Duration of sustained phonation in kindergarten children

Maximum sustained phonations of the vowels [a], [u] and [i] were obtained from 160 kindergarten children with a mean age of approximately 6.2 years. Subjects were grouped by sex and by the presence or absence of a voice disorder. Stop watch measurements of each subject's maximum phonations were compared with graphic level recorder measurements of those phonations . The results indicated that (1) the factor of sex had no significant effect on maximum phonation times; (2) the factor of voice group (non-voice-disordered/voice-disordered) did result in a significant effect (P less than 0.01) with the voice-disordered group achieving shorter phonations than the non-voice-disordered group; (3) the phonation times obtained from the two measurement procedures correlate significantly (P less than 0.05). Results also suggest that the vowel effect on maximum phonation time was significant (P less than 0.05) for both groups. The vowel [i] was phonated significantly longer than either [a] or [u] for males and females in both groups.