Validation and Standardization of the Pediatric Voice Symptom Questionnaire: A Double-Form Questionnaire for Dysphonic Children and Their Parents

Sintomas vocais na população pediátrica: Validação da versão brasileira do Questionário de Sintomas Vocais Pediátrico

“…In the self-report, the differences relate to physical, sociofunctional and emotional symptoms; in the parental report, such changes appeared only in the physical item, the most objective domain (18) , for which parents have a better perception (17) . Analyzing the reproducibility of the vocal symptoms score of the PVSQ, it is observed that: there was difference both in the parental evaluation and self-evaluation; the mean scores were higher in the retest, differently from what occurred in the validation of the original version (6) ; the change in the scores reinforces that the contact with the instrument enhances the perception of parents and children regarding the vocal symptoms, by assisting in the comprehension of the experienced difficulties (7,8) , which is very important, even for vocal rehabilitation, since it is only possible to modify behaviors through their perception. The PVSQ is an instrument that can be used as a revaluation resource in the vocal clinic, since the two versions, whether parental or self-reported, presented sensitivity to the eight sessions of speech therapy administered to 16 children and adolescents with vocal alteration (Table 5).…”

“…The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the institution, under Opinion n. 758309. After the cultural equivalence (9) of the original version of the instrument -Questionnaire des Symptômes Vocaux (6) -the protocol was applied in its final version to measure the psychometric measures of validation.…”

“…It has 31 self-explanatory objective questions, applicable to children and adolescents aged 6-18 years and their parents/guardians, contemplating four domains (spoken voice, sung voice, projected voice and screaming voice). The answers are recorded on a 4 point-numerical scale (0 = never, 1 = sometimes, 2 = almost always and 3 = always), and there is the visual support of circles ranging from small size to very large size, aiming to facilitate the scoring of responses of the younger children (6) . The PVSQ has a single total score obtained by direct sum of the items (maximum score = 38).…”

“…Children with vocal disorders say they feel more symptoms than the vocally healthy ones during voice self-evaluation (6) . Pain, throat and cough when speaking and singing, difficulties to read aloud, sing or scream in games and child's plays were the most mentioned symptoms in one study with schoolchildren and adolescents, who also reported feelings of frustration, anger, embarrassment and voice dissatisfaction (7) .…”

“…Self-report has been valued in the pediatric voice clinic, and the Pediatric Vocal Symptoms Questionnaire (PVSQ) (9) is an instrument that strengthens not only the perception of children and adolescents about their voice problem, but also the combination of the parents' and children's reports within the clinic (6,9) .…”