Kierstin Dewey

Communicative Disorders and Deaf Education Department

Mentor: Stephanie Knollhoff

 Speech Contact Pressures in Children with Cancers of the Head, Neck, or Brain

Approximately 420,000 childhood cancer survivors are currently living in the United States (Childhood Cancer Facts). The rise in survival rates makes the need for professionals to help improve quality of life for pediatric cancer survivors a high priority. In children with cancers of the head, neck, or brain (noted as HNBC throughout the remainder of this proposal) who are receiving radiation therapy, their speech and swallowing abilities can be largely impacted. Cancer tumors themselves, as well as cancer treatments, cause acute and long-term side effects that cause pain, restricted range of motion, and decrease in overall function of the structures necessary to communicate, eat, and drink. To help design interventions to minimize these side effects, it is first necessary to gain data on the strength and endurance of the structures involved in speech and swallowing. To the best of the researcher’s knowledge, there has been only one study conducted on normative speech pressures in healthy children (Potter & Short, 2009) and none on pediatric cancer patients. This pilot study will open the door to further studies in this area. The current proposal entails recruiting ten individuals between ages 5 and 13 years who are in remission from HNBC and ten age and gender matched healthy controls. Analysis of lip and tongue strength and endurance will be conducted. Data from this study will be crucial in the development of intervention strategies to improve communication and swallowing in children with HNBC.