Actions on childhood voice in public schools: a scoping review

To map childhood voice interventions developed in Brazilian public schools and analyze them according to components of the School Health Program (SHP).

This was a scoping review, structured according to the methodological guidelines of the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI). The research question was, "What childhood voice interventions are developed in Brazilian public schools, and which SHP components are included in these interventions?". An electronic search was conducted in the MEDLINE, LILACS, Scopus, Web of Science, Embase, and Cochrane databases, along with a manual search of gray literature, citation lists, and expert consultations.The search strategies consisted of free and indexed terms related to the topic and adapted for each source of evidence.

The review included studies involving schoolchildren up to 12 years old with voice interventions developed by speech-language-hearing pathologists in public schools, published after 2007. It extracted data regarding the publication, the sample, and childhood voice interventions according to the SHP components.

Data analysis was descriptive.

4,087 studies were found, and 27 were selected. The most common interventions involved students, followed by parents and teachers. Twenty-six studies included assessments of students' health conditions, and one included health promotion and disease prevention actions in an online course for parents and students. The most common assessment procedure was auditory-perceptual evaluation.

Studies on childhood voice in schools are scarce and prioritize assessment of vocal health conditions.