The impact of telepractice on voice production in normal-hearing children

Telepractice is increasingly being used to evaluate voice quality and speech signal processing in children with and without hearing loss. The study examined whether telepractice (referred to as tele) affects voice production in normal-hearing children. Ten children (mean age = 10.4 years, age range 8–12 years) participated in four (2 in-person, 2 tele) weekly visits, order counterbalanced. At each visit, the clinician asked children to read sentences, hold a standardized conversation, and provide subjective measures of vocal effort. Fundamental frequency (Hz) and smoothed cepstral peak prominence (CPPS) (dB) were significantly higher in the children’s utterances during tele compared to in-person communication irrespective of the task type or visit number. For intensity (dB SPL), a significant interaction for session type (in-person, tele) and visit number (first, second) was found regardless of the task type. Thus, intensity was higher in tele compared to in-person conditions during the first in-person versus tele visits only. A positive relationship between intensity and CPPS was found. No effect of telepractice on subjective measures of vocal effort was identified. The results suggest that vocal characteristics in normal-hearing children were affected during remote compared to in-person communication. This may impact the telepractice delivery of therapeutic intervention in children.