PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to recommend protocols for instrumental assessment of voice production in the areas of laryngeal endoscopic imaging, acoustic analyses, and aerodynamic procedures, which will (a) improve the evidence for voice assessment measures, (b) enable valid comparisons of assessment results within and across clients and facilities, and (c) facilitate the evaluation of treatment efficacy. METHOD: Existing evidence was combined with expert consensus in areas with a lack of evidence. In addition, a survey of clinicians and a peer review of an initial version of the protocol via VoiceServe and the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association's Special Interest Group 3 (Voice and Voice Disorders) Community were used to create the recommendations for the final protocols. RESULTS: The protocols include recommendations regarding technical specifications for data acquisition, voice and speech tasks, analysis methods, and reporting of results for instrumental evaluation of voice production in the areas of laryngeal endoscopic imaging, acoustics, and aerodynamics. CONCLUSION: The recommended protocols for instrumental assessment of voice using laryngeal endoscopic imaging, acoustic, and aerodynamic methods will enable clinicians and researchers to collect a uniform set of valid and reliable measures that can be compared across assessments, clients, and facilities.

Department of Audiology and Speech Language Pathology Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania

Department of Biophysics Faculty of Science Palacký University Olomouc Czech Republic

Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders Michigan State University East Lansing

Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences Indiana University Bloomington

Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences University of Washington Seattle

Director Clinical Issues in Speech Language Pathology American Speech Language Hearing Association Rockville MD

Division of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery University of Utah Salt Lake City

Massachusetts General Hospital Harvard Medical School MGH Institute of Health Professions Boston

Otolaryngology The Mount Sinai Hospital New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai

References provided by Crossref.org

Determining the Mouth-to-Microphone Distance in Rigid Laryngoscopy: A Simple Solution Based on the Newly Measured Values of the Depth of Endoscope Insertion into the Mouth

Consensus for voice quality assessment in clinical practice: guidelines of the European Laryngological Society and Union of the European Phoniatricians