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The aim of the study was to compare the acoustic characteristics of voice between Auditory Brainstem Implantees, Cochlear Implantees and normal hearing children. Voice parameters such as fundamental frequency, formant frequencies, perturbation measures, and harmonic to noise ratio were measured in a total of 30 children out of which 10 were Auditory Brainstem Implantees, 10 were Cochlear Implantees and 10 were normal hearing children. Parametric and nonparametric statistics were done to establish the nature of significance between the three groups. Overall deviancies were seen in the implanted group for all acoustic parameters. However abnormal deviations were seen in individuals with Auditory Brainstem Implants indicating the deficit in the feedback loop impacting the voice characteristics. The deviancy in feedback could attribute to the poor performance in ABI and CI. The CI performed comparatively better when compared to the ABI group indicating a slight feedback loop due to the type of Implant. However, there needs to be additional evidence supporting this and there is a need to carry out the same study using a larger sample size and a longitudinal design.

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Aims: This study aimed to develop and evaluate the psychometric properties of the Tamil version of the Eating Assessment Tool (EAT-10). Setting & Study Design: Prospective cross-sectional study on persons with Head and Neck Cancer (HNC) during their follow-up for oncological and swallowing consultation at a tertiary care hospital and healthy individuals recruited from the community. Methods: The study was conducted in two phases: (1) translation and development of the Tamil version of EAT-10 and (2) administration of Tamil EAT-10 to assess internal consistency reliability, test-retest reliability and known-group validity. 92 participants with HNC in the clinical group and 149 healthy adults in the control group completed the Tamil EAT-10. In addition, a subgroup of 20 participants with HNC repeated the questionnaire within a week to assess test-retest reliability. Results: The Cronbach alpha for the 10 items was 0.96 indicating high internal consistency reliability. The test-retest reliability of the individual items and the total scores (r = 0.98) of the Tamil version of EAT-10 were high. The total EAT-10 scores for the HNC group (14.4 ± 11.5) were significantly higher (p < 0.001) than the scores for healthy adults (0.72 ± 2.0). Conclusion: The Tamil version of the EAT-10 developed in this study is a reliable and valid self-administered tool for identifying concerns related to swallowing among persons treated for HNC and healthy adults. This tool can be implemented for clinical practice and research in dysphagia among a Tamil-speaking population. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12070-022-03376-8.

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Bedside Aphasia Battery in Tamil (BAB-T) was developed for assessing the linguistic abilities of Tamil-speaking individuals following an acquired brain injury. Method: The conception of the test took place in two phases: Phase 1 was the development of the Bedside Aphasia Battery in Tamil (BAB-T) and phase 2 administration of the test battery in neurotypical adults and patients with aphasia. A Delphi panel was constructed based on selected experts from the field of neuro-communication disorders and linguistics majors in the Tamil language. Recruited participants were surveyed using a modified Delphi method to establish opinions. A three-round Delphi process-derived consensus among the experts regarding the components and subdomains employed in the construction of BAB in Tamil. A pilot study was also conducted on nine participants (six neurotypical and three patients with stroke) to content validate the constructed BAB in Tamil. Outcomes and Results: BAB-T and its subdomains were identified to have excellent internal consistency, test retest and interrater reliability. BAB-T takes approximately 15-20 min to administer and can be employed in busy wards. This tool is especially useful in low-resource countries like India, where professional specialized speech and language services are scarce. The BAB-T significantly differentiates performance between neurotypical adults and patients with aphasia. Additionally, differences among the patient group also reflect the type of fluent and non-fluent aphasia.

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BACKGROUND: To compare the frequency parameters of voice between children using cochlear implant (CI) and those with normal hearing and establishing a trend of development of voice characteristics across chronological and implant ages. METHODS: The study included 87 children aged 12 to 72 months, with a mean age of 41 months. The subjects were divided into 2 groups: group 1 included 44 children using CIs, and group 2 included 43 children with normal hearing and age-appropriate speech and language characteristics. Both groups were categorized into 3 subgroups based on their chronological ages, group A (12-32 months), B (33-52 months), and C (53-72 months). The CI group (i.e., group 2) was further subdivided based on implant ages as group D (1-4 months), E (5-8 months), and F (9-12 months). RESULTS: Comparison of vocal frequency parameters across chronological ages revealed a decline with increasing age in both groups; however, stability was not maintained in the CI group. There was a statistically significant difference in the vocal frequency parameters between normal hearing children and those with CI. Comparing across implant ages, there was a significant difference between groups D and F. CONCLUSION: For better communication abilities of individuals with CI, along with early implantation and rehabilitation, there is a need to also focus therapy on providing training on speech modulations, especially on voice characteristics.

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AIM: To translate and validate the singing voice handicap index (SVHI-10) for the Tamil speaking Indian population and to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Tamil version SVHI-10 (TSVHI-10) in classically trained Carnatic singers. METHOD: Following standard translation, a total of 120 classically trained Carnatic singers: 83 singers without voice complaint and 37 singers with voice complaints answered the Tamil translation of the SVHI-10. RESULTS: The TSVHI -10 scores obatined from classically trained Carnatic singers with and singers without voice complaints were analyzed. SVHI-10 has excellent internal consistency and test retest reliability. Singers without/with voice complaint scored 7.08/22.86 total scores and for each domain Emotional (E): 1.73/5.32, Functional (F): 2.11/7.08, and Physical (P): 3.3/10.35 respectively. CONCLUSION: The TSVHI-10 questionnaire seems to be psychometrically sound and is a valuable instrument for the self-evaluation of handicaps related to voice problems in the context of singing and for making subsequent clinical decisions. The Tamil version of the SVHI-10 was successfully validated as an instrument with proper internal consistency and reliability.

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OBJECTIVE: Voice serves as an identity and is one of the primary requisites of an individual, especially for singers who are extensive professional voice users with greater vulnerability to voice disorders. The aim of this study is to translate and validate the Tamil version of Voice-Related Quality of Life (T-VRQOL), a self-rating questionnaire that estimates the influence of voice disorders on quality of life. The study also intends to compare the T-VRQOL scores in singers (with and without voice complaint) and non-singers, and to correlate T-VRQOL and the Tamil Singing Voice Handicap Index-10 (TSVHI-10). METHOD: In this cross-sectional study, 120 native Tamil speakers (40 classically trained Carnatic singers without voice complaints, 40 Carnatic singers with voice complaints and 40 normal non-singers) in the age range of 20 to 50 years, filled in the T-VRQOL and the TSVHI-10 rating scales, along with a demographic questionnaire. RESULTS: Reliability of T-VRQOL was established with Cronbach α coefficient (r = 0.9, P < .001) and good test-retest reliability (r = 0.98). The validity of T-VRQOL was confirmed by examining convergent and discriminant validity. T-VRQOL also demonstrated a good correlation with the TSVHI-10 (r = 0.838, P < .001). On comparing the T-VRQOL scores across the groups, singers (13.88 and 24.3) obtained higher values than the non-singers (11.63). Among the singers, those with voice complaints (24.3) scored higher than those without voice complaints (13.88) in the T-VRQOL. CONCLUSIONS: The Tamil version of Voice-Related Quality of Life (VRQOL) questionnaire correlates well with TSVHI-10. It proves to be an effective clinical tool in effectively evaluating the VRQOL among the Tamil-speaking population.