Pediatric phoniatry outpatient ward: clinical and epidemiological characteristics

Children with language or learning impairment and normal hearing need phoniatric assessment to analyse various communication and development aspects targeting the differential diagnosis and therapeutic indications. OBJECTIVE: Characterize clinical and epidemiological features of a pediatric population treated in a phoniatric outpatient clinic. METHOD: A cross-sectional historical cohort study (retrospective study) was performed involving 68 patients undergoing phoniatric consultation. Outcome measures were age, gender, source of referral for phoniatric consultation, phoniatric diagnosis, mean age at diagnosis, neonatal risks, family history of communication disorders and referrals. RESULTS: 70.58% were male and 29.42% female, mean age 6.85 ± 2.49 years. 63.23% from external services and 45.59% had no hearing diagnosis. 14 different diagnoses were performed: 50% had Cerebral Palsy, Specific Language Impairment and Pervasive Developmental Disorder. The difference between the average ages was statistically significant (F = 4.369 p = 0.00). 50% had a family history of communication disorders and 51.47% history of neonatal risk. 51.47% were referred for neurological consultation and 79.41% for therapies. CONCLUSION: The population seen was predominantly male, with more complex language development deviations probably due to multiple etiologies. Many of them had no hearing diagnosis.