evaluation software for educational and research centers released by Center of Medical Education Studies and Development was modified and utilized. Data was analyzed by calculating mean of means.
Results: Mean of means from highest to lowest scores were respectively as follows: the quality of diagnosis, treatment and dealing with patients 4.15 out of 5 as well as the quality of academic staff 3.5 were in the range of desirable category qualities of management and organizational structure 3.34, graduate students 3.21, teaching and learning processes 3.1, missions and goals 3.09, instructional methods and curriculum models 2.99, educational and research equipments 2.9, students 2.76 and research 2.67 were within the range of rather desirable category. Total score was 3.17 (63.4%) which was within the range of rather desirable category.
Conclusion: The department of speech therapy was in rather desirable state before merger. That result was appropriate according to the department&aposs conditions and supplies.

Background and Aim: One of the common problems in many types of aphasia syndromes is word retrieval and/or production difficulty. So, designing a valid test that can examine this problem based on related processes and influencing factors is important. Picture confrontation naming is a typical method for assessing and treatment of word retrieval impairments. The aim of this study was determining the validity and reliability of oral picture-naming test in assessing word retrieval ability of aphasic adults.
Methods: Content and face validity of the test, that contains the line drawings of 115 Persian nouns, were assessed by speech therapists, graphists and painters. Then, the test was administered on 10 aphasics and 30 age-, gender- and education-matched normal subjects in two steps. Construct validity and internal consistency of test were investigated. External consistency was analyzed by test-retest method.
Results: The content and face validity of all items were more than 90 and 85 percents, respectively. There was a statistically significant difference between the mean scores of patients and normal subjects (p<0.001). The internal consistency of 0.98 was determined for the test. The intra-class correlation coefficient of this test was 0.98.
Conclusions: The oral picture-naming test had good content, face and construct validity. Also, internal and external consistencies were high. So, this test is a valid instrument for assessing naming ability of aphasic patients by a variety and big set of picture.

Background and Aim: Teachers are a large group of professional voice users that several risk factors and voice demands causes various voice complaints among them. As the voice is multidimensional, the aim of this study was acoustic and perceptual measurement of teachers’ voice and comparing the findings between two groups with many and few voice complaints.

Methods: Sixty female teachers of high school in Sari, north of Iran, were chosen by available sampling to participate in this cross-sectional study. According to a voice complaints questionnaire, 21 subjects located in few voice complaints and 31 in many voice complaints group. After a working day, subjects completed a voice self-assessment questionnaire. Also, teachers’voice were recorded during three tasks including sustained vowels /a/ and /i/, text reading and conversational speech. Acoustic parameters were analyzed by Praat software and 2 speech-language pathalogists performed auditory-perceptual assessment by GRBAS ( Grade, Roughness, Breathiness, Asthenia, Strain ) scale.

Results: Comparing of the voice self-assessment between the two groups demonstrated statistically significant difference (p<0.05) however results of the acoustic and auditory-perceptual measurement did not show significant diffrence.

Conclusion: Despite prevalent voice problems in teachers, there are various conditions in terms of complaints and assessments methods. In this study, only a remarkable deviation documented in the client-based assessments in many voice compliants group in comparison with few voice compliants, which would be probably related to different individual’s perception of voice problem between two groups. These results support paying attention to self-assessments in clinical process of voice problems.

Background and Aim: Auditory-perceptual assessment of voice a main approach in the diagnosis and therapy improvement of voice disorders. Despite, there are few Iranian studies about auditory-perceptual assessment of voice. The aim of present study was development and determination of validity and rater reliability of Persian version of the Consensus Auditory Perceptual Evaluation of Voice (CAPE -V).

Methods: The qualitative content validity was detected by collecting 10 questionnaires from 9 experienced speech and language pathologists and a linguist. For reliability purposes, the voice samples of 40 dysphonic (neurogenic, functional with and without laryngeal lesions) adults (20-45 years of age) and 10 normal healthy speakers were recorded. The samples included sustain of vowels and reading the 6 sentences of Persian version of the consensus auditory perceptual evaluation of voice called the ATSHA.

Results: The qualitative content validity was proved for developed Persian version of the consensus auditory perceptual evaluation of voice. Cronbach’s alpha was high (0.95). Intra-rater reliability coefficients ranged from 0.86 for overall severity to 0.42 for pitch inter-rater reliability ranged from 0.85 for overall severity to 0.32 for pitch (p<0.05).

Conclusion: The ATSHA can be used as a valid and reliable Persian scale for auditory perceptual assessment of voice in adults.