A PRODUÇÃO DE FRICATIVAS E AS FUNÇÕES EXECUTIVAS ENTRE IDOSOS COM PRESBIACUSIA: UM ESTUDO EXPLORATÓRIO

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2009

RESUMO

Old people are ever more considered an object of study from a great many perspectives linked to health assistance policies and quality of life improvements. The present exploratory study aimed mainly to evaluate the performance of old people with presbiacusis using and not using hearing aid in the production of voiced and unvoiced alveolar and palatal fricatives and in the execution of non verbal tasks linked to executive functions. In the analysis of the production of fricatives the study had 8 subjects from 60 to 75 years old, 3 of them using hearing aid, 3 not using (although they needed) and 2 participants with normal hearing capacity. In the application of executive functions tests we had the same 6 subjects (using and not using hearing aid) and 15 subjects with normal hearing. In the analysis of fricative production we used free programs: Audacity version 1.2.6 and 1.3.5 for recording and PRAAT 4.4.2.2 version for analysis and extraction of acoustic parameters data. For the analysis of executive functions, we used Simon 1 and Simon 2 tests and analyzed data with the aid of e-prime software. As regards results from fricative duration and data from Simon task, statistical analyzes from non-parametric tests were used that allowed the comparison of the results from the groups. Data analysis showed few statistically significant differences between the groups regarding fricative duration. In the analysis of parameters regarding fricatives spectral moments, the analysis was qualitative and we observed traces suggesting a gradient in the groups productions, being hearing aids user the groups with higher results. As regards executive functions, we expected to find a better performance for hearing aid users, but this did not occur. There was a great variability in results, with a trend for better performance by subjects not using hearing aid, something allowing us to infer that this group would wait much longer before using hearing aid, although there is a similarity in hearing loss between the two groups due to the preservation of executive functions in better conditions and the possibility of maintaining more efficient communicative strategies. The exploratory intention of the study is reached because results point to the need of using new resources for observing the studied phenomena and suggest that discussions from new perspectives be done

ASSUNTO(S)

envelhecimento linguistica aplicada produção de fricativas presbiacusia funções executivas fricative production executive functions presbiacusis ageing

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