A longitudinal study of the prevalence of voice disorders in children from a rural school division.

In a mass screening of children ages 6-10 in a rural school division, 203 children were identified as showing a voice deviation. One year later a retesting of 178 of these children showed that 39.9% still showed a voice disorder. Four years later 50 of these children were still available in the same school system; 38% of them still showed a voice disorder. Virtually none of these children were referred to the otolaryngologist for an ENT evaluation or to the speech-language pathologist for voice rehabilitation. Results indicate that, for many of these children, the voice disorders do not "clear up" through maturation alone.