Spectrographic trace visual support: impact on reliability of auditoryperceptual voice analysis by inexperienced evaluators

Abstract

Introduction: clinical assessment is an effective tool for voice disorders analysis, due to it we can describe the vocal profile of an individual and identify the factors that trigger and maintain dysphonia. The types of evaluation that are used the most in speech therapy are the auditory-perceptual and acoustic analysis of voice. Objective: To verify if the simultaneous presentation of voices and spectrographic trace improves the reliability of auditory-perceptual analysis of the instability (I) and the general degree of vocal deviation (G) parameters carried out by inexperienced evaluators. Material and Methodology: This was a longitudinal study in which 14 Speech-Language Pathology undergraduate students evaluated in an auditory-perceptual form, at two different moments, 48 vocal samples with and without visual support of spectrographic trace. In order to analyze the inter- and intra-raters concordance, twenty percent of the voices were repeated randomly in two stages. In the analysis of the concordances, the Kappa statistical index was used. Results: there were differences between the inter- and intra-raters auditory-perceptual evaluations with and without visual support of spectrographic trace of the parameter instability (I). In relation to general degree of vocal deviation (G) parameter, there was statistical difference between the auditory-perceptual evaluations only in intra-rater agreement. Conclusion: the visual support of spectrographic trace increases the reliability of the auditory-perceptual evaluation of voice.